[Slowhand] Re: Can't Do Anything Wrong

Mon Dec 8 11:47:26 EST 2003

>> I think it's pretty strange to tell [M]r. Clapton to do his best when in
fact he's been one of hardest working musicians of last 40 years. <<

     Nobody's telling "Mr. Clapton" anything. We're having a discussion on
the Internet.

>> It's a miracle this man is still alive. <<

     No it isn't. I think most people born in the UK in 1945 are still alive
today.

>> [T]hese nice fans, who think they know better than our Eric, what he
should do or wear. <<

     I don't care what Clapton wears. I think it's childish, as kids do in
school, to discuss Clapton's clothing. He does what he wants. I like the
music he makes, and I think he's one helluva guitar player, who has
neglected this greatest of his talents.

>> I'd surely have deserted [M]r. Clapton many years ago if he didn't
satisfy my musical tastes. <<

     This is what I did, for some 20+ years, beginning in 1971-1974. Clapton
forgot about me, so I forgot about him. What brought me back to Clapton's
music was "From The Cradle." It was certainly, in the eyes of many, the
highest point of his career since his initital 1971-1974 "retirement."

>> Frankly, I think the EC of today would blow the EC yesteryear off the
stage if he wanted to ... his playing is so much more melodic, eloquent, and
almost universally perfect in execution as compared to the young and often
stoned EC. He just isn't into playing notes for the sake of playing notes
anymore and I, for one, am glad for that. <<

     Okay, let's compare:

     "Hideaway" - 1966 vs. 2003.
     "All Your Love" - 1966 vs. 2003.
     "Have You Heard" - 1966 vs. 2003.
     "Crossroads" - 1968 vs. later versions.

     His playing on all of the later versions, above, is quite a bit less
melodic, less eloquent, and not anything close to perfect. The statement,
above, is ludicrous.

     Consider the below quotes, most of which are from Clapton himself.

                DeltaNick

-----
J. S.: Which group thus far in your career has given you the most
satisfaction musically?

E. C.: Up until now … John Mayall, really. It was very simple, down-to-earth
blues. There was no fooling around, no bantering. We just did very lonely
tours of England, playing little clubs -- very little money, six or seven
nights a week; two, three or four sets -- just playing the blues.

J.S.: Did you think this experience would provide a sort of jumping-off
point for going out and doing your own thing?

E.C: Well, I had that illusion at the time. I played with Mayall for about a
year and a half and then I thought: well, now I can go on to my own thing,
but I was sadly wrong (Jim Szantor, “Rock Roots: An Interview With Eric
Clapton,” "Down Beat," 11 June 1970, p. 14).

-----
Dan Forte: [Discussing magical guitar moments] Did those nights happen more
often when you were a certain age or with a certain band? (Dan Forte,
“Clapton,” Guitar Player, August 1976, p. 74).

Eric Clapton: I think with Mayall’s band, it was always very easy (Dan
Forte, “Clapton,” "Guitar Player," August 1976, pp. 74, 76).

-----
Tommy Vance: Way back in the 60s and in the very early stages of your
career -- prior to Cream, the supergroup of all time in the minds of just
about all rock fans around the world -- which were your most gratifying
periods then? Was it with Mayall?

Eric Clapton: Yeah, doubtless with Mayall, ‘cause we worked hard. We worked
about seven nights a week, sometimes two shows a night in different places
and my chops were probably better than they ever have been. That was really
the peak, I think (Tommy Vance, “The Eric Clapton Special,” Rock Hour, BBC
Radio 1, 20 April 1980).

-----
By 1974, when 461 Ocean Blvd was released, Clapton seemed to have finally
laid his demons to rest. But unfortunately the passion and fire that has
informed his best work with Mayall and Cream were gone as well. Clapton
seemed like he was afraid to approach the flame again, as if letting loose
in concert or on record would set off the whole miserable train of events
that nearly killed him. Eric Clapton, urban guitar hero, died a slow,
lingering death during the preceding years, and was reborn as a laid-back
country bluesman with a gift for intimate little love songs ... The new
Clapton uses his guitar as ornament to traditional song structures (Chris
Douring and Chip Stern, “Eric Clapton: Dead Or Alive?” "International
Musician And Recording World," May 1981, p. 36).

-----
“I went into decline during the ‘70s. I was trying to disappear in a way and
just become anonymous again.

“When you’re in your mid-20s you’ve got something that you lose. If I was a
sportsman I would have retired by now. You’ve just got a certain amount of
dynamism that you lose when you turn 30. You have to accept that otherwise
you’re chasing a dream” (Eric Clapton, as quoted in David Hepworth, “Eric,”
"Q," January 1987, p. 43).

-----
When it is suggested that Clapton’s music is mainstream, he replies, “Oh
yes. Has been for quite a while.”

Does it disappoint him?

“Yes, I think I sold myself a long time ago. I made some kind of deal with
myself to get along, to please people, just to make life easy, I think. It
disturbs me a little to hear myself say that but I have to admit it because
otherwise who am I kidding?” (Eric Clapton, as quoted in David Hepworth,
“Eric,” "Q," January 1987, p. 43).

-----
“‘Hideaway’ isn’t anything like Freddie King’s version, really. I had the
confidence to play my version even then [in 1966], and when I did, and when
I got a reaction, I knew I was doing the right thing” (Eric Clapton, as
quoted in Peter Guralnick, “Eric Clapton At The Passion Threshold,”
"Musician," February 1990, p. 48).

-----
David Hepworth: Do you think you’ve improved as a guitarist as you’ve got
older?

Eric Clapton: Minimally. If you think about the amount of fire and power I
had as a young man, say with John Mayall or Cream, I’m actually coming back
to that style now but the fire may have gone simply because I haven’t got
that youthfulness anymore (David Hepworth, “Dear God: The Importance Of
Being Eric,” "Q," March 1994, p. 87).

-----
Where once Clapton had succumbed to amnesiac loathing of his early work, the
tone now was unashamedly nostalgic … In choosing to spotlight generous
amounts of his past career, Clapton risked inevitable comparisons with his
early technique. There were signs (as he had recognized himself in 1979)
that his ability to play innovative noises, to play a lot of guitar without
sounding fussy, had left him. Unlike a Hendrix, or, closer to home, a Jeff
Beck, he never seemed to be struggling with something volatile and difficult
to handle, risking the possibility that he might fail or, more likely,
gloriously succeed on stage. There was a sameness about his note-by-note
reproductions of original hits. The rough edges once routinely heard in the
Bluesbreakers or Cream had been removed ... In an interview that summer he
admitted, “When you’re in your mid-twenties you’ve got something that you
lose ... If I was a sportsman, I would have retired by now” (Sandford,
"Clapton: Edge Of Darkness," p. 226).

-----
Clapton looks back on his records from the mid-1970s -- after his recovery
from heroin addiction and as he sank into a drinking problem that lasted
into the mid-1980s -- with the same honesty. ‘My attitude was anti-guitar
playing, and I thought I was doing the absolute right thing,’ he says. ‘A
lot of it was wrapped up in my alcoholism. There was denial in the way I was
approaching those records: “One In Every Crowd,” Another Ticket, “Backless.”
I got a lot of flak, and I wouldn’t listen (David Fricke, “Clapton at the
End of the Highway,” "Rolling Stone," 21 June 2001, p. 42).

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