I just got finished reading all these comments putting down Clapton and how boring he is . There must be somebody else they are talking about . I've watched and heard him for a long time . Yeah , they must be talking about someone else.
People who say he is boring don't understand the Blues. Nobody is forcing these people to comment on Eric Clapton, and no one is forcing people who don't get the Blues to listen to Clapton. Listen to somebody else.
@@Malcolm701 Yes I do too, and I think his singing has improved to a true blues voice. I mean he is still a rocker, but his voice is awesome with whatever he sings.
His greatest influence has been Freddy...or Freddie - King :) Right up to buying whatever Les Paul there has been then... it wasnt Kings 54 Goldtop... jus some 1960 Beano Burst :))
If you doubt, listen to what Clapton did live in the early '70s and then the early '90s. Eric's a monster player and unfortunately is maligned unfairly.
After Cream it was all over with Eric. He never played anything I ´d like to hear for second time after that. Boring stuff with no fire, he was wasted.
@@tomasvanecek8626you haven't listened to anything then. His early 70s albums are songwriter albums but to say he never played with fire again is just wrong. He got better and played with more fire through the late 80s and 90s. He even did incredible playing on his good nights in the 70s. Plenty of versions of Double Trouble prove that.
@@dayleclarke4433 I had listened to all he did, I have most of his 70s albums on old vinyl. After you grew up on Cream and Beano, it bores you to death. sorry.. if you dont understand, I can offer no help ;) To each his own....
Everything Clapton does is tasteful. It never sounds like he is over playing or invading another's sonic space. He has always seemed to understand how to stay in his lane and still be heard.
Well , I’ve seen EC probably 30 times. 2 Crossroads festivals . But W Muddy Waters opening and Winwood , along w Cream in London , being 3 that really jump out . Jimmy Page sat right behind me at Cream , arms crossed , Private box. I watched him go from arms crossed , as if to say “ok guys let’s hear it”, to on his feet and screaming , like the rest of the Albert Hall. He’s been through a Lot of bad press in his day , but here’s to a guy that changed the world with his playing , many times over . I Still respect his playing and the millions in charity and good will . Hats off to you EC. You deserve it.
You have got to be kidding me - Anybody ever told you that you're an asshole ?!?!? I'm kind of kidding - I guess - I haven't had the privilege - I've wanted to - but I haven't gotten the opportunity - I'm a guitar player - and my voice is similar - Mr Clapton is my #1 influence - watching BB King brought me to tears in my barn on the backside of Churchill Downs
9 concerts stretched out over 13 years. Sometimes the song list was the same, but each time he played them they were different. And they were great. A reviewer said of EC and Stevie Winwood that their performance was "the definition of excellence and professionalism." And, oh BTW, they blew the roof off the arena.
Hendrix, not close to Clapton. Actually as innovative and great as Hendrix was, he was quite sloppy live. Clapton's phrasing,tone, lead construction and blues knowledge is on another level. If you include vocals, then it's not close! If you want to
I've rarely missed Clapton anytime he's been in the NY area since the late 70s. I'm so far into "double digits" I may have hit the 100 mark or more.. The man is simply OUTSTANDING, a true Legend, an inventor, a Master of his craft. It was said in another post, and it's true... I've seen Eric play multiple nights in a row, and although the song list was generally the same, he always managed to tweak each song just a little bit differently. I've seen tons of Clapton shows, including the ARMS Tour benefit for Ronnie Lane in the Garden in '83, both nights, caught him when Warren Haynes introduced him during the Allman Brothers 40th Anniversary Tour in 2009 at the Beacon, the first CrossRoads festival held in NY in '99, also in the Garden, and not one single time have I ever left feeling like there was something missing..Always the consumate professional, always an absolutely impeccable show. Getting ready to head back to the Garden to catch him again in a couple of weeks. He's just TOO GOOD to miss. 👌✌️
Two things I love about Clapton apart from his beautiful playing. . . . He is always championing other guitarists (including bringing everyone’s attention to Jimi). And how he has bounced back from a horrible early life. Legend.
@@BrandonScottFox1EVH??? Really? It’s a very American thing to rate a guitarist on how many notes per second he can play and not so much about the content of the actual music. If soloing on a guitar ever becomes an Olympic event, then yes, Eric may get a bit jealous.
