So tell me about Eric Clapton

[WindRavenX]

I've seen some serious posts destroying him- why?
I have no beefs with him. I enjoy some of his music, but I do not fawn over him.
But some of the threads suggest Clapton is a very...controversial subject.
Tell me about him.

[RandomKoolzip]

1. He used to be great, then he turned rock into granola.

Since "layla," Clapton's been steadily dismantling his legacy by being as hidebound and earth-tethered as possible. His music is as boring as a bowl of mueslix. It's pathetic white guilt, writ large, in stereo.

[WindRavenX]

2. what year was that?

(I actually like the song Layla...)

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. 1971.

Clapton kicked heroin right around then; coincidentally, or perhaps not, that's ALSO when music went to shit.

[WindRavenX]

6. 1971?

Oh, shit. That's 14 years before I was born!

[maveric]

13. "From The Cradle" is shit?

There's some fine axe-work on that CD.

[bridgit]

15. track# 11, i think, was the only one on that thing...

worth listening to :shrug:

[ComerPerro]

42. I loved "From the Cradle"

[ProfessorGAC]

27. That's Not The Right Year.

He kicked his habit in 1974. He released 461 Ocean Blvd. as a consequence of his first fully sober album since the first Cream album (Fresh Cream). That album, and "There's One In Every Crowd" was a knee-jerk reaction by Clapton to disavow his musical past as a way to personally "start-over".

In 1976, he reversed himself and came out on tour actually OPENING the show with Layla, and added "Let It Rain", "Anyday", and 4 Cream tunes to his live set. I saw him that year, and then band was smoking and he played superbly.

Part of his long term therapy to avoid the drinking and drugs was to accept that compromise was part of life. Therefore, he convinced himself to relax his purism. (Remember he wasn't even happy with Layla, which is a rock album many, many people consider one of the 20 finest ever made.) The compromise extended to the record companies so he began an every-other-album policy of giving them a sales device, then one he wanted, and so on.

The Clapton hating around here is way beyond any reason. He has done some absolutely great work, some trash, there are reasons for both, and the lack of compassion for the pain that led this guy to find his voice in music is a little sickening.
The Professor

[catzies]

60. I LOVELOVELOVELOVE 461 Ocean Blvd. way more than D&D's Layla

I had no idea he was freshly sober making that. Thanks, Professor.

[Danmel]

39. I've always thought he was better when he was a miserable junkie

Not so good for his health, but better for his music. HE is so boring and lite FM now.

[two gun sid]

7. You got that right about Clapton....

after Derek and the Dominoes he went right down hill.


I love listening to him and Duane trade riffs on "Anyday" off that album tho. I guess the fucker needed smack to be at his best.

[evlbstrd]

20. Like Charlie Parker.

[leftofthedial]

4. Great guitarist

My assessment of his pop career after Layla is less harsh than others.

He was revolutionary, genre-bendingly good very early in his career, very nearly flamed out, recovered and settled into an elder-statesman role, putting out fairly consistently good pop music for a long, long time (not easy to do).

[Southsideirish]

5. I've been googling him lately. When I read he had to ID his son's body

which had landed on a rooftop (the mom couldn't do it) I decided to never knock this guy - ever. I don't see how he could ever get that image out of his mind. He can sit around and do nothing -he's already had quite a life.

[lenidog]

8. After that happened you saw a change in his music

he started to play less rock or rock pop songs and went straight back to the blues.

[Southsideirish]

9. Its incredible that a person, let alone a dad, had to do that.

[lenidog]

11. I remember hearing that Phil Collins the instant he heard what happened

dropped everything and hopped a Concorde to be with Clapton. They had been friends for years and he had locked himself in his room and wouldn't see anyone. Everyone thought that he was going to kill himself right after it happened.

[Radical Activist]

10. He's good, but I think

a lot of people bash him as a backlash to all the praise he gets. He is overrated, but he's still a great musician. I think he did have some good work after Layla. Unplugged and From the Cradle are very solid, enjoyable albums. His 80's material was a little weak, but I would say that about most rockers from the 60's and 70's.

