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Amph [The Worst] Eric Clapton

Discussion in 'Community' started by jp-30, Dec 15, 2006.

  1. Crash_Davis

    Crash_Davis Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 31, 2006
    Overrated? D_W, did you miss "It Hurts Me Too" from EC's From the Cradle album? the guitar playing on that track, as well as "Five Long Years" from the same album is, IMHO, some of Clapton's finest work.



    What about "Me and Mr. Johnson"? Again, just my opinion, but Clapton is one of the few musicians out there that get Robert Johnson's music.

     
  2. Darth_wanderguard

    Darth_wanderguard Game Host star 6 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2005
    Meh. It just doesn't do it for me. Like I said, I'd much rather SRV :p
     
  3. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    I think his blues playing on From the Cradle is some of the finest Blues soloing I've ever had the pleasure to listen to. I do agree that sometimes his purity of tone and english heritage make putting him on an equal with the Kings, Collins, Guy, Hooker, Sumlin et al a hard thing to do. However his passion and utter respect for the form makes up for the 'white-boy from london' mindblock.

    Besides, he's lived a life as full of tragedy and adversity as some of the legendary bluesmen of our time.

    Some of his slick 70s and 80s blues based album tracks, like Same Old Blues, do lack a certain something, usually due to the overproduction (hello Phil Collins), but the songs themselves always shine in a live setting. The first EC album I listened to (I was 16 at the time) was the live at the Budokan Just One Night album (released in 1980). It was the blues tracks like Early in the Morning, Double Trouble and Worried Life Blues that blew me away, I'd never heard anything like them before. Later when I started collecting all his studio albums I was dismayed at how thin and lacking in energy (most of) those songs from Just One Night sounded in their original studio form. But that was equally true of the pop and rock tracks like Cocaine, Wonderful Tonight, Tulsa Time, Blues Power too.


    Now that, that I completely disagree with. He is extremely humble. When interviewed he shows the utmost respect for his contemporaries, always talking up the likes of Guy, Cray, Vaughan, King, Cale. Always. Even on stage when jamming with other artists, he is restrained and polite - sometimes to the point where you wish he would pull his ego out of wherever it's hiding and try and blow the other guy off the stage.
     
  4. Tabula Rasa

    Tabula Rasa Administrator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1998
    Clapton always radiates a familiary vibe when he's on stage. Completely at easy, no matter how many folks are on stage with him or how big the crowd is, he always just jamms with friends, and you feel that in his music. That's what I love about him. David Gilmour is another such artist that can do that, it's wonderful to listen to. It just flows very naturally.
     
  5. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    Gah, Behind the Sun and August are easily among Clapton's worst recordings, though both have some decent tracks. The live performances of these songs easily outclass the over-produced studio versions.
     
  6. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 14, 2000
    Here's a treat, audience-recoded audio (with slideshow) of Clapton and band in Japan last week, pulling out the Derek & the Dominos arrangement of Hendrix' Little Wing. Stunning, stunning stuff.

    The original Dominos version was recorded in September 1970, just a week before Jimi died (I'd actually always thought it was recorded just after he died). It became the band's de-facto tribute to him on the subsequent tours.


    And here's another version of Little Wing (similar arrangement) from Clapton's "Crossroads Guitar Festival" (to raise money for Clapton's drug-rehab centre) a few years ago with Sheryl Crow.
     
  7. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    It's better without the saxophone. ;)
     
  8. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 14, 2000
  9. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    I like arguing with YouTubers. It's like a special ed JCC. :p
     
  10. That_Jedi_Guy

    That_Jedi_Guy Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2005
    Q:What do Eric Clapton and coffee from 7-11 have in common?

    A:They both suck without Cream


    Nah, Just playing.
     
  11. Darth_wanderguard

    Darth_wanderguard Game Host star 6 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2005
    Hmmm... Ever heard his comments about Son House? He claimed Son House's playing was "clumsy."

