Eric Clapton

You reek of elephant poop.

 

Have we ever taken the same side in a divisive argument on this board?

 

Yeah, but Jann Wenner is thin & effeminate.

His list, therefor, is skewed.

 

Beck is on another plane.

Page works from a much broader creative palette than Clapton. No doubt.
With few exceptions, Clapton is working from a much limited palette.
That doesn't make him the lesser player.

If I write very good books in English and Spanish, does that make me a better writer than Shakespeare, who only wrote in one language?

 

I didn't say that, but since people were comparing Clapton and Page (I brought up Beck,another Yardbirds guitarist who is pretty adept at the blues thing too), I thought I would note that they have veered far, far away from their original sound while Clapton hasn't strayed too far. Yeah, still a very good player - when he wants to be.

 

From his Derek & the Dominoes days during a US TV appearance:

 

Beck hasn't had the kind of mainstream appeal, but the guy is a phenomenal player. He's one of the guys I would consider for greatest player.

 

Understood. They're all great players.
Page is a great player, but I think his best attributes are composition and production.
Beck is the best player of the three former Yardbirds leads. Just a phenomenal musician.
Clapton has stayed within in the smallest box. Even the Cream stuff, which was so experimental at the time, was so much more rock/blues based than some of the fusion stuff Beck was doing less than a decade later.

I think all three are great players. I just thought it was laughable that people were kicking sand on Clapton one the first page of the thread.
I can understand someone not enjoying his music - different tastes, but the guy is a great, great player.
Even at 67.

 

It was during a (thankfully) brief period in the 80s when Lynne was a highly in-demand producer. As Versatile said, he was a very good producer, but he made EVERYONE sound like E.L.O.

 

Technically, I'm not sure anyone has been more difficult to play than Eddie Van Halen. Beck is definitely up there.

I think EVH and Clapton both get inappropriately dinged for simply not producing a more popular catalog as consistently as some of the other greats. They have a lot of stuff that just doesn't appeal. In essence, their musical tastes get in the way of the argument. They are both as talented as any of the others. I've said it before on here, Zeppelin is my favorite band, but Page is no Clapton.

The argument about Clapton breaking up Derek and the Dominoes and Blind Faith is oversimplifying. Those were side projects that happened to produce albums. Essentially starting out as Clapton jamming with some friends and eventually they'd decide to make it quasi-official and record an album. Pretty much easy come, easy go. Except with the Dominoes it wasn't easy go, as Clapton became depressed over Allman's death and drowned his depression in heroin.

Yes, he's been difficult to deal with throughout his life, egotistical, maybe even a bit of a megalomaniac thanks to the whole "Clapton is God" meme. But the guy could shred when he wanted to (and especially when he was stoned).

I've got no problem with anyone saying Beck is better than Clapton, but it's not by much.

 

Need to add, an argument could be made he was the least talented of the three sharing lead vocals on the song.