[Slowhand] EC in the 70's

[Fabio Dwyer]

I was the one who brought this subject of EC' playing in the 70's being so 
poor.
Let's make some things clear about my statement:

1) They were based on every official recording and many bootlegs of this 
period I've been listening through the last 15 years. I was born in 76' and 
didn't catch any of his gigs personally; at this thime EC came to Brazil 
only as a tourist, he didn't play here till 90'. So, there weren't any 
"emotional" reactions involved, like good memories of a great chick dating 
with me at the sound of WT. Just what I heard on cds. I can't see how that 
band, only competent but never brilliant, and a junkie (at the time, of 
course) bandleader could be better than the now mature musician we have. 
What are the odds to catch a good EC concert at that time? Maybe 40 or 50%? 
And how "brilliant" could it be? Something like the FTC Tour average nights?

2) Of course there were some amazing concerts in the 70's, but the kind of 
reasons which resulted in the bad days are something I cannot bear. Thanks 
God an EC seventie's show wasn't my first impression of him, otherwise I'd 
probably wouldn't be his fan. When I pay some money to go to a concert, the 
LEAST I expect is professionalism, and I don't need to spend my money with a 
junkie musician onstage if I can get a decent studio recording of him in a 
good shape. Nowadays, in Clapton's worse night of the tour, you can get one 
of the best line-up in the business following a very good singer, and even 
his auto-pilot playing has more room for guitar playing than most part of 
the modern bands. Eric himself had been making clear this opinion and his 
last interviews and I agree.

3) Dominos era is my favorite EC work, it's in the seventies, but it's very 
apart from the rest of the decade, it has much more to do with the 60's. He 
was having serious drug-problems already, but with the drugs he knew how to 
retire from the public, with the alcohol problems he had to be rushed the 
hospital before he realized it was affecting his work.

4) Everyone has the right to have his opinion (me included!:-), and certain 
periods bring better memories to some people than to the others. I did a 
technichal observation, being a professional musician I know when I see 
someone completely out of conditions to perform onstage, and this was EC 
situation too many times in the 70's, that's why it's not my favorite era in 
his carreer. That's it. Go ahead and flame it!

BTW I loved one post saying that a slowhand-buddy was so wasted as EC, so he 
can't remember many things that happened at EC/Freddie King concert. That 
explains a lot. As someone said: "If you remember those times, you didn't 
live them".

Cheers,
Fabio


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