    Sorry but I just can't believe anyone in their right mind would say that :p
     
  12. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Here's ego for ya. ;)

    In the early 1990s, Richie Sambora,lead guitarist with the pop metal band, Bon Jovi, met Clapton at the International Rock Awards. Richie told Eric how he had been a huge part of his own musical development. When Richie began work on his first solo album, ?Stranger In This Town?, his partner encouraged him to contact Eric about playing on the track ?Mr. Bluesman? as the song was about a young boy wanting to be a guitar player? about Richie wanting to be like Eric. Richie wrote a heartfelt letter to Eric and enclosed a demo of the song.

    Richie?s letter read in part, ?I had to ask you to be on my first solo record because if you had the chance to ask Robert Johnson to be on your first record, I?m sure you would have.? When Eric showed up in the studio to play on the track, Richie said, ?It was like my teacher telling me I done good.?

    Eric later told Rolling Stone that, ?Richie really put me on the spot. It was a nightmare. I got a very sweet, dedicated letter from him, and I was deeply touched, my ego was pumped up. I thought, ?Of course, I have to do this.? I never actually listened to the song; I never acquainted myself with it. I just went in on this little fantasy about how easy it was going to be. And then Richie came to London with the tape, and I showed up at the studio. He gave me a gift, which was a massive 12-string Taylor guitar with my name on it. It was magnificent. Then he put the tape on, and I realized instantly that I was completely out of my depth. The song wasn?t what I expected it to be, and I had to sit down and go down to the bottom of my socks and pull up whatever I had to make it work. It took hours, and I sweated buckets. He was sitting there, watching me go through this. It was the kind of thing you would like to go off and do in private, because you?re going to make all your worst mistakes right there in front of everybody. So, there goes your reputation out the window. Reality comes in the door.?
     
  13. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 14, 2000
    This thread indicates the comments are from Guitar World Acoustic, probably around their May 2004 issue. I wonder what he actually said in the article? Sounds to me like something's been taken out of context. Don't suppose you have it, Wanderguard?
     
  14. Darth_wanderguard

    Darth_wanderguard Game Host star 6 VIP - Game Host

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    Apr 26, 2005
    I lost :(

    'fraid not. It'd be nice if someone would dig it up though :p
     
  15. Crash_Davis

    Crash_Davis Jedi Knight star 5

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    Mar 31, 2006
    QFT. :cool:



    I liked Journeyman. That was the first EC album I heard, and I think I was about 15 myself, also proud to say that the tour promoting that album was the first concert I ever went to as well. :cool:
     
  16. DT421

    DT421 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2003
    Personally, of all the British Blues guitarists from back in the sixties, I?ve always felt that Peter Green was head-and-shoulders above the rest.
     
  17. JediKnightOB1

    JediKnightOB1 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 26, 2003
    I have to tell you that althought Eric Clapton plays a pretty mean guitar I find his singing and bluse guitar playing ability a little sterile. Now before you people think I am just here to bash him. I want to clarify a few things.

    1) I don't hate Eric Clapton
    2) I am not out to dismis the man who has earned music award after music award for recording after recording.
    3) I am not going to compare him with the shreders. \m/

    However, I am going to state a few things refering to why "I think" his blues playing is to sterile.

    I have a hard time listening to people who play the blues who do not "feel the blues."
    He may feel the blues, but I think his style is to homoginated. When I hear Eric Clapton play I think. "This dude is so white." Literally!!! I don't feel the soul, I don't feel the emotions and I don't feel the charisma that I feel when B.B. King plays.
    I don't feel the resonance like when I hear Buddy Guy play. And I don't feel the hardships like when I hear Johnny Lee Hooker play.

    Clapton is White!!! He doesn't have as much soul in this body as B.B. King has in his discarded toenail clippings. I don't understand how people can take his work and say "Clapton is god." B.B. King is way more soulful and way more entertaining.

    No, he is a good guitar player, and an okay singer at best, but I don't feel his playing stick out like when I hear other blues players. He is missing the mojo, and when I hear him sing I am convinced that white people do a pretty lame job singing blues songs.

    I guess in the end he is the one with the gold records, but the same committee that awarded him his awards are the same people that allowed Milli Vanilli to win it's coveted spot and Jethro Tull to beat out Metallica for best Heavy Metal record. LOL.
     
