Haven't laughed this hard in ages

originally posted by Brad Kane:
Absolutely brilliant!
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Brad, next time you see or talk to Marshall Gelb ask him if he understood the lyrics? He was there.
By the way if you lived and participated in the 60s and can remember very much you weren't really there. So everybody lost a few brain cells, no big deal.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Clapton is Dog
originally posted by John Donaghue:
Not lyrical, but don't leave out STSanders...
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Jeez, completely spastic. The most overrated guitarist of all time.
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Dunno about that. Layla (the album). 'Nuff said. I did see him in '94 at the Fillmore Auditorium (the real one, not the ones in other cities that use the name) when he did his all-blues tour. I wasn't more than 20 feet from him. He uncorked a couple of solos that left me dumbfounded.

That being said, he does phone it in much of the time. He also can't *sing* the blues for shit. English white boys who really can (in this case, could)? Peter Green was the best and what a guitar player, too.
 
I always felt that Clapton was at his best playing in the Chicago blues idiom. I am not a guitar player and my experience with the violin extends only so far, but it seems to me that his claim to fame was not technical excellence but rather soulfulness, as in being able to get sounds out of his guitar that evoked real feeling. For sheer virtuosity, I think that most would agree that Jeff Beck has it over Clapton, and certainly he is more accomplished in a jazz-inflected idiom. But, at the end of the day, all must bow down before the sheer genius that is Nigel Tufnel.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by John Donaghue:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Clapton is Dog
Jeez, completely spastic. The most overrated guitarist of all time.
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Haha, you might want to watch it one more time...

(hint)
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Unbelievable, I think so little of Clapton that I actually thought that was him. Too mean. Santana was the giveaway, and there is a Paco de Lucia shred that tests the limits. Wasn't aware of this black humor sub genre.

The guitar tone on Layla is absolutely gorgeous, but there is not a single recorded solo by Clapton, there or anywhere else, that would count among my top 100. But some people just don't record well, and maybe Clapton is one of them (though I haven't seen any live videos that deliver either). Peter Green was great while he lasted; the comeback album was forgettable. From that crowd, I loved Mick Taylor's tone the most, and Beck was, of course, peerless. Jimmy Page was a great band guitarist, but not so much a soloist. The only person who sung worse that Clapton was John Mayall. Ouch.

Since Clapton has a repertoire of five notes, stretching on six (delivered, I agree, with feeling, when not on auto-pilot), Chicago blues suits him best. But I prefer the real thing, or Robben Ford, for "informed" blues playing.

Garcia doesn't need shredding, he's there already (sorry, Joel, still haven't got around to listening to what you recommended).
 
Oswaldo don't forget there's a lot of Duane Allman on the Layla album and clearly distinguishing between them requires paying attention. I think Clapton's best soloing happened onstage with Cream, with additional inspiration having been provided by Owsley or Sandoz. Heroin doesn't seem to work well for guitar players.

Taylor is great but limited to a rather narrow palette. For pure passion and sound if not skill I would offer Pete Townshend, peaking '68-'71 and continuing till '76, again all when onstage. Same with Neil Young and Crazy Horse up to about '96, '97. For mastery of technique and sound, I can't think of anyone who surpasses Frank Zappa, unfortunately his song writing and artistic choices were all over the place over the years.

I saw Clapton at the Fillmore in '94 too, (that was a tough ticket) That setting provided an excellent opportunity to really see him shine in his post Cream style. I don't see how anyone could have failed to be impressed by him on that club tour.

Garcia is in a category of his own. All these guys are distinctive stylists but Garcia drew from so many directions and synthesized a style I find to be less derivative and more inventive and original than most of the others. That, plus he performed nearly nonstop for 30 years and passed through numerous periods
although the first 15 were probably where all the best work happened.
 
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