[taught_me_patience]

12. It was all downhill after Cream

His new stuff is pure trash.


:puke:


taught.

[bridgit]

14. he started to believe all the 'clapton is god' crap...

the unspoken competition between he & hendrix didn't help. pick up john mayall's 'blues breakers' w/clapton. that is some of the most righteous, spot-on edgy guitar stuff he's done...'fresh cream' and such.

[zann725]

16. I think he IS still "god" with that guitar...no matter what he plays.

For it's not so much what he plays, but HOW he plays it.

Certainly his earlier career had more hits and innovation, but overall there's a soulfulness unparalleled in the way he plays those strings...in a "class" all by himself.

[bridgit]

17. i tend to disagree...

its the early innovation that set him apart. the live 'crossroads' still has two (in the same track no less) of the hottest guitar breaks in the bizz. but you can see by the arc in much of the rest of the live stuff, that he was flattening out. it happens to the very best and imo it happened to clapton.

i seen him in 'blind faith', but by then, winwood, if while not technically as on par, was giving him a run in the: melodic, lyrical & musically innovative departments.

he still 'has it'. he's earned it. and it is the mark of a master that he no longer is compelled to display it.

[ForrestGump]

22. Back in the '80s I got peeved at some smarmy rock critic's view

(man, rock critics tend to be supercilious, hipper-than-thou f***wits) that Clapton was no longer good because he was "no longer innovating." Well, duh...how long can one person continue to "innovate." Those f***ers have got the same complaint about everyone, though, so it's not endemic to Clapton. He came along, did his thing -- it happened to be perceived as innovative -- and it was good. Decades later, he's still doing his thing and it's seen as hackneyed. Huh? And talk about logical failure: it's not GOOD because it's not innovative? Makes no sense at all. Thomas Dolby was innovative, but what he turned out was pure crap (okay, it was sometimes infernally catchy crap, dammit).

I like Eric Clapton's work, in general. I get more fired up by Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others (Stevie Ray would have to be near or at the top of my list, though) but Clapton is still significantly godly. I think he's overrated, sure, but he's still good. I saw a live performance on TV, though (again, back in the '80s) and -- like Dire Straits and many others -- noticed that he didn't interact with the audience at all...that made it pretty boring for me (hey, my number-one music man is one of THE all-time audience-interactors). Haven't bothered since to see if he ever displays any actual personality live. But he knows his way around a guitar, I'll give him that.

It's always been trendy and cool to dismiss superstars and lesser stellar objects, especially if they've had significant commercial success. It's less about reality than a self-congratulatory smugness on the part of the would-be iconoclast. It's as much an intellectually-dishonest sham as was similarly pseudo-iconoclastic punk rock...

[Snap]

31. For a Shining Moment

Clapton was the best, this wild crazy loud impeccable electric guitar, music that had never been on the planet. I heard someone say that after Derek and the Dominoes he became a journeyman musician which is a fine thing in itself. Check out the list of the ones that stuck around still doing fine music, Miles, Trane, Getz, etc. With a few exceptions what is memorable was that first moment...WOW what is this?

[Telly Savalas]

36. Miles and Trane kept expanding their art.

Trane did until his death, and Miles didn't really settle into a "journeyman" role until after 20 or so years of innovative work.

[Snap]

47. That's the party line,

Maybe it's a matter of taste, but compare the MD quartet and Miles early work (Sketches of Spain, Quiet Nights which Miles calls his best) with Bitches Brew, or Tranes early 60's with the Olatunji Concert. Interesting? sure. Great?

[Telly Savalas]

50. Miles's and Trane's early stuff is when they played together...

Which was great stuff too. (Although technically really early Miles was when he played with Bird, and he sounded pretty shaky then.)

All their stuff was good and the point was it was continually developing. Sometimes I'm in the mood to listen to Miles and Trane doing straight-ahead stuff from the mid-50's quintet, other times I'm in the mood for late outer-space Trane and that whacked out early 70's electric Miles Davis. Even if their later stuff isn't to your taste, to say they hit their peak early and spent the rest of their careers as journeymen is just inaccurate though.

