Eric Clapton. To many he is a hero, and to others, he's "that guy dressed in Armani who's music got boring but apparently everyone loved him".
O.k, so the debate rages on and on. Many of today's younger guitarists (not all of them sadly) appreciate the brilliance (don't argue with me over this) of Page, Hendrix, Young and Slash, as well as many old timers (yes I know Slash is still going strong, but record 1 for him was 1987). However, barely any have heard of Cream or The Yardbirds, two of the most influential bands of all time.
Eric Clapton's mainstream guitar career began with
The Yardbirds in 1963. Heavily influenced by great blues players such as
B.B. King and
Robert Johnson,
Clapton quickly began to develop his technique and sound.
The Yardbirds, whilst unknown amongst many youngsters, could be described as the most influential rock band ever after maybe
Elvis Presly and
Chuck Berry. The band eventually became the starting block for the careers of
Jeff Beck and
Jimmy Page as well as
Clapton, and many may know that
Led Zeppelins original name in 1968 was
The New Yardbirds untill a suggestion was made by
The Who's
Keith Moon.
Clapton left The Yardbirds after he felt that their musical direction was becoming far too mainstream, steering towards more comercial territory. He left for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. This move made Clapton respectful, as the Yardbirds were a band going places. However Clapton wished to keep playing the blues which he loved so dearly.
Once he joined The Bluesbreakers, Clapton had firmly established his sound. He played a Gibson Les Paul and became one of the first people to use Marshall Stacks. Along with Pete Townsend and Hendrix, Clapton became one of the pioneers of loud distorted sounds.
Clapton released one album with the Bluesbreakers, but then left again to form Cream in the latter part of 1966. This is where Clapton's career really took off. Already a respected and well know guitarist, Cream became known as the worlds first supergroup, consisting of Clapton on guitar, frontman and multi instrumentalist Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker, considered by many to be the greatest drummer of the 60's along with Keith Moon and Led Zep's John Bonham.
Just before the first Cream gig, Clapton had his Les Paul stolen and so switched to ES-335's and SG's, along with the Marshalls. Clapton annoyed many studio engineers by putting all his settings up to 10 on his amp, creating the "Woman Tone" most famously found on the classic, "Sunshine Of Your Love". Clapton also pioneered the use of the Wah pedal. Classics such as "White Room" and "Tales Of Brave Ulysees" so this pioneering techinique.
It was during this time that three words were grafitied onto a London wall:
Clapton Is God
Cream's career was short lived due to the constant disagreements between Bruce and Baker, but during this time Clapton had established himself as one of the greatest guitarists in the world. Clapton also developed several relationships with other great guitarists.
Clapton was famously friends with George Harrison, Jeff Beck and Pete Townsend. The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has the solo played by Clapton, whilsts Harrison played the famous bridge to Cream's "Badge". And then there was Jimi Hendrix.
There is a famous rumour told about what happened outside one of Jimi's first London gigs. Jeff Beck was walking into the club. At the same time, Clapton walked out and made the famous remark, "I think we're in trouble here".
Clapton admired Jimi Hendrix for his skill, creativity and sheer madness, but got angry with him for steeling his "trademark" wah pedal. Thus the two had a love hate relationship up still Hendrix's death in 1970.
After Cream, Clapton's career began to slow down. In 1970 he played in Derek and the Domino's, and wrote "Layla", which some say is the greatest love song of all time, alsthough some thing that Duane Alman actually wrote the famous riff.
Clapton's solo career kept on releasing albums which have included occaisional hits, and his live shows consisted of many Cream songs and Layla. But since 1973 Clapton replaced his Marshall Stacks and Gibson's for "Blackie", his Fender Strat and small Fender combos. Clapton became identified as a bore, and like Paul McCartney, his far from up to scratch solo work overshadowed his hours of genius in the 60's. That being said, Blackie, auctioned last year for charity, became the most expensive guitar ever (forgotton the price sorry).
I said in the description of this article that it would be a summary of the arguements for and against Clapton, but I'll let you decide what arguement's their are out of this history that I have given.
You may have been able to tell that I unlike my fellow school mates, love Clapton's work. I adore Cream and listen to them almost everyday, but please don't take that into acount. Use the comments section to make your own debate and comment on the accuracy of my information.
