Clapton to retire...

57Deluxe

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noisepolluter

Phil_aka_Pip said:

noisepolluter said:

vasselmeyer said:

blueskunk said:

Tbh he retired when cream broke up

Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos have their moments. Virtually everything from the solo era is forgettable.

I quite like the more acoustic/mellow stuff from the 70's when he was influenced by people like The Band and JJ Cale. Unplugged is really good too.

It's mostly the production on the later stuff that I don't get along with. I wonder what would happened if he'd worked with Rick Rubin?

JJ Cale's music amounted to an insipid pile of 'meh'. Pointless chugging along on the same chord or at least not much that ever amounted to harmonic progression, no real guitar solos that actually go anywhere, guitars being played though amps that sound as if they've been turned down so as not to annoy the neighbours in the next flat instead of being cranked up enough to excite the listener. For a man who a few years previous had been a powerful guitar hero blasting exciting stuff out from a wall of maxed-out stacks to come down to this was a serious disappointment.

I quite like the sparseness and laid-backness of it. I find it very good if I'm on a long journey somewhere. 

GuyBoden

dilbert said:

GuyBoden said:

Like a lot of English/London based electric Blues players of the 1960's, he was in the right place at the right time, there can't have been many good English electric Blues players at that time.

Please tell me that is sarcasm............

No, it's not sarcasm, from my listening perspective I'd listened extensively to BB King, Wes Montgomery and T Bone Walker, so I thought the English Electric Blues guitarists of the 1960's seemed so overrated. They were lucky, right time, right place.

Panama_Jack666

GuyBoden;279766" said:

dilbert said:



GuyBoden said:

Like a lot of English/London based electric Blues players of the 1960's, he was in the right place at the right time, there can't have been many good English electric Blues players at that time.










Please tell me that is sarcasm............





No, it's not sarcasm, from my listening perspective I'd listened extensively to BB King, Wes Montgomery and T Bone Walker, so I thought the English Electric Blues guitarists of the 1960's seemed so overrated. They were lucky, right time, right place.

Peter Green?!

EricTheWeary

GuyBoden said:

dilbert said:

GuyBoden said:

Like a lot of English/London based electric Blues players of the 1960's, he was in the right place at the right time, there can't have been many good English electric Blues players at that time.

Please tell me that is sarcasm............

No, it's not sarcasm, from my listening perspective I'd listened extensively to BB King, Wes Montgomery and T Bone Walker, so I thought the English Electric Blues guitarists of the 1960's seemed so overrated. They were lucky, right time, right place.

if you listen to say the Dave Clarke Five covering John Lee Hooker songs you do start to understand how few people in the UK could do a convincing blues when the boom started and that they 'got it' rather than technical skill is where Clappo et al scored.

GuyBoden

EricTheWeary said:

GuyBoden said:

dilbert said:

GuyBoden said:

Like a lot of English/London based electric Blues players of the 1960's, he was in the right place at the right time, there can't have been many good English electric Blues players at that time.

Please tell me that is sarcasm............

No, it's not sarcasm, from my listening perspective I'd listened extensively to BB King, Wes Montgomery and T Bone Walker, so I thought the English Electric Blues guitarists of the 1960's seemed so overrated. They were lucky, right time, right place.

if you listen to say the Dave Clarke Five covering John Lee Hooker songs you do start to understand how few people in the UK could do a convincing blues when the boom started and that they 'got it' rather than technical skill is where Clappo et al scored.

London in the 1960's must have been a great place, very few average members of the audience would have heard original Blues music, so Clapton etc must have sounded fantastic.

Elx

OK, I'm one of those who don't understand the hype about Clapton. But!!! Thanks to this thread I learned it was him on the Pros and Cons of Hitchiking and not Jeff Beck...Kind of makes sense if you pay attention closely, but I assumed it was Beck as he played on Amused to Death. Now, what can I say....I love his work with Roger Waters!

digitalscream

Danny1969 said:

He had a strop over the monitors a few nights ago in Scotland and stormed off stage. Great player but he's had a good run

To be honest, it sounds like he really isn't enjoying touring at all - if you were constantly miserable with your circumstance and have absolutely no need to do it any more, then something like that goes wrong...I suppose a big "what the f*ck am I doing here?" is kind of understandable. Not good, but understandable.