[Snap]

53. Whoa,

OK, Miles and Trane gets the conversation off in a whole other direction, my apologies. I'm don't mean to say that these guys peaked early, the later stuff was nothing etc. Good stuff that's new is exciting, jazz lets one go far away, rock and roll/blues is a much narrower band and I think there's fewer places to go with it. Clapton early did some basic stuff loud and fast with excellent taste, he remains an outstanding musician, but you can only hear Fresh Cream for the first time once (plus he has done some pretty schmaltzy crap). However, if he was playing baseball, he'd still be hitting 400 or so.

[evlbstrd]

23. He actually was quoted after he saw Hendrix at Monterey

saying something like "How am I gonna keep working now?" I googled but couldn't find the actual quote.

[WilliamPitt]

49. The first time Clapton saw Jimi play

was the first day of his heroin addiction. He thought he was all done.

[Zuni]

32. I love John Mayall. But Peter Green was even better

check out Mayall's album "A Hard Road", which is the next one after the Clapton one. The guitarist is Peter Green, the BEST british blues player, bar none, ever. He went on to found the band Fleetwood Mac, originally a blues band, and then go crazy after taking a bunch of acid. He left Fleetwood Mac and they hooked up with Stevie Nicks and Lindsay buckingham and went on to huge fame. He has now recovered and is now recording Delta style blues (mostly Robert Johnson covers) with his new band The Splinter Group.

[bridgit]

41. that's plenty true enough...

seen green in the orig fleetmac w/jeremy spencer = what a treat :thumbsup:

[Tsiyu]

18. Dupe

:hi:

[Tsiyu]

19. I would have his love child

The problem as I see it, WindRavenX, is that kids today (LOL) listen to their corporate music stations - the ones that only play Layla and Wonderful tonight - and they honestly believe that is all the man ever wrote or played, and that these are the songs Clapton himself is pushing.

It's like saying Led Zeppelin sucks because the radio only plays "Stairway to Heaven."

The man's discography is his testament. Listen to Behind the Sun or Journeyman or all of Slowhand.

Songs like "Pretending," "The Core," "Promises," "Forever Man," "Waiting for another Lover," "Crossroads'" Jesus i could go on and on.
These songs have helped me through.

And the other thing is jealousy. Pure and simple.

It's not attractive, but certain musicians will always be jealous of other successful musicians.

For Clapton, I say 'Bite Me' to those who disparage him. You WISH you were that good!

And thanks for the question, WindRavenX

[dxstone]

28. yeah, ghost!

Clapton wasn't just good; Clapton WAS god for awhile there, and now he's the devil to some...
How 'bout White Room? Bell-Bottom Blues? Badge?
And Layla... Layla is a perfect rock song; it always will be, for those who have ears to hear...
I hate to sound my age, but...
THESE DAMN KIDS THESE DAYS WITH THEIR NEW-FANGLED GIZMOS AND DOO-DADS!! THEY DON'T KNOW MUSIC! THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE MISSIN'!!!
There... I feel better...
D

[Tsiyu]

40. i concur

We need music re-edumication camps in this country!

And what's up with the program directors who take years worth of fantastic songs and music and condense them into a format where they play like 10 stupid songs OVER and OVER and OVER?

Are they uncreative? Cheap? Stupid? Or do they just SUCK as human beings? My guess is: All of the Above.

They shoulda left God alone, eh, dxstone?

[dxstone]

46. You said it!

What I REALLY hate is when they

1. Truncate songs--usually leaving a bloody stump, such as:
a. Rienna (Stevie Nicks)--They cut off the entire cool ending (More's the same, more's the same, Rienna, Rienna... or whatever the hell those words are) to save everyone 90 seconds of near-pure bliss...
b. Us & Them (Pink Floyd)--Same here, only they can say, well, that ending is a different song, Any Colour You Like... but the one blends seamlessly with the other, and it just sounds stupid the way they do it...
c. Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)--Don't even bother playing it, ok? They have no idea where it shoulda ended; the radio version sucks, and makes this whole amazing one-continuous-song album, if unfamiliar to the first-time listener, all the more inaccessible, as it's easy to imagine that Jethro Tull is a dumb band whose songs just sorta dwindle off into nothing suddenly...
Hot City Symphony (The Man in the Jar) Alex Harvey--They just lose the entire tremendous horn section ending! Fuck! It's like these people HATE good music!

