[Slowhand] Re: My two cents ...

[DeltaNick]

>> He has avoided being the guitar hero, almost pushed it violently away, since Layla. <<


In my opinion, all mention of "guitar hero" denigrates and insults Clapton, and all of us here. "Guitar hero" is a term I would associate with flashy, Spandex-wearing, heavy metal guitarists from the '70s and '80s. Clapton was NEVER one of those. And I don't think too many of us Slowhand Digest subscribers are keen on that type music either. Clapton is an artist, a blues guitarist, NOT a "guitar god" or "guitar hero."


>> And I'd take just about all of his Yardbirds works out of the equation. While it was good, it in no way stood out from anyone else really at that time. <<


Quite the contrary, it stood out from everyone else at the time . in spades. As Tone wrote earlier, compare Clapton's work on Yardbirds singles with everyone else at the time and before. There's simply no comparison.

If you weren't around at the time, it's a bit difficult to understand. There are two great periods of electric guitar: BC and AC ... Before Clapton and After Clapton. Go back and listen to the top guitarists of the period, say, before 1965. They played guitar to a different set of rules, with much different tones, without any sustain. When I wrote that Eric Clapton revolutionized the guitar, it wasn't meaningless words. There's a real difference between guitar before EC began making his statement with the Yardbirds, then John Mayall, and after. With Cream, he popularized his style of guitar worldwide. NOBODY has ever played guitar with that overdriven, sustained tone before. And nobody in the rock generation ever played guitar as well as Clapton, which made him credible to non-rock musicians. The only other well known rock generation guitarist who could approach his level of playing pre-1965 was the American Mike Bloomfield, although he had not yet latched onto Clapton's revolutionary tone. Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green . they were all unknowns, except in their own neighborhoods. Jimmy Page was a studio guitarist, but not yet popular, and he freely gives Clapton credit for revolutionizing the guitar as well. If you grew up after this period, you'd think that this was the way guitar was always played, but it wasn't.

Eric Clapton made the singularly greatest contribution to the world of the electric guitar, and he did it while a member of the Yardbirds and John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers. The Clapton style of playing electric guitar affected the rock world, the blues world, the jazz world, the pop world, and other types of music as well. Jimi Hendrix didn't do it; Eric Clapton DID, and he did it before Hendrix became popular.

The Yardbirds? Yes, just another blues-based rock group, who had some pretty memorable guitarists, including the one who revolutionized the way electric guitar is played, influencing everyone who played electric guitar after the 1964-1965 period. But Clapton? He was light years ahead of everyone else at the time. I've mentioned four tracks: go back and listen to them. Nobody played guitar like that at the time. But don't just take my word, read on.

"Eric Clapton is the most important and influential guitar player that has ever lived, is still living or ever will live. Do yourself a favor, and don't debate me on this. Before Clapton, rock guitar was the Chuck Berry method, modernized by Keith Richards, and the rockabilly sound -- Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins, Cliff Gallup -- popularized by George Harrison. Clapton absorbed that, then introduced the essence of black electric blues -- the power and vocabulary of Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and the three Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddy -- to create an attack that defined the fundamentals of rock & roll lead guitar . Maybe most important of all, he turned the amp up -- to eleven. That alone blew everybody's mind in the mid-Sixties. In the studio, he moved the mike across the room from the amp, which added ambience; everybody else was still close-miking. Then he cranked the fucking thing. Sustain happened; feedback happened. The guitar player suddenly became the most important guy in the band . When he soloed, he wrote wonderful symphonies from classic blues licks in that fantastic tone, with all of the resonance that comes from distortion. You could sing his solos like songs in themselves . The thing is, he had seven years of the most extraordinary, historic guitar playing ever -- and thirty-five years of doing good work. Being the best has got to wear you out. So he pulled back, like Dylan and Lennon did . Anyone who plays lead guitar owes him a debt of gratitude. He wrote the fundamental language, the binary code, that everyone uses to this day in every form of popular music . The day may come, if you're a young rocker, when you'll hear one of Clapton's mellow, contemporary ballads on the radio and think, "What's the big deal? . Put on "Steppin' Out." And bow down" (Little Steven, "The Immortals: The 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time-53) Eric Clapton," "Rolling Stone," 21 April 2005 (#972), p. 52.

Keep in mind that Silvio from "The Sopranos" is the author above. And if you don't believe him, he, Pauly Walnuts, Christopher, and Tony will break your kneecaps, slice you up at Satriale's, and sell you as a hamburger at Silvio's Bada Bing club.

                DeltaNick
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