siraxeman

Fair enough if he wants to retire but he did say this about 10 yrs ago. ..... maybe rthis time he means it?

lento

jeztone2 said:

I love the Pro s & Cons, that & The Edge Of Darkness TV theme were my later favourites

.....talking of which, BBC4 are repeating the original 80's drama tonight @10pm

not_the_dj

lento said:

jeztone2 said:

I love the Pro s & Cons, that & The Edge Of Darkness TV theme were my later favourites

.....talking of which, BBC4 are repeating the original 80's drama tonight @10pm

Excellent. I've never actually seen this.

ESBlonde

The man has worked for many decades and toured extensively. The allure of airports and hotels (even 5 star) diminishes over time. There is nothing like being at home especially if home is a posh house. At 70 we don't ask people to work, many trades and professions cease well before that. He will probably want to retain his hearing and health for as long as possible and doesn't like the idea of embarrassing himself on stage for the sake of others to his detriment.
I make no judgement about the man or his music but it's not like he's retired at 40 still surrounded by millions of expectant fans.
Peace.

luscombe

I've loved a lot of his solo stulff. As iut happens i thought the Cream live performances (although Ive only seen videos) were self indulgent.

richardhomer

luscombe;281686" said:

I've loved a lot of his solo stulff. As iut happens i thought the Cream live performances (although Ive only seen videos) were self indulgent.

EC has said as much in interviews. They embarked of long improvisations due to a lack of material at first - and it sort of became their 'calling card'.

He was drawn to people like Cale and The Band by their very lack of indulgence - he wanted to be more of a group-player than a soloist.

Jalapeno

Good luck to him, he's had a good run, better than most.

kelvinburn

Hes obviously seen the thread slating BB King

Blueingreen

I kind of agree that Clapton was in the right time/right place but it's false argument that he only prospered because white audiences didn't know about black blues musicians.  Fact is the white blues boom guys, derivative as their music was, still sounded different from the black prototypes.  And although most blues enthusiasts would argue the black models were superior, the sound the white guys were making had more commercial appeal to contemporary kids.  In fact "too commercial" was a stick purists regularly picked up to beat the blues boomers with, pointing up the fact that the critics thought they were getting it wrong but the buying public liked it better.

If white audiences didn't know about John Lee Hooker or Champion Jack Dupree or B B King at the start of the blues boom they very quickly did  They were name checked in interviews, lauded by critics, sold in decent volumes on sampler albums, and came on tour.  But mainstream white kids generally decided that most "authentic" blues was harder to enjoy than the kind played by Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Cream, Led Zeppelin etc.

It's nonsense to suggest that if white kids had known about Albert or Freddie King or Otis Rush they wouldn't have been so impressed by Clapton.  They dipped their toe into that stuff because they were told it was cool to like it, but they didn't like it very much.

fretfinder

Without Clapton my band's set list would be significantly depleted. The punters love his stuff and so do I! 

I spoke to him briefly at a charity cricket match a few years ago. I'd taken a giant plectrum with me and said 'could you sign my big pick' and he gave me a slightly funny look, I think he may have misheard me... He signed it but somewhat disappointingly just wrote 'Eric'.

His solo on Holy Mother is little more than one note, but brilliant IMHO.

richardhomer

fretfinder;282239" said:

His solo on Holy Mother is little more than one note, but brilliant IMHO.

The 'Holy Mother' solo is probably my favourite ever Clapton solo. Absolutely 'hairs on the back of your arms' stuff.

In spite of being intensely jealous that you've met him, please accept a 'Wow' for loving the same (relatively) obscure piece of Clapton's playing.

May his hands continue to play!

luscombe

fretfinder said:

Without Clapton my band's set list would be significantly depleted. The punters love his stuff and so do I! 

I spoke to him briefly at a charity cricket match a few years ago. I'd taken a giant plectrum with me and said 'could you sign my big pick' and he gave me a slightly funny look, I think he may have misheard me... He signed it but somewhat disappointingly just wrote 'Eric'.

His solo on Holy Mother is little more than one note, but brilliant IMHO.

I also love that solo. that's why I'm always suprised when so many people dismiss his post Cream work.