2. They stomp on the end of the song with both feet, blastin' away at you with their call letters and bells and whistles, and you're sitting there going, "Wait, what the fuck?--I was JUST drifting happily in a dreamworld to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singing Wooden Ships--and suddenly I'm pitched headlong into a commercial for Dragway 42, and the spell is worse than broken... it's scarred, it'll never be the same cuz now part of me will always expect that as part of the ending of the goddamn song, not consciously but I just know they're fucking up my ability to enjoy something wonderful with their constant injections of their wondrous contrived personalities and the constant clangings of commerce, it just never stops...

3. They can NEVER tell you the name of new songs now; it's against the goddamned law!... but they will faithfully identify "Stairway to Heaven" EVERY FREAKIN' TIME!

4. They play GREAT songs to DEATH!
Stairway to Heaven and Freebird are terrific songs; it's too bad that no human being on earth is left who can actually enjoy them as such...

As for these kids these days, I think burning on a former giant of rock n' blues guitar like Clapton is just par for the course; I've met kids who claim they don't like the Beatles (DON'T LIKE THE BEATLES!!??!?!?), and I just don't buy that, man, it's like saying you don't like it when the sun comes out and shines all warm and lovely all day long...
I just think they're tryin' to be reeeeal cool, thus demonstrating to Starkist their good taste...
But that's just kids bein' kids, if you ask me...
Like you said, edumacation, that's the key.
Lucky we have an edumacation president, huh?



D
more unforgivable shenanigans at
http://presidentevilonline.com

[entanglement]

21. Excellent guitarist, I rank him 6th best after

Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Slash, David Gilmour and Richie Blackmore.

[Robeson]

24. Well, first of all, for those who said Cream was his last good music...

...obviously didn't live back then. Blind Faith was great. I'd highly suggest you check them out. In addition, 461 Ocean Boulevard, is a very good album. Check that out too. I will admit, his later stuff, at least to me, doesn't match those, but for one to say that he had nothing after Cream, is frankly, a ridiculous comment.

[Zuni]

34. very much agreed

even his Unplugged album was exceptional.

[regnaD kciN]

25. He used to be God...

...and you know what some posters here think about religion.

;-)

[Abelman]

26. He can Blues it up

And if you can Blues it up, there ain't nothing else you need to do.

[dxstone]

29. SO true! n/t

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. There are so many incredible guitar players - most are unknown

except to a few. Although I bought Cream records when I was a kid and I listened to Clapton, his playing never really turned me on like Hendrix. I don't like to tear down musicians, especially ones who have dedicated their lives to doing what they like. Clapton has gone for a very smooth and fluid blues sound, mainly within the very simple three-chord blues structure. His playing is simple, without being overly cliche-ridden. In accomplishing that, he's been very successful. He just never inspired me. I think Clapton is a very fine musician. But I guess that other very fine musicians like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Stevie Vai, Joe Satriani, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Alvin Lee and many others could play very fast and clean lines as well. But to me that's not what creates a truly great musician.

Guitarists like Wes Montgomery, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Halen (his music absolutely sucks but he did innovate and perfect an entirely new technique on the guitar) were not necessarily the smoothest, most technically perfect of their times but they innovated and reached into a world of their own creation. Pity that Van Halen never developed a good vehicle for his style and turned out one crappy album after another. To me, it's that element of great innovation that was represented in the playing of Montgomery, Hendrix, McLaughin, and Van Halen that makes a musician truly great. You immediately recognize the playing of any of these four.

But to finally answer your post, Clapton is not controversial to me. I think he's an extremely fine player. He just never took his playing to a higher level and created his own world around it. Very few have.

