Eric Clapton: Hero or zero?

stickyfiddle

luscombe said:

Islam is a religion, not a race. So I can't be a racist. Indeed, I have the biggest issue with British people who convert to the Islam faith. Even I recognise that in Pakistan the people have no choice. Islam causes problems in every corner of the world, and we need another crusade to get rid for good.

Ok, I'll start by killing my colleague Omar. Just the other day he bought me a cake because it was Easter. What an intolerant bastard!  

Deijavoo

^^this is the reason we need a large LOL button. 

My good lady wife has a colleague who is Muslim, she brought everyone at work cakes last week just for the sake of it. 

Maybe that's what extremists are forgetting, Islam is not about Fatwas, it's about cake!

xSkarloey

@luscombe I love Islam. The music, the art, the poetry, the tolerance, the humanity. I'm going to convert just to annoy you. Then I'm going to record an album of Eric Clapton covers played on the Oud.

dindude

luscombe said:

Islam is a religion, not a race. So I can't be a racist. Indeed, I have the biggest issue with British people who convert to the Islam faith. Even I recognise that in Pakistan the people have no choice. Islam causes problems in every corner of the world, and we need another crusade to get rid for good.

Could you kindly shut up now, this thread is in MUSIC, if I wanted some small-minded anti-Islam rhetoric I'd poke my head into "speakers corner"

breakstuff

/\ hallelujah!

Karlos

Firmly back on topic;

Claptons neither hero nor zero to me. On one hand I can't listen to 'Badge' enough, ever, It's an fantastic track although whether that's down to George Harrison or not I don't know... then on the other hand I think 'Layla' is one of the whiniest songs ever committed to record. How anyone can make 2 minutes and 48 seconds seem like half an hour of whining guitar never fails to amaze me. 

To say he's one or the other is a bit odd... how you can objectively say anyone that is considered so highly by many to be a zero (in musical terms) I don't know. I guess the trick is not to be objective. 

Deijavoo

Yeah, my hero/zero was a poor choice of wording admittedly. 

Blueingreen

Clapton is a big name because he was a pioneer.  The Beano album and his live performances around that time changed the weather for electric guitar.  For a period in the late 60s through to the mid 70s it was possible to become a household name purely by being a very good blues rock guitarist.  Impossible to know whether that would have happened anyway, but it was Clapton who got the ball rolling.

You could argue that what he was doing was just a variation on what the Kings or Otis Rush were doing, but of course very few people knew of these musicians outside the chitlin circuit in the US.  And you could also argue that with his more extreme levels of sustain with the LP/Marshall combo and (with Cream) willingness to mix blues with pop music and other elements gave him a fair bit of originality.  Without him we wouldn't have had Hendrix, Page, Gilmour etc - at least not in the form we eventually got them.  He provided a template for white guys playing blues rock and proved it could work commercially.

As to the quality of his music, that's a bit problematic.  It's hard to picture it now but there was a point in time when the type of music Eric pioneered (aka the British Blues Boom) was the hip/critical choice and was thought poised to sweep away all the bland, commercialised, inauthentic and sometimes not very well played beat-pop music of the Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys, Stones, Motown, Bacharach etc.  Retrospectively that seems hard to credit - not many folk would think that Eric has a body of work to compare with those stellar names now.  People will still rep for the Beano album, the best of his work with Cream and assorted bits and pieces afterwards but take nostalgia addicts (including younger guitarists nostalgic for a time when guitarists "mattered") out of the equation and you're left with an audience that's so conservative and unadventurous it's hard not to feel it needs woken up with a poke in the arse with a sharp stick.

So my verdict - deservedly a hero not for what he did but by doing it first;  but with a consequent degree of fame out of proportion to the quality of the music he's made.

joneve

Well, I've just read this whole thread and I must admit, I did NOT see that twist coming! 

Anyway - back to Clappers - I'll listen to his stuff and his Cream stuff is no doubt the peak, but "Bad Love" is my absolute favourite Clapton track. It's perfect! And Phil Collins on drums makes it even more awesome!  

Jalapeno

joneve said:

Well, I've just read this whole thread and I must admit, I did NOT see that twist coming! 

Anyway - back to Clappers - I'll listen to his stuff and his Cream stuff is no doubt the peak, but "Bad Love" is my absolute favourite Clapton track. It's perfect! And Phil Collins on drums makes it even more awesome!  

Uh oh - can we get back on to firmer ground ?  Like Islam perchance ? :P

not_the_dj

joneve said:

 "Bad Love" is my absolute favourite Clapton track. It's perfect! And Phil Collins on drums makes it even more awesome!  

Great riff.

I mght have said it in my essay/post early on in this thread but August and Journey Man were the first two "new" Clapton albums I got. A great period for those who have followed the hair styles of Mr Clapton as well ;-)

IanSavage

Deijavoo said:

 

Maybe that's what extremists are forgetting, Islam is not about Fatwas, it's about cake!

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5505796/il_570xN.239460483.jpg