[Slowhand] Whinning discussion

[Greg Hilker]

I've been lurking too long.

I attended the 3rd RAH Cream show and remember thinking: "Man, Eric is working his ass off tonite". Watching the DVD of the EC/SW MSG show, I though the same thing. Heck, on "Glad" his guitar almost sounds like a Sax! He also busted his butt with the Legends at the Montreux Jazz Festival where EC was definitely not in his comfortable confines of the blues most of the time.

And that takes us back to Cream, where EC was the only guitarist. He played his ass off there, too -- because he had to, otherwise they wouldn't have had that full sound that they had.

Which leads me to the discussion about whether EC plays better with other guitarists or alone. For me, he has proven that he can be a workhorse and, for me, he is at his best when he "has" to do that. When he is the only guitarist on the stage, then he can't be lazy and he busts his chops. And he plays at his best then, too.

When he shares the stage with another guitarist, he has the chance to get lazy. Depending on which guitarist he's "competing" with, he will either just lay back the whole time (if the other guy isn't up to par with him), or he will occasionally try to blow the other guy away (if the other guitarist is really good). At any rate, in such situations, EC is more than happy to share the load with the other guy(s) and definitely plays much less inspired.

I absolutely love the EC/SW at MSG DVD/CD! Clapton plays like he did back in the 60's -- EXCELLENT! The whole band is absolutely on. And Clapton, what a wonderful guitarist!

Schoene Gruesse aus Deutschland,
Greg Hilker-Schmele