[Zuni]

33. I Love Clapton. Especially his 60s stuff, and his recent blues comeback

His 60s stuff, mainly with Cream and John Mayall is among the best british blues and blues rock ever.

But as British bluesmen go, Peter Green is #1

[Squeech]

35. Clapton stories

Here's what I think I know. Clapton was in the Yardbirds, who were a bunch of young blues and R&B enthusiasts from the first generation of Rolling Stones fans. They were managed by a crazed impresario named Georgio Gomelsky (no, this won't be on the exam) who helped them make some genuine hit records. Clapton didn't like the pop direction, so he quit after they recorded "For Your Love." The Yardbirds hired Jeff Beck to replace him, and then Jimmy Page, so a lot of people will tell you that the Yardbirds is the spawning ground for all great English guitar.

He joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and recorded two superb albums of early British electric blues. There's a story that, before he actually started playing with Mayall, he shut himself up in his room and practiced pretty much non-stop for half a year. I don't know if it's literally true, but it's figuratively true; during this period he played with everybody he thought might teach him something useful about blues. There are a number of tapes floating around of Clapton jamming out on Elmore James tunes with people like Beck, Page, Steve Winwood, etc.

Then there was Cream. I'm one of those people who think Clapton was never better than in Cream, and I think the reason is that this was the first time he was deliberately collaborating with the best other musicians he could find to work with. (The name "cream" was chosen to reflect this; when they first got together, they each thought there was nobody better they could play with.) Jack Bruce was a fearless bass player (he later said "I learned how to play bass on the Fillmore stage with a head full of acid"), lovely singer, and terrific composer, and Ginger Baker was a really solid drummer who knew how to swing even at the volume level Cream attained.

Within a couple years they got to where they hated each other. I don't know why-- ego? drugs? familiarity breeding contempt? Zappa talks about how, when they toured, they each had their own limo, their own support staff, etc. (which got to be real common in later epochs but was unheard of in the communitarian '60s). They broke up, Clapton and Baker did Blind Faith with Winwood, that collapsed after one album (purportedly because Winwood wanted to play more guitar), and Clapton came to America.

He decided he wanted to just play accompaniment and the odd solo, which I think is the role he's really happiest in. He joined Delaney and Bonnie, and he recorded his first solo album with musicians from that sphere-- down home southern rock and R&B players. The Dominos were all from that scene.

I don't much like Derek and the Dominos. I like "Layla," and I like the first four tunes (the first side of the original double LP), and that's about it. The songs aren't very good, and they tried to pump them up by overdubbing more guitars, and it just sounds murky. And there are stories that the sessions were really smacked out-- they'd assemble in the studio, shoot up, and if Duane wasn't around to fire them up, they'd just nod off.

He spent a couple years in an opiated haze, then decided to kick-- Pete Townshend helped him out, and produced his comeback concert at the Rainbow in 1973 or '74, I forget which. There's a record of it.

I haven't liked anything he's done since. I saw him tour with the 461 Ocean Boulevard band and, unlike the 1976 show ProfessorGAC saw, he didn't do squat-- played rhythm guitar, let George Terry take all the solos, and sang kinda lethargically. So I kinda gave up on him then. I wish people paid equivalent attention to Jack Bruce, who's done a far wider range of stuff, from free jazz to boozy headbanger (e.g. West Bruce & Laing) to experiments like Golden Palominos to elegantly crafted songs like "Theme for an Imaginary Western." And he's had equivalent problems with alcohol.

They're all lucky they're still alive. Sometimes late at night I get into this mood where I become convinced that there's a malevolent spirit whose purpose is to ruin rock music, and does it by killing the most significant musicians. So we lose Hendrix and have to make do with Clapton. We lose Brian Jones and replace him with Ron Wood. We lose Duane Allman and keep Dickie Betts. We lose Nick Drake and keep James Taylor. Not that everybody that died was great-- who today remembers Les Harvey?-- and the jury's still out on whether Jim Morrison would have had anything further to contribute if he hadn't died in Paris. But there's no doubt a lot of great creative forces have been cut down in their prime.