I just turned 65 so basically heard it all,,,,,Real RnR, Surf, EXP, all first gen. EC with JM BB was too much for a 9 year old kid but Cream was where it got serious. Played guitar some and 'heros' would mention EC. Thankful i got to see him once, '07.
I met Eric by chance in London back in 1982 ,, A Bar I used to go to on weekends was very popular with Artists and Musicians one saturday afternoon I noticed a Red Ferrari Boxer outside,, When I was in there a friend of mine sat with me for a few minutes and then went to the other end of the bars ,, later as I was walking to the bar she called me to her table and then I noticed it was Eric & Patti Boyd ( turned out my friend was patti's sister) We talked about Art a Music and when Patti realised I lived in Notting Hill west London She said we filmed Ringo on walk about there in a Hard Days Night ! I said yes it was around the corner from my flat,, I started to hum This Boy By John Lennon and Eric put his hands over his face and began to cry a little,, Patti said he was still in shock and deeply saddened by his friends murder he went on to say that Keith Richards was freaked out by Johns murder and kept a gun under his pillow,, Just a Rock n roll Story ..
I bought my first "real" guitar (Martin sigma) in 1994 while traveling in LaCrosse WI. I bought a Beatles chord diagram book, was heavy into the Black Crowes, but Clapton Unplugged was basically, the first real stuff I learned. All those Robert Johnson blues songs were a great launch pad to learn from. He may not be my all time favorite (Page) but he is in my top 5 with Gilmour, SRV, EVH, and Stanley Jordan.
You could have add Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards (they are blood brothers), Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Mark Knopfler, Sting, Robert Cray, Aretha Franklin (about how he play guitar in her song), Vince Gill, Albert Lee, Sonny Landereth, John Mayer...
The Late Great Clarence White is my influential guitar 🎸 Hero? No one...I mean NO ONE can touch him. don't get wrong so many great influential guitarist out there still! but Clarence White is the one I always turn to. Rest in Peace Clarence 🙏🏼✝️🕯️🕊️🙏🏼1944-1973
Clarence was a different style. Clapton was more influential, but Clarence was, in his style the absolute pinnacle and, like Clapton a player's player. Differently than Clapton non players didn't know him well, but who knows about guitar playing knows about Clarence. Together with Ry Cooder, he and Clapton are the very best on my book and very few of them have been so important in the way people had played guitar since (Ry invented the Rolling Stones sound after Brian Jones departed, basically).
@@tarvisponsdebeaumont794 I hear you... It's just that when I hear and see rare footage of him playing, he literally takes my breath away. Clapton, Hendrix, Cooder and so, so many others we're great admirers of him.
@@dennisdemark8151 Apparently Hendrix went one night to see Clarence when he was playing with the Kentucky Colonels to tell him that he was one of his favorite players and that he had followed him for years. Being Clarence White, he just smiled embarrassed at him and when Jimi went away he asked his mates: who was that well dressed black guy again? I love Clarence, too bad that I never saw him live....
@@tarvisponsdebeaumont794 it would have been a dream to hear him live...I was only 9 when he was tragically killed 😢 and yes Clarence was a very humble be soul.
Funny thing is - Page actually says nothing about Claptons PLAYING here. That same way he had always avoided commenting on Hendrix. Or Beatles, for that matter... Sure he has nothing to prove to anyone and his work speaks for itself, but wouldnt we all like to know what he really thinks, about EC ? Cream made it big, before LZ even recorded their first album..
@@robmorrison1043 Lol, arent you a bit harsh here. 😇Right, EC was somewhere , on few occasions. When he really was on it, Page could never touch him, as far as guitar soloing goes....and as if that was the most important thing.. After Cream, he became just a honorable mention.. He never was a mastermind of any band, not the great producer Jimmy was ever since Zep I. Kinda like Jeff Beck.. great playing, but no real impact as far as anything beyond guitar slinging goes... Claptons guitar tech.. I never read anything THIS funny.. congrats, my man, it is you who is from another stratosphere
@@tomasvanecek8626 Educate yourself. Your the typical know nothing, Clapton was best in the 60s dummies. Clapton's pinnacle was 92 to 2002. Just watch his from the cradle shows and Martin Scorsese documentary nothing but the blues featuring EC. It is the finest display of blues playing and vocals ever laid down. Page couldn't play like Clapton, in his dreams.
