Overated heroes
Ive been listening to Toumani Diabates 'Mande Variations' a lot recently which sent me back to listen to Djelimady Tounkara, some old Ali Farka Toure, The African Virtuoses ( a brilliant album of extended acoustic guitar instrumental improvisations) and marvelling at their dexterity, skill and imagination. Then with the ipod on shuffle and old Eric Clapton track came up and in comparison it seemed so dull, lifeless and ham fisted, leaving me wondering how we ever came to proclaim 'Clapton is God". I know that as teenagers back in the 60's we hadn't heard that many great guitarists, so at the time it was understandable, but with hindsight it seems clear to me that Clapton was never anymore than a Freddie King copyist who turned the amp up to 11 with Cream then lacked the imagination and skill (that Hendrix had in abundance) to take his playing any further. I then dug out Jeff Becks great'You Had It Coming' CD from 2000 and thought Clapton simply isn't capable of the kind of energy or insight that would allow him to reinvigorate his music with an approach that would lift it above the mundane. Isn't it time to revise opinions on some of the 'greats' who've made lucrative careers out of not actually being very good at all!
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Wonderful Tonight...
...is the single most rubbish record ever made. Until Tears in Heaven obviously. I know it's got a tragic story behind it, but that surely makes the fact that it's about as musically credible as a Pan Pipe Moods cassette bought from a Moto service station even more unforgiveable.
Yeah, but no, but
Surely the joy is discovering him as the launchpad to wider, greater pleasures. Maybe in the dim dark days of yore, Clapton WAS god, cos there were then precious few other (guitar) heroes to compare. Either because of ignorance as to the source material or being landlocked in the western white rock model. So you should thank him, for allowing you to later discover better elsewhere. Imagine if he were still the only one for you.
And, I'm sorry, he has produced some good songs and good collections of songs over the years. He can sing appropriately well for his material and can play at least extremely competently. So current product is mulchy slush, but from Badge, thru' Layla and assorted, 461 Ocean, even later stuff, there's a lot of diamonds. So what if he has surrounded himself with cracking sidesmen, isn't part of the deal to make what you have look as good as possible. Good job, well done, I say.
It's all about context!
You have to remember that Clapton was only "GOD" for a short preiod between 1966 (when the John Mayall's Blues Breakers album came out) and around 1968 when Cream split up and Hendrix burst onto the English music scene. If yo uwant to understand why you really need to understand the context of the time.
Here's a little experiment. 1) Download the following "best-of" albums onto your iPod... Herman's Hermits, Freddie and the Dreamers, Fabian, Jim Reeves, Alma Cogan, Ken Dodd's songs, Des O'Connor, Aker Bilk, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Helen Shapiro. 2) Listen to them (and them ONLY) on shuffle for a week... constantly... non-stop... No other music may be listened to during this period. This will help immerse you in the mainstream musical context of the times. 3) After one week's listening play in succession the following tracks - John Mayall's Blues Breakers "All Your Love", Cream "Sunshine of your love" "Crossroads" "White Room" and "Badge"
At that point try to deny that, just for that moment, in that context, that Clapton doesn't seem to you to be just a little bit God like!
Of course, even Eric saw his own guitar hero demise coming when he saw Hendrix performing. The famous incident is recounted in many places. This from the BBC website...
' In a particularly over confident gesture Hendrix asked if he could jam with Cream at their gig at Central London Polytechnic. Hendrix took the stage and tore through a version of 'Killing Floor' in double time. Cream soon regretted allowing him to join them. Hendrix's outrageous stage antics and dazzling guitar playing caused Clapton to leave the stage in a state of shock. He asked Chas Chandler afterwards "Is he always that f***ing good?" '
Certainly Clapton has produced his share of drivel over the years but he has also produced some great tunes - the 461 Ocean Boulevard and Slowhand albums have some great tracks on them, as has the Cream period. Yes, his playing in the 60s particularly may have been derivative of his Chicago blues heroes, Buddy Guy in particular, but back then barely anyone (beyond the cognosenti) had heard of these black American blues artists.
Like I said, context! In 1966 he really must have seemed like a breath of fresh aid. Now looking back we have the benefit of perspective, context and the later pap which he churned out with which to make an appraisal.
The problem with Clapton...
...is that he HAS recorded more than a fair bit of rubbish.
You don't have to go back as far as Eric
to find heroes who aren't really worthy of the worship. Try 1995 and a certain bunch of copyists from Manchester.
Give Eric his dues...
His stoned diatribes from the stage about repatriation brought about Rock Against Racism and rising in political awareness of the UK's youth.
Bluesbreakers
The Bluesbreakers was and is a fantastic album and stands up to this day amongst the thousands upon thousands of turgid albums released in the supposed blues idiom. If it was all Clapton ever did he would still be admired. I'm not sure he has ever seen himself as God or bigged himself up in any way. There are plenty of other egocentric tossers out there I'd get agitated about before Eric. As for his unfortunate outburst, I agree (and so does he) it was a stupid thing to do - didn't D Bowie do something similar in an equally drug addled state? Now we're really talking overrated.
When did he....
...actually admit it was stupid?
I thought there was still an ongoing concern that he had, never, actually apologised or recanted - rather he had tried (badly and clumsily) to juustify his statements?
I'll be delighted if he has, by the way - just didn't think that was the accepted wisdom.
And although Bowie has made a number of drug-addled uber-human statements that could be interpreted as somewhat fascistic, I understand the 'salute' was more likely to be unfortunate timing of a still photo shot - I am sure I have seen video footage of the same scene where there is no evidence at all of a nazi salute.
You're right about Bluesbreakers, by the way.
David Bowie...
...never made any racist comments to the best of my knowledge. The big furore with Bowie was the alleged Nazi salute at Victoria Station but I've seen some film from that day and I fail to see what the fuss was about. David Buckley in the wonderful 'Strange Fascination' also notes that nobody really mentioned this at the time, either, save one NME headline that proclaimed 'Heil and Goodbye' or some such.
The weirdest Bowie thing I saw from that period was a very odd interview between him and Russell Harty, with Harty asking inane questions and Bowie being just about comprehensible. A waste of a half-hour interview slot, really!