[Kat45]

44. I love Clapton, but I agree with you on Jack Bruce.

Totally underrated. I saw him on a 'solo' tour back around 1980 or so, and that's when I realized what an excellent vocalist he is.

[XNASA]

37. Most Overrated Guitarist Ever

His work with Cream is the only thing saving him.

His guitar work is vanilla, pure vanilla.

He pretends to be a Blues artist. He's a rich, white, Englishman. There's no way he's got the blues. Rip-off artist is more like it.

Horrible, horrible songwriter.

And he stole George Harrison's wife.

Five words.......'Tears In Heaven', 'Wonderful Tonight'.

Blech.

[johnnie]

38. I think the bashing is unfair

Clapton is a great guitarist and a good songwriter. Like anyone, he has released some crap, but in my opinion has remained strong.
I gained new respect for him when I watch the "Concert for George" DVD. Eric Clapton doesn't deserve some of the shit thrown at him, but I think most of the time it's from people who either don't know Clapton's career, or they are jumping on the "Bash Clapton" bandwagon.
To each his own though...

[Kat45]

43. Clapton's guitar can reach into my heart and soul.

There are many great guitarists that I love, but I'd say he's the only one capable of affecting me like that. I loved his work with John Mayall and Cream and Derek & the Dominoes (I consider "Layla" one of the best albums ever and that song performance one of the best.) I hated most of what he's done since then except for the blues, which I believe is his real love (musically).

I saw him in concert around 1978, a time when his 'hit' song was a piece of crap. But he did both old and new tunes as well as blues--and he did not do his current hit; that's unheard of in concerts, and it led me to believe that he knew that stuff was crap. Saw him again in the nineties, I think, when he did a tour that was totally blues, and it was another good show.

Bottom line: I think he's an excellent guitarist, and he's still got it, but these days you only see it in concert and/or when he does the blues.

[GalleryGod]

45. JFK Stadium, Live Aid, July, 1985 : Eric Moment

Steve Mountain(mgr. of a group called the Hooters) got me near back stage.

Eric, Phil Collins and others trooped on by to do their 3 song set. I said, "Kick there Asses,Eric!" (There was 90,000 sun baked folks out there)......He nodded his head and mumbled "Ya' think we might?"

Layla as the sun was setting on JFK Stadium....we thought we could stop war and feed the world that day.
:cry:

[Tsiyu]

55. And he's not exactly a Spring Chicken

Here's a cool link:

http://www.12bar.de/unplugged.htm

His playing hits me in the gut as well, npz. Dealing with the loss of Stevie Ray, three members of his own crew, then his son, I think he's an amazing person to still even put himself out there.

For a buncha never-beens to say he sucks. Feh... :thumbsdown:

[WilliamPitt]

48. Eric Clapton Was God

Now he's pretty lame for the most part. His old stuff, particularly the Yardbirds and Derek and the Dominoes, is excellent. Go find the Yardbirds song 'Steppin' Out.' You'll hear what Led Zeppelin would have sounded like if they'd taken Clapton instead of Page. Not dissing Page or nuthin'...

He wrote 'Tears in Heaven' about his young son dying, it was this big tender deal, and then sold it to a movie. That's where he lost me.

I will say this, however. I saw him play in 1993 for that all-blues album he put out with the three dogs on the cover. I have never, and I men never ever, in more than 200 concerts, ever seen anyone play that well. He smoked through 30 old blues standards, used the style of guitar that the original songwriter used for each song, played their styles letter-perfect, and meanwhile blew the bloody doors off. Before he started, he told the audience, "If you came to hear Wonderful Tonight, you're in the wrong place."

He still has it in him. He just never flashes it anymore. That three-dogs album is a good capstone for his career.

[Tsiyu]

52. He was writing Tears in Heaven for a movie BEFORE his son died,

if I'm not mistaken.

Research is good....