  18. Aquila_Skywalker

    Aquila_Skywalker Jedi Master star 4

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    Dec 14, 2004
    What about SRV? Does he play like a white man too? o_O
     
  19. JediKnightOB1

    JediKnightOB1 Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jan 26, 2003
    At one point he did. ;) [face_skull]

    I liked SRV, he lived the blues players life, was addicted to certain vices. He felt true heart break and used that emotion while he played. You can feel that in his playing style and in the way he sings. Listen to "Life by the Drop" "The Sky is Crying" or "Pride and Joy." You will feel his pain.

    Clapton wrote "Tears in Heaven" about the loss of his son. However, it's a different type of feeling. I guess another issue I have with Claptons singing is that it is too clear, it is not gritty. It is far to articulate and particular for the blues. American blues players have a gritty gravely sound in their voices that echos the pain/loss... that they have endoured. To me Eric Clapton does not convey that feeling of true loss.
     
  20. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 14, 2000
    LOL. Are you implying Clapton wasn't addicted to certain 'vices'?


    Clapton has lived a harder and more tragic life that SRV ever did, so that's no indication of what defines a |true bluiesman"

    You have not listened to From the Cradle, have you? His blues vocals on that album are incredible.
     
  21. Suzuki_Akira

    Suzuki_Akira Jedi Master star 7

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    May 13, 2003
    I like the Layla blues remix. That counts as appreciation for Clapton, right?
     
  22. JediKnightOB1

    JediKnightOB1 Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jan 26, 2003
    Yes, I know that he was addicted to certain vices also.
    He wrote that commercial hit "Cocaine."
    I find it hard to believe that he is what so many people considder "the blues."
    There are so many other great blues players out there that can play more soulfully. But unfortunately they are eclipsed by his limelight. So many players that are more deserving of the blues. Howlin Wolf, Hounddog Taylor, Buddy Guy...
     
  23. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 14, 2000
    No, he didn't.

    Definitely Guy, the Kings, Collins, Wolf/Sumlin, Waters, Hooker et al are the traditional bluesmen of our (and the previous) generation. But that doesn't lessen what Clapton has done for the blues. If it wasn't for me discovering EC when I was about 16, and being entranced by his blues tracks and taking note of who he was namechecking in interviews and whose albums he was guesting on, I wouldn't have looked up Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson. And I'll bet there are literally thousands of others whose discovery of The Blues came from Eric.

    I can't buy for a minute that Eric somehow diminishes the Blues, when he is in a huge part responsible for it's continual revival and the promotion of a number of bluesmen into the public conscousness. He's always talking up other players (out of context Son House playing style possibly excepted). So yeah, those traditional black bluesmen of America are the cornerstone of the blues genre, but EC has had more than a big part in its survival and current popularity too.
     
  24. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 21, 2002
    I'm too blues for this thread.
     
  25. DT421

    DT421 Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Nov 6, 2003
    I find it kind of hard to place all Blues players under one, all-encompassing umbrella ? especially when comparing British Blues musicians to the founders of the Blues. The Delta bluesmen were the pioneers, the innovators. Any of the players from the sixties, like Clapton, Richards, Green and Page, will all tell you that they were students of the ?old-timers?, like Johnson, House, King, Hooker and so on.

    Those who created the Blues genre and students of the genre.

    Of course there will be differences. Page certainly doesn?t have the same soul and life experiences as Wolf, Waters, Hopkins or Charley Patton. I don?t recall Page ever living through the depression, or sharecropping to scrape a living through hard times.

    If folks want to debate over who was more soulful, I just look to the ?old-timers? and how much they loved the British Blues explosion, because it renewed their careers and they had a genuine appreciation of what those young white kids were doing. Buddy Guy loves Clapton. B.B. commented on how Peter Green, of all Blues players, was the only one that made him sweat, when it came to Peter?s guitar tone and the soul of his notes during solos. Howlin Wolf played sessions in London with Clapton, along with Watts and Wyman of the Stones.