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I don't get all the adulation. What was impressive about his solo body of work? Heck, even with Derek & The Dominos, Duane Allman played on 75% of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs!
So many other guitarists superior to Clapton, imo.
Obviously music is a matter of opinion, but I tend to agree with you.
Joe Satriani, Stevie Vai, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan - four that come to my mind.
There was a top 100 Rolling Stone guitarist list and Clapton came in at #4. Here's what was said -
It first appeared in 1965, written on the walls of the London subway: "Clapton is God." Eric Patrick Clapton, of Ripley, England — fresh out of his first major band, the Yardbirds, and recently inducted into John Mayall's Bluesbreakers — had just turned twenty and been playing guitar only since he was fifteen. But Clapton was already soloing with the improvisational nerve that has dazzled fans and peers for forty years. In his 1963-65 stint with the Yardbirds, Clapton's nickname was Slowhand, an ironic reference to the velocity of his lead breaks. But Clapton insisted in a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, "I think it's important to say something powerful and keep it economical." Even when he jammed on a tune for more than a quarter-hour with Cream, Clapton soloed with a daggerlike tone and pinpoint attention to melody. The solo albums that followed Layla, his 1970 tour de force with Derek and the Dominos, emphasize his desires as a singer-songwriter. But on the best, like 1974's 46I Ocean Boulevard and 1983's Money and Cigarettes, his solos and flourishes still pack the power that made him "God" in the first place.
He was a great musician, as in guitarist, as he has some good songs, but other than that Clapton was nothing special.
Trust me OP, I have heard your sentiments before, rest assured you are not alone. As already mentioned there were other great guitar players, and I overall do not care for his catalogue.
I think his main contribution was being the first real rock guitarist who had name recognition and who emerged from a band that was not named after him. After that, average rock music listeners knew who the guitar players were in bands, not just the singers. Because of this, many bands became more guitar-driven, rather than solely vocally driven.
I get it - I never liked his solo work but you have to listen to the old stuff,
Clapton was in The Yardbirds, Creme and Derek and the Dominos - Creme was a band that ruled the world of rock for several years and had a ridiculous rep amongst fellow musicians. His reputation was forever in cement after that.
I think nightlysparrow makes a very good point that shouldn't be overlooked. Besides bluesmen this was THE first famous RnR guitarist.
He is a very very good player, but as the article posted by metalmancpa alludes to Clapton, especially the further along in his career he went, was not really about the solo, or showing off his talent. he was more about the big picture of the song.
I also have never been a big fan of most of his work, but he does have such a lengthy catalog, I could easily make a 18-20 song disc that would feature some pretty great songs.
I really like his work with Blind Faith, although HIS song "Presence of the Lord" is my least favorite on the album.
IMO his best work is from the 60s and then that "From the Cradle" album which consisted solely of blues covers. He is a great blues guitarist.
Not that this makes Clapton the "be all and end all," but he did play lead guitar on The Beatles' song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the request of George Harrison.
It was not credited on the White Album.
Harrison wrote the song and loved it, but apparently John Lennon and Paul McCartney were kind of blowing it off.
Harrison was looking for a way to add something extra and wake up his band mates, so he asked Clapton to join the band for that song.
Here's a clip of Harrison and Clapton playing together decades later (1992). Unfortunately, it's audio only with a slideshow instead of live video, but it's still pretty cool:
I don't get all the adulation. What was impressive about his solo body of work? Heck, even with Derek & The Dominos, Duane Allman played on 75% of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs!
So many other guitarists superior to Clapton, imo.
Well, there it is - that 'o' for opinion.
I like Clapton fine but I like many others a lot more. It's not that I'm failing to 'get' anything, I simply have different tastes on a very subjective topic. When one ceases to consider an assessment of a piece of art, or an artist, as some sort of objective statement and instead as the preference that it is, one realizes they're not 'missing' anything and that their preferences merely differ.
PS - Portraying one's preference for X over Y as X being 'superior' to Y misses this reality entirely.
He did good work in Cream and Blind Faith. He was good when he used to play Gibson guitars, but when he switched to Fender guitars, his sound got thin and weak. Overall, he's one of the least impressive of the guitarists to come out of the '60s.
I recall the Derek & The Dominos appearance on the Johnny Cash Show. Carl Perkins sat in with them and Carl's solo blew Clapton off the stage.
Clearly subjective. When it comes to art/artists/guitarists, the key is to remain objective.
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