Anyhoo, here is the song for Conor:

The Circus Left Town


(Eric Clapton)

Little man with his eyes on fire
And his smile so bright
In his hands are the toys you gave
That fill his heart with delight
In a ring stands a circus clown
Holding up a light
What you see and what you hear
Will last you the rest of your life

It's sad, so sad
There aint no easy way round
It's sad, so sad
All your friends gather round
Cause the circus left town

Little man with his heart so pure
And his love so fine
Stick with me and I'll ride with you
Till the end of the line
Hold my hand and I'll walk with you
Through the darkest night
When I smile I'll be thinking of you
And everything will be alright

[WindRavenX]

51. wow..this has been a great thread

I never knew he went that far back.
I think when I get some time and money I will investigate him much more- thanks everyone! :hi:

[RedstDem]

54. I Gotta Great Clapton Story

My Parents Were Vacationing On Their Boat In The Bahamas A Few Years Back When An Enormous Yacht Pulled Into The Anchorage, Some 150ft. Big Ass Boat, Later On In The Day, A Seaplane Landed. On Board Was Clapton. He Invited Everyone Anchored There To His Yacht That Night & Played Guitar For Them. Mostly Stuff Like Unplugged. Too Bad My Parental Units Had No Clue Who Eric Clapton Is...Later My Mom Asks Me, "So Who Is This Eric Clapper Guy Anyway?"

[Squeech]

56. As I was saying

I Googled "Cream Clapton," and found a web page that said a bunch of enlightening things:

1) It was Ginger Baker that started the band. He asked Eric, and Eric asked Jack. Eric didn't know it, but Jack and Ginger had a history that wasn't very helpful, but they buried the hatchet for a while and became a really tight rhythm section.

2) Eric envisioned a blues band, but both Ginger and (especially) Jack were writing all this amazing stuff that they wanted to play. Eric began to wonder if his experience with Cream would be a replay of his experience with the Yardbirds.

3) As a corollary to the above, Eric never saw himself as the main guy in the band, and was increasingly embarrassed by the "Clapton is God" hype. This supports my previous argument that he's happier as somebody else's accompanist.

4) Cream's management, on the other hand, wanted to ride that hype for all it was worth. They kept pushing Eric to write more, sing more, pose for more pictures, and be the ace face. In career terms Eric was as much a model for "Pink" in The Wall as Syd was.

5) I really have to get the Those Were the Days box. I love this stuff.

And I wanted to say something about the blues, but I haven't quite figured out exactly how to say it. But my idea is that we 21st century white people don't really have the same understanding of the blues as Muddy Waters had, or even as Eric had-- it's not our music. We can listen to it, certainly-- the great thing about the modern world is that practically all the music that was ever captured to tape is out there for our appreciation-- but it doesn't mean to us what it meant to its original practitioners. Indeed, I think that the twelve-bar blues form, which has its roots in southern gospel and work songs, is to us simply a form, and all too often a cliche. The trick for us is to capture the emotional texture of blues playing, but do it in a way that's relevant to us. And that's what I like about Eric-- not how well he plays "Crossroads," but how moving "Layla" is, or "Badge," or even his solo spot on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." I kinda feel like my version of that flavor of weltschmerz might be found in goth. We'll see.

WindRavenX, if you're still reading this, the only Clapton I have in digital format is Blind Faith, which you're welcome to borrow, especially if you can lend me something I haven't heard.

[LibraLiz1973]

57. He isnt a jerk

I wont go into details of who she is- but, he's a great guy. Very down to earth. Does absolutely NOT think he is gods gift. He's had a very difficult life but he still cares very much for people. He has had some really screwed up crap happen to him that not alot of people would be able to survive. The worst of those things being the death of his son when he fell out of a window. I hate that people think that because he's famous he's a jerk- he is the exact opposite of that.


Added: He founded a rehab center that he has sold alot of his guitars to benefit. It's on an island somewhere & benefits the locals etc. who have no money

[mopaul]

58. cream plays 4 shows next week in london, one time only

royal albert hall where they last played 35 years ago.

mon, tues. wed. off, thurs. fri.

c.d.'s surely to come.

[donheld]

59. I still think Eric is fantastic

Few are as good as Mr Clapton.