Eric Clapton - most over-rated guitarist in poll shockah!
Eric Clapton - most over-rated guitarist in poll shockah! The shocker here actually is not that EC (some call him God, but this is a dwindling number now due to age and events which pretty much prove this not to be true) is seen as being over-rated, this is a new generation we are talking about after all. Except that this new generation still revere Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, and the riffs and solo’s mentioned are all over twenty years old. Is Rock dead, or are the people who buy Laney amps or fill in polls like this just not the kids any more?
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JDawg on June 8th, 2007
a coworker just sent this link to me after a somewhat heated debate about Eric Clapton. I say he remains a god and my coworker says no, he is a slow guitarist at best. It appears from the above comment that most of your poll voters are younger and are looking at EC’s work now and comparing him to the faster more agressive guitarists of our time which makes them short sighted and is one of the many things I hate about my generation. Most of us look at what is in front of us and forget about the past, I won’t bore you with why that is a bad idea (i.e. Gulf wars 1 & 2) but I will say if it wasn’t for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and all of my other favorite greats we wouldn’t have the music we have now and for that Eric will always be a god in my eyes.
Al Ewing on June 9th, 2007
I feel the same way about Scooter.
Thadeus on October 9th, 2008
Eric Clapton … I never understood what people see in him. He;s one of those famous for being famous guys that when you ask someone who claims to love him - they cant hum anything he;s done - but they think he’s god. Sort of like Tommy Lee. Everybody knows him but not for anything more than they know who he is.
But then I do not get the Blues after more than 3 songs. Its like the Ramones - after 3 songs you’ve heard all you’re ever gonna hear.
Back to Clapton …. I guess he played wiht some pretty remarkable bands in the beggininng but frankly his playin gdoesnt seem like anything great to me and his look is pretty terrible. I saw a concert on TV and he was soooooo boring. He had a bunch of guests and they did that retarded blues jam blues guys always do. Its boring - I knew what was coming next bar after bar. Perhaps thats the draw - for simple minds its simple music with no surprises. Some people like to live that way. Just like people who get up and dance to Radar Love at the local pub. Or want the band to play brown eyed girl.
The Intl on October 9th, 2008
#3 - While I can agree that Clapton is boring and meaningless in 2008, you gotta be kidding about his playing. Granted, his best stuff was done 40 years ago, but he really was good. And regarding his current bullshit, consider the fact that he left The Yardbirds because they were becoming too commercial - ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! The thing I don’t understand is the “slowhand” tag. He’s not a “shredder”, but he doesn’t seem slow to me. Maybe he’s “thick” slow. Then again, he did steal a Beatle wife, so he is certainly able to pull a fast one, yes? And as for his look, are we talking about guitar players or boy bands here?
DJ Punctum on October 9th, 2008
Clapton was so slow that he didn’t realise Jack and Ginger’s real intentions when forming Cream, i.e. to have a free jazz trio with Clapton as Ornette except he didn’t know it (Jack Bruce’s words, not mine)!
Easy to knock him in terms of all the rubbish he’s done over the last thirty years or so but at his best (i.e. when he had other people to push him, viz. Mayall, Bruce/Baker, Winwood, Duane Allman and so forth) he was a damn fine player.
wichita lineman on October 9th, 2008
It’s not that his look isn’t boy band-cute - it’s the horrible eyes-closed-serious thing he does that bugs me. Leaving The Yardbirds because they were recording For Your Love should disqualify him from any mention on Freaky Trigger, full stop. But now we’re here….
He ‘wrote’ Layla (but not the bit everyone remembers it for)
He actually did write Wonderful Tonight (up there with Just The Way You Are and You Are So Beautiful, no further comment)
He stated a dislike for immigrants (not that anyone seems to have the EXACT quote)…
AND he didn’t apologise for anything in his biog, but blamed it all on his mum…
So. Not God, I reckon, unless you take the Depeche Mode line.
Peter Green is another matter…
The Intl on October 10th, 2008
Maybe the graffiti scrawler was dyslexic: “Clapton Is Dog”…
Yeah, I remember eagerly waiting for his 1st solo lp, and then saying, “huh…??”
And can anyone clarify this for me: It’s Harrison on Badge doing just the Beatle-y opening of the bridge, right? Cuz the solo sure seems pure Clapton.
wichita lineman on October 10th, 2008
Badge - you mean the distinctive arpeggio part at the heart of the song’s dynamics rather than the weedy squeaking that follows it? That’ll be George Harrison.
Meantime, I’m not sure if everyone is aware of this mindblower:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_M9zWORBuA
The sax is the cherry on the cake!
DJ Punctum on October 10th, 2008
#7: I always imagined it as a misreading of “Clapton Is Good”…
#6: Thankfully FT isn’t Iraq so we don’t - or shouldn’t - do any cultural fundamentalism here but anyway…
The bit that everyone remembers “Layla” for was penned by the ill-fated Jim Gordon.
Respect to “You Are So Beautiful” please; a lovely song, written by Billy Preston, even if Cocker’s US chart topping recording of it was, to say the very least, hammy enough for it to be stocked in the chilled meat section of Marks & Spencer…
Clapton’s line on immigrants, according to him (or at least what he said in Uncut when I was there, and I think he repeats it in his biog), is not that he doesn’t like them but that they shouldn’t be encouraged to come here on false promises and then they end up scrubbing floors and wiping up shit. I’m not really convinced by this either but there you are. Bad timing, though, the original remark, whatever way you look at it and however pissed he was at the time.
I always liked the way Brian Case referred to Clapton’s singing voice as on a par with a big band horn player who’d occasionally stand up to sing something like “Your Father’s Moustache”; that sums it up for me perfectly. Works quite well on “Badge” though, even if Bruce was for me and I suspect many others the main man in Cream.
AFAIC Derek Bailey is God, RIP big “making records is fine except you end up with this fucking thing called a record” man.
wichita lineman on October 10th, 2008
“You are so beautiful… to me.” I’d take that as an insult, along with “I don’t want clever conversation… I love you just the way you are” and the possessive undertow of Wonderful Tonight. That’s what I meant. No real problem with the melody.
Re Eric is God, DJP, did you check the youtube link? One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, as is the comments thread underneath where lots of people think it’s genuine.
DJ Punctum on October 10th, 2008
I take it as a compliment myself. Whereas “Just The Way You Are” is Taliban pseudo-pop (and an “I’m Not In Love” ripoff to boot) and “Wonderful Tonight” has arguably had a worse impact on Western society than bin Laden.
YouTube is blocked at work so I’ll have to catch up with that link later.
Mark G on October 10th, 2008
“You are so beautiful… to me.”
Sure, but then some old sozz singing it to his bulldog faced wife, at karaoke..
Inclusive, right?
DJ Punctum on October 10th, 2008
I’m surprised it didn’t chart at all here. It certainly got enough airplay at the time.