[Slowhand] Clapton bashing

[POLLET Eddy]

Hi all,

Just a remark in this discussion : there's a huge difference between being
critical about someone and being critical about what someone is doing . All
people on this list like some aspect of EC's music, but not necessarily all
people like everything he has ever done or does nowadays . In the same way,
liking some of his music, doesn't mean you have to sign a contact with your
own blood saying that EC as a person is perfect, that he always made the
right choices, and that you'll always agree for 100 % with what he does .

EC having played about any musical style one can imagine, liking everything
he has done, would imply that one likes all those styles to the same extent
. Well ... I'm not like that :-) ... I like the blues and some of the harder
work, but I don't care very much for bossa-nova style music or adult
contemporary music (or whatever it may be called) . This means that I prefer
the EC of the NBTB-tour to the EC of the Reptile era ... but I have to admit
that even the EC of the Reptile era still does a great job and that his
playing surely adds something to that kind of music, though I would prefer
him doing what he did in his younger days . Otoh, I don't think I would
still like his playing to the same extent as I do, if he had played in that
way for 40 years, or, more precisely, I don't think he could have without
repeating himself ... I already think it's a small miracle that he succeeds
in playing everytime a different solo (except for the one on WT, but I guess
he only plays that because he feels obliged to) in songs he has performed
thousands of times .

As for his "laziness" ... he has said it several times over the years that
he finds himself lazy ... which doesn't necessarily means that he is . If
there are any psychologists on this list, they'll agree with me that someone
with EC's history as a child, has to have several issues with attachments
and obsessions, and is bound to be a perfectionist . And for a real
perfectionist, exercising only 16 hours per day, might be considered a form
of laziness, since there are 24 hours in that day . Another characteristic
of a perfectionist is that he's very much afraid of failure (to his eyes at
least, and that's the only criterium he'll accept), so it is possible that
EC will change music and musical style everytime he considers he has done
something good : if he does better, that would mean that his older work
wasn't that good, and if he doesn't do better ... well ... it's a failure .
The solution then is to start doing something else, and to start all over
again with something new .

Anyway, the interesting thing in this discussion is not the outcome, but the
discussion itself, and the arguments used .

Eddy