Sure, but then some old sozz singing it to his bulldog faced wife, at karaoke..

Inclusive, right?

YouTube is blocked at work so I’ll have to catch up with that link later.

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.

#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.

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!

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.

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…

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.

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.