He gave them someone to emulate that they actually COULD emulate. That was very important for the growth of guitar playing amongst the fan base. Good singer/songwriter, but as far as him being a guitar "God," that is laughable. He was influential though
@@youtoo2233 - it's called networking. Clapton was the king of that as he loved building friendships with mega musician celebrities. Dave Grohl isn't a great guitarist or drummer yet he's played with everyone from Paul McCartney to the Melvins. All you need is a huge name and some famous friends
@@ewanmcfadyen - Just did. Each his own. I guess I just don't get him. I'd expand on my thoughts but I don't want to shit on the guy. He's not a poor player by any stretch, I just find him highly overrated as a soloist. I'll always respect him though, for me songwriting is the far more precious skill than being able to solo masterfully, and he's a phenomenal songwriter.
He was born under a bad sign? He's just a bloke with a lot of money he's not the greatest guitar player he's not that smart about racial issues or vaccines but if you enjoy his playing after all these years copy it get yourself a garage band. But before you criticize him check out stepping out with John Mayall and the bluesbreakers tell me that that's not exciting playing . But please don't copy his hard drug use. I know he's generous with his charity isn't that's what it's all about?
He was raised by his grandparents and found out that who he believed was his older sister was in fact his mother, not a good start and immersed himself in the blues. There is a deep sadness within him, your childhood defines your life.
@@vmax4steve524 Wait a minute. What a child needs is love and security - and he had that in abundance from his grandparents. Sure they hid the fact that they weren't his parents, but there are so many children brought up by parents who are psychologically and physically abusive. I would make a very strong argument that these type of children carry a far greater "sadness" than Eric's childhood - where he knew he was loved.
@@Inglese001 His grandparents didn't tell him who his mother was until he ws an adult, they lied, those who raised and loved him lied, his mother lied and left to live in germany, that leaves a deep distrust of love. Try living with that.
@@vmax4steve524 Must have been very strange to learn that as an adult. But from what I've heard, he had a great childhood. I understand that his grandmother bought him his first guitar on hire-purchase. That's great! As an adult, Eric became rich and famous. Lauded for his early guitar playing. Had relationships with some of the most beautiful women. He's a level-headed guy - articulate and educated. You say "try living with that" . He seems to be living with it pretty well ! Personally, I don't feel sorry for him - and I don't get the impression he feels sorry for himself.
The only thing more boring than B.B. King's guitar playing is his speaking. Firstly, he plays blues for rich people. Secondly, he speaks only to serve himself. His whole "compliment" to Clapton was self-serving. I'm not sure how Clapton could pretend even to like B.B. King.
Would anyone really name Clapton to be in the same league as Tommy Emmanuel or Gary Moore? No way. Clapton had his moments. That's all. There are lightyears between Clapton and other folks mentioned
I honestly feel he hated I'm using the word hated srv for every time anyone talked to him it was how great Stevie was an Hendrix but Hendrix couldn't steal his lime lighted addiction to being second best to a ghost watch some them jam sessions EC looks at Stevie when playing like some one took a Pooh in his mouth an wanted to puke seriously an then the fkn way we lost srv blows my fkn mind
Like Eddie said he doesn't play like Clapton . He could , easily in junior high school , play any CREAM song note for note . Eddie said he only LOVES Clapton's playing in the Cream era . That's what helped his playing skills .
It's one thing to be able to play something note for note. It's something else again to originate it. If Eddie impresses you, you should consider what it takes for a concert pianist to be able to play a classical piece live, as notated, and not foul it up.
Clapton was at the cutting edge and among the best guitarist in the late 1960s with Cream. With the exception of Layla and a couple of other songs in the early 1970s, it has been all downhill ever since. The bar for great guitarists was raised so high by the end of the 1970s Clapton was not even the major league. Then with his drunken junky "Keep Britain White" Fascist rants and $4000 lawsuits against his own fans over $11 bootleg CDs, I lost all interest and respect for Clapton 45 or 50 years ago.
It's a bit unfair. Clapton seems to be a great guy. But you're right: after Cream he was not the same player. But he survived to tell the tale. He earned it.
@@jcruisioso5975 What I am reading on the internet, Clapton sued and won in a German Court. After a German woman's husband died, she put his old CDs on Ebay for sale for about $10 each. One happened to be a 30 year old bootleg and Clapton sued for copyright infringement and won $4000 (and the disc was never actually sold).
