Eric Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 or this!!! : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 or maybe this little gem: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 Clapton was the key to turning me on to a lot of great music. For that, I'm forever grateful. However, there are parts of his career that for me at least, are not essential listening. I think there's more of Muddy's influence than Freddie King's in Clapton's overall package. Maybe I feel that way because I just recently listened to Muddy's Chess boxset? To me Muddy was the father that Clapton never had both musically and spiritually. For the record I think that Peter Green was every bit Clapton's peer back in the day. He was fairly experimental and not just interested in the blues. This led to some less than great work. However when he was on.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 Look like I'll be doing some shopping this month... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 Wow, I'm not sure I would stand behind the Muddy thang. . . when I hear Freddie and Otis I hear direct riffs and licks and sounds that EC "incorporated". . . . Anyway, in one sense "it's all good." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 No offense to Lon, but this doesn't even deserve a response. Eric Clapton is a complete mediocrity. Listen to Freddie King's Federal recordings, and you will never have the need to listen to Clapton. Eric Clapton's renown is a result of the general public's lack of taste. I won't go into the racism thing, but that's a part of it, too. (Please don't accuse me of calling people here racists, because I'm not. I'm simply saying one of the reasons for Clapton's renown is racism.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 I heard Clapton before I knew his idols, but only with Cream, not with the Bluesbreakers. Later I got Otis Rush's Cobra recordings after reading a rave review somewhere, and when I played "All Your Love" to friend he exclaimed that it was the same solo as Clapton's on the Bluesbreakers LP he had. After looking at the recording dates it was clear who had copied .... Rush still sends chills down my spine, something Clapton never did. That says it all to me. I dig Cream, but more for Bruce and Baker, I always found Clapton a bit over the top and a little too self-conscious. I'll always prefer any of the black guitarists mentioned - Rush and the Albert King Stax are among the first Blues CDs I bought - but for musical, not racist reasons. The only white blues guitarist that moved me as much was Mike Bloomfield, but only in his best moments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 Well, I obviously don't completely agree Paul. I do think that Clapton's more overtly rock work such as 461 Ocean Boulevard or his Dylan covers on Slowhand and No Reason to Cry are more satisfying and original, and it's odd from a sales standpoint that he doesn't do MORE work like this, but I think he NEEDS to feel he's a bluesman. But these days I'll certainly reach for Freddie or Otis before Eric, and I don't listen to all that much of any of them compared to jazz and brazilian music, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 What Lon said re Eric Clapton. He ain't the greatest to come down the pike - but he's far from the worst. I sometimes get the feeling people want to either put him WAAAY at the top or WAAAY at the bottom and it just isn't like that. For starters - I dig the hell out of Freddie King and have since I heard DRIVIN' SIDEWAYS when it was a single release sometime in the early 60s. That's where I came in. BTW - speaking of influences, check out the turnarounds Freddie plays on HIDEAWAY and check out Jimi Hendrix's intro on HEY JOE. Anybody into Freddie's singing? That hasn't come up yet, but, I mean - I think he's a singin' MOFO!! Back in the early 60s a lot of people (myself included) thought there were 3 KING brothers - or half brothers - or whatever. It wasn't until sometime later that we realized they weren't related. A friend of mine who played drums for Albert in the late 60s says that Albert used to constantly tell people that he and BB were half brothers, even when they did shows together, and that BB, being a very nice cat, always went along with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Wow, I'm not sure I would stand behind the Muddy thang. . . when I hear Freddie and Otis I hear direct riffs and licks and sounds that EC "incorporated". . . . Anyway, in one sense "it's all good." No doubt! Eric borrowed quite a bit from both, and a fair bit from Lowell Fulson too. I just think if you listen to his overall approach to the blues, including his singing, he is Muddy's protege more than anyone else. He did cop a fair amount of licks from Muddy. Check out Muddy's original recordings of I Can't Be Satisfied, Rollin and Tumblin', Rolling Stone, Walkin' Blues, Standing Around Crying, Blow Wind Blow, and Hoochie Coochie Man to name but a few. Also, to my ears E.C.'s slide work is informed by Mr. Morganfield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Cool. I don't hear that much Muddy in comparison myself, but doesn't mean it's not there: my listening to EC hasn't been as wide in recent years and I've concentrated on his seventies work and what jumps most out at me is Freddie and Otis, possibly from listening only to certain material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 "Walkin' Blues" fron Clapton's Unplugged is note for note Muddy's "I Feel Like Going Home" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 "Walkin' Blues"Â fron Clapton's Unplugged is note for note Muddy's "I Feel Like Going Home" Yeah, Muddy's influence is all over "Unplugged" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Okay, I've never bought an "Unplugged" cd in my life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Okay, I've never bought an "Unplugged" cd in my life! I've only bought two. Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. Both well worth owning if your a fan of either artist. The McCartney is stellar. Great backing band including Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Hamish Stuart on Bass, Blair Cunningham on drums, and Paul "Wix" Wickens on assorted "keyed" instruments. This is McCartney's "Off The Ground" era band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 McCartney is one of the persons I least want to hear plugged or unplugged! I just totally dislike his voice and personality. . . . Just one of those things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 McCartney is one of the persons I least want to hear plugged or unplugged! I just totally dislike his voice and personality. . . . Just one of those things! Fair enough, different strokes. (Note to self... B) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Clapton's album title "Journeyman" says it all: good player, not a blues giant, and his seventies 'return' --the rock/country-influenced stuff-- is his true forte. Do I like him? Yes. Agreed. It's probably his most popular period also. As an aside, I had a gig yesterday at a private party. We got so many requests for Clapton we just did a instumental set of his material. Things like, Let It Rain, Promises, Bell Bottom Blues, Layla. This was a fairly young crowd, It just goes to show that he has staying power as well as "Blues Power" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeith Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Well said Jazzshrink!!!!!!!!! I think the best Clapton is the Mayall Bluesbreakers disc that Jazzshrink showed the cover of, Cream of course, and then the wildly underrated Blind Faith disc. I don't care for almost anything that followed. I think Clapton is about as about as good as the white boy blues stuff gets and he is quite realistic and humble about his place in the blues world, as other posters here have pointed out. I know EC acknowledges his debt to Freddie King, but it blows my mind so few on this board have picked BB King as an influence or even as great blues guitarist. For me it doesn't get any better than BB, and it doesn't hurt that he has the greatest blues singing voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJ Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Clapton is overrated vastly as a guitarist, I agree with that completely. I've always felt his strongest suit was his voice, which is appealingly inadequate and fits just right with certain pop material...I actually tend to prefer his pop work for that reason, although Cream was fun at the beginning (FRESH CREAM is just that). But I simply don't understand the appeal his guitar playing has had for so many. Not bad on riffs and as a rhythm player, but his soloing is generally sterile and unimaginative. If you're going to talk about blues-influenced soloists of that era, give me Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Michael Bloomfield, and a long list of others WAY before you give me Clapton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 (edited) I truly adore B. B. King, I just don't see a B. B. influence as a major component of Clapton's style. . . .(s). Man, I have to get me some of the reissues of the Crown and Modern (?) B. B. material; I used to have lps of these that I played and partyed into oblivion. Bedrock stuff! Also B. B. was one of the two performers that I have seen (and I've seen him several times over several decades) that COMMANDED an audience. The audience was HIS. The other was Stevie Wonder. I saw him silence a stadium of fans simply by talking very quietly into the microphone on stage. Thousands of people would be quiet and lean forward to hear every word he was saying. There are few enetertainers with the commanding charisma they have. Edited January 2, 2004 by jazzbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 No offense to anyone here, BUT I find all this dissing of Eric inanely, sophmorically kneejerk, almost ritualistic and quite literally reationary, as if y'all have a deep need to prove that you are (no longer?) one of those taken in by the hype. High school level politics aside, Eric was a great synthesis of a wide range of influences (pretty much the full spectrum of blues guitar). It's also quite funny that it's his guitar playing that's being slagged here; his singing, songwriting and bandleading abilities are better candidates for distain. Certainly, he was never a radical innovater, never wanted to be one either. And just as certainly, his guitar work has on the whole fallen off since peaking about '66--partly due to his perfectly valid choice to emphasize singing and songs more (the Big Pink revelation, although he should've got this from the blues which is fundamentally a vocal narrative), and partly due to the corosive effects of various self indulgences like cream's endless solos, drugs, alcohol, Patty Harrison, etc. Layla, at least, was a better album than it might otherwise have been precisely because it turns away from the dead end of guitar heroics to use the quitar playing in support of the songs. Something I rarely if ever see mentioned is the bad effect (sic) the wha-wha pedal had on his playing by obscuring its real strengths: a razor sharp attack and finely nuanced phrasing and dynamics. Yes I am familiar with and love Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Freddie, Albert, BB, Buddy Guy, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Mike Bloomfield, etc. (Not Albert Collins, totally one dimensional to me). Also Grant, Kenny, Charlie C., Django, etc. Please add a little sugar to this if it's too cranky/bitter for your taste! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeith Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Danasgoodstuff- I agree with a lot of what you are saying and I have never thought of Clapton's voice as particularly compelling - give me Jack Bruce or Stevie Winwood anyday- that's why they were the vocalists in those bands. DRJ- I am a fan of Jeff Beck's too. I particularly love the Truth album. But I think he engages in a form of sterility too, which is that he seems so amazed with his abilities. I often get the feeling that he is showing off and it comes through in the playing. Jimmy Page or Led Zeppelin for that matter, never did much for me except a few moments on that first album. JAZZBO- I have seen BB over a dozen times, the first time at Kent State University in 1968 or maybe 1969- you are right - he transfixes an audience. That marvelous voice has lost some of its gold these days and it may be time to hang up the mike. By the way, I saw Stevie Wonder open for the Stones in 1972 and he did not transfix anyone-maybe the context or maybe and off-day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Maybe an off day or some such; I saw him in 1974 and 1975 and he was the master and commander! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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