singemonkey
Where Clapton steals gets his solos.
Ok, tell me this isn't just me:
and
???
What do you guys think? Is this ok?
vic
Very similar indeed. However these (3 chord) blues type songs lend themselves very much to those licks
Renesongs
Funny in Freddie Kings Solo I recognised "signature" licks by Clapton, Hendrix, SRV, any many others.
Bob-Dubery
Clapton's playing on Strange Brew was a deliberate tribute to Albert King and he's never pretended otherwise. AFAICS he's always acknowledged his influnences, especially all 3 of the Kings.
IMO Freddie King's influence has been far greater than his own personal fame.
singemonkey
I agree actually. I don't see a big problem here. Reality is, if it weren't for Clapton, I might never have listened to Albert King and Freddie King.
What struck me is how similar the solos were bar for bar. But then I noticed that King's solo is very similar on Crosscut Saw too. A bit like he has this standard way to go in a solo. So Clapton's solo on Strange Brew is a bit of an "Albert King's guitar solos: greatest moments" compilation.
I'm really enjoying listening to Albert King, and it's weirdly making me appreciate Clapton even more - because I can hear now what it is that made him different to the 3 Kings and that created that exciting aggressive sound of his that none of them had. It's this odd rhythmic thing he does that I don't really have the musical vocabulary to describe. The licks are almost the same. Just the timing is different.
Bob-Dubery
SM, if you haven't you should read Joe Boyd's wonderful book about his musical adventures in the 60s "White Bicycles". There's still time to put it on your Christmas list.
The relevance here is that Boyd was very keen on putting together a super group before there was such a thing. He ended up doing some recordings by a bunch called "Eric Clapton and the Power House". This included Steve Winwood (under an assumed name), Paul Jones from Manfred Mann and Jack Bruce (this is pre-Cream). Boyd talks about sitting down with Clapton to select a piece for the project to be Clapton's show case. Clapton proposed "Crosscut Saw" which he'd been playing on stage with the Bluesbreakers. Boyd countered with a suggestion that Clapton do some country blues. He and Clapton were both blues nerds and tossed the idea around for a while. Eventually they decided on doing Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" but with some key licks borrowed from "Travelling Riverside Blues". This was titled simply "Crossroads" and this is the birth of that famous Clapton show piece.
Anyhoo.... note that Clapton was something of a blues scholar, and that even in the John Mayall days he'd been doing Albert King numbers.
There were a lot of blues nerds in the UK in the 60s.
PS: Joe Boyd is no relation to Patti Boyd.
Renesongs
A bit of trivia - The distinctive riff for Sunshine of your love was composed by Jack Bruce (Cream's bassist and vocalist). Bruce was inspired to composed it after watching Hendrix playing live on night. My favourite rendition of the sound is an instrumental version done by Hendrix.