@@tarvisponsdebeaumont794 I followed him back in the day through The Yardbirds, most of his bands and projects, and his solo records up to "There's One in Every Crowd" which was disappointing and soon followed by the "Keep Britain White" episode. After that I lost all interest. I later replaced most of the Yardbirds and Cream with CD box sets, but not the others. We all put a foot in our mouth sometimes, but Clapton (so privileged) seems to consistently make offensive comments and backs them up with lawsuits and fundraisers, supporting fox hunting, and fighting against public health policies for COVID among others.
@Chris Gabler I did listened to some songs from his 1995 tour and I agree, he does sound in good form, but I'm still not really won over. Just my thoughts, if you're a Clapton fan and like his music enjoy it. Leaving out some amazing guitarists from the last 30 or 40 years, and folks like Segovia, Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, I think "rock" guitarist like Hendrix, Page, Beck and a few others had outpaced Clapton even by 1970. Listen to the original 1969 recording of Zappa playing Willie the Pimp.
"When I heard that guitar that was as powerful for me as Robert Johnson was for Eric. To hear a guitar become the main voice in the music and to be that forceful and so direct, it was amazing, there was nothing like that before and nothing like it since either, really.” - Gary Moore
@@michaeldonaghey exactly why wouldn’t Clapton invite Gary to crossroads or just okay with him he has plenty of times in the 90’s Clapton ego is too big when Gary would slaughter l
@@michaeldonaghey That's weird to say how much he liked him and then turn around and sat he doesn't like him anymore . " He's boring " . You can't have it both ways . Which is it ? 🤔
A hero and an influencial guitarist sure but the man never made a consistantly good album with some being utter dross . The Cream albums were patchy , the live albums boring and indulgent , the solo albums lacking and in fact l,d say that only the Blind Faith album and the Bluesbreakers L.P. were the only completely satisfying recordings he's done along with some of the early Yardbirds stuff . The guitarists who learned from and followed on from him in some cases surpassed the legacy of Clapton .Not deriding the man but there were others far better. ( in my opinion ).
Just listen to yourself what you're saying here ...and you just try to have a career as a guitarist yourself like Clapton, going down the same road he has. Making that many recordings, shows and helping others... See you in 60 years, boy! Good luck! And listen to van Halen too: there's no such thing as "being better".
IǗE SEEN CLAPTON OVER 200X SINCE THE 70´S, AND THE FIRST TIME HE WAS A GUEST WITH THE STONES, AFTER THAT I NEVER MISSED A CHANCE TO SEE HIM PLAY EVEN IF HE WAS ONLY PLAYING A BENEFIT 2, 3 SONGS I WOULD BE THERE,
1988, Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario. Clapton on his 25th anniversary tour, with special guest Mr. Mark Knopfler. I had just turned 20 and had been playing over Led Zeppelin and Clapton records for the previous 6 years or so, so I was over the moon watching the man, Slow Hand ply his craft, absolutely brilliant! There were 18 of us that travelled the 1/2 hr to get to the show, when it was over everybody but myself, my girlfriend, her friend and another couple went to the washroom. And while we waited a young woman came up tp us and asked if we would like backstage passes. I knew what she was saying, but on another level I couldn't really comprehend the concept of me meeting the guy who stole George Harrison's wife!!! He played the solo on, "while my guitar gently weeps.' This kind woman, whom I thought I recognized from the local rock radio station in my home town, so I didn't doubt her sincerity. She handed us these rather large 'backstage pass' stickers that we stuck on our shirts but I was shaking so much my girlfriend how to peel off the back for me. Oh yeah, I guess this is as good a time as any to mention that out of the 5 of us going, I was on a couple hits of some fine double-dipped acid that my buddies would mail back to themselves from whatever US city the Grateful Dead were doing their next show, so I was trippin' pretty hard. We got back into a large reception room and no musicians were there. After about half an hour someone said that none of the band was coming down, so ya gots to go. I'm still sad to this day that I couldn't shake his hand, but on the other hand, as a fellow addict now in recovery, I think Eric may have just gotten sober very recently, so maybe he didn't want to see some kid that was all wired up. Still got the f*ckin' sticker though!!!
