Eric Clapton

[bookslover]

Sad to say, Clapton's new album fits the pattern he's followed for about 30 years now: on "I Still Do", the three blues songs are great, but the rest of the album is pretty sleepy. For a guy who was once the greatest white blues guitarist, it's pretty disappointing.

A good project would be to take all of his studio albums since 1973's "461 Ocean Boulevard" and record just the blues songs from each album on CDs.

 

[johnny]

I am a member of a blues music site and we discuss various blues artists.

I read recently that Eric struggles to play guitar with his medical condition, Here is the article.
It's unlikely he will tour Australia now, so everyone on the music site is quite upset.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...gnosed-with-nerve-damage-20160613-gphk9j.html

 

[Pilgrim]

Sad to say, Clapton's new album fits the pattern he's followed for about 30 years now: on "I Still Do", the three blues songs are great, but the rest of the album is pretty sleepy. For a guy who was once the greatest white blues guitarist, it's pretty disappointing.

A good project would be to take all of his studio albums since 1973's "461 Ocean Boulevard" and record just the blues songs from each album on CDs.

I thought that sort of described practically the entirety of his solo output, iincluding even some of the blues numbers. "From the Cradle" is an exception, but the attempt to replicate the original recordings (other than the singing of course) went a bit too far, in my opinion.

I guess "Slowhand" and maybe a few others are an exception to what you're referring to, Richard. But to me none of his solo output matches "Layla" or what he did with Cream or Mayall.

As far as a Blues CD goes, the closest that I know of to what you're referring to is the 2 disc set entitled "Blues" that was put out by Polygram in 1999. One is a collection of various studio recordings and the other is live. The studio CD is certainly incomplete but contains some otherwise unreleased material.

 

[Yzzy]

I liked "From the Cradle" a lot.

And I really like "Sessions For Robert J", it had some great musicians on it including Doyle Bramhall II and Steve Gadd on drums. Their versions of "If I Had Possession of Judgment Day" and "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" are crazy incendiary!!

And I like Clapton's collaboration with Steve Winwood "Live From Madison Square" cause Winwood is a hottie!!

 

[Gforce9]

Richard,
I have not heard the new Clapton album. As a guitar player myself, I appreciate his contribution to the blues and to music in general as the 6-string has shaped it, even in the hands of Clapton. It is sad to see the deterioration of his abilities. That said, I am not the fan that most guitarists tend toward. I liked some of Journeyman where blues meets pop. I've tended toward a fascination where two (or more) divergent musical philosophies meet. Lennon/McCartney, Perry/Schon, Felder/Frey/Henley,... Everyone of those groups had musical tension and the result was always better than the individual contribution, it seems to me, though manifestly more difficult to stay together....
Eric Clapton and Don Felder stand as two examples of a different type of guitarist, in a very specific way. Clapton represents the "solo artist". Felder represents the "team player". In my opinion, it is much harder to be a team player. I would suggest that Felder is more proficient and technical to begin with, but his strength is to fit in with 3,4, or 10 other people without walking in someone else's sonic space and make the song far better by whatever he plays. Playing in groups myself, every time another instrument/person was added, the job became more challenging. In that case, everyone has to give up something. As much as I appreciate the "solo" guys (Schenker, Vai, even Eddie,...), I'm more respectful of the "team" players.
I'm going to walk away now and play "No Alibi's" followed by something from Baker, Bruce, and Clapton; enjoying the afternoon.....