[Slowhand] Couple of Comments

[Jon Maclean]

Whilst I don't disagree with anything you have written here, I am just
of the view that you may be expecting too much of the guy. He's 62, he's
performed over 2500 concerts (source: Slowhand Tourography), and has
undoubtedly seen more of life than most of us reading this list. I'm
certainly not saying that gives him an excuse to cruise, but how would
you still manage to develop genuine passion after all that? By the very
nature of performing, certain elements of it must become mechanical to
ensure consistency between shows. And that happens to all of us in life
to some degree. Many of us on the list (and I am surmising here) are
probably middle-aged and coming to terms with the "what have I achieved
in my life" syndrome.
It's not easy maintaining enthusiasm for any long-term job and Eric
cannot be expected to be an exception. I believe Eric tries damn hard to
give the best show he possibly can at each performance. On this past
world tour, 99% of patrons seemed to be happy with what they witnessed.
For the most part Eric still seems to enjoy performing and that
certainly is a blessing to most of us.
Check out the song on Escondido written with John Mayer (Hard To
Thrill). I can certainly relate to it, and obviously Eric does too.

Cheers,
Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: deltanick at aol.com [mailto:deltanick at aol.com] 
Sent: Sunday, 1 April 2007 4:42 PM
To: slowhand at planet-torque.com
Subject: [Slowhand] Couple of Comments


Just a couple of comments related to a couple of recent posts by others:

Selvin's not putting Clapton down, but is criticizing him (Selvin's a 
critic, and writes critiques) for not doing better. As I've written 
before, I still like Clapton, but I've seen him when he's done so much 
better, played so much more passionately. I believe that he's 
shortchanging us; it appears that he's not trying very hard. Many 
others have written here in the Slowhand Digest this past year that EC 
seems to be merely cruising on auto-pilot, mailing in his guitar solos, 
getting others (Bramhall & Trucks) to do the heavy lifting. I think 
they're both fine guitarists. But I want to see and hear Eric Clapton 
play, because he's SO much better, although he usually doesn't show us 
how good he is.
<snip>

Clapton still plays long fairly solos today, such as during "I Shot The 
Sheriff, but he seems to be merely "noodling" 99% of the time, not 
trying very hard at all ... too "balanced," with little passion. I 
don't want to see and hear Clapton play "balanced" music. I want him to 
rock! I want him to play with passion, not balance, to show emotion, 
not restraint. The "balance" is the problem, and causes Clapton to hold 
back! While I still enjoy much of EC's music, I find that he releases 
his crappy stuff ("Back Home") rather than his better music ("Nothing 
But The Blues"). And he's way too self-conscious about his singularly 
unique talent: playing the guitar.

<snip>
On "The Road To Escondido," there's a wonderful guitar solo on track 1, 
"Danger," that is inventive, soaring, and passionate. If Clapton played 
like that a lot more often, I probably wouldn't be typing right now. 
But no, we've got to settle for less than his best. In general, his 
music is good, but it could be SO much better. So, I believe that Joel 
Selvin and I are stating the same: Clapton fails to live up to his 
potential. An incredibly amazing talent, Eric Clapton decides to share 
it with us only once in a while, perhaps only by mistake, when he 
forgets to remain "balanced" and allows his passion to come through.
<snip>

                DeltaNick


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