Say something good about mid-to-late-period Eric Clapton

and "it's in the way that you use it" is of course a fine, bombastic vocal; you have to sort of sonically squint to filter out the idiotic horn jabs but it's a great cut.

Although, I wonder what would have happened if Page joined Cream and Clapton joined Zeppelin.

I think the last Clapton album I heard was Money and Cigarettes, after which he went all Phil Collins and '80s-ish. I should also point out that these were my DAD'S copies I was listening to.

He's oddly handsome.

My entry: I'm sure he showers regularly, and probably smells pretty nice.

That just makes me think he had songs called "Saving Throw Roll On the Twenty Sided Die."

...that 'E.C.' live alb just happens to be smthin' i heard for the one'n'only time (& kinda liked) 'bout twenty years ago; i've no idea what i'd think if i heard it today :-)

2 I was very surprised a couple of months ago reading that the demographic that bought new Rolling Stones records was way different than I assumed, viz:

- my assumption: 40 and 50 somethings whose taste was formed in the 60s and atrophied in the 70's to the point where they weren't much interested in music. They still bought the new albums by their old heroes, then listened to them through an uncritical haze of nostalgia.

- the truth: apparently the records are predominantly bought by a much younger age group, often surpisingly ignorant of the records the band made in the 60's

I wonder if this is equally true of other dadrockers, eg Clapton: that I've assumed their career is entirely dependent on older fans continuing to buy their records whereas they are managing to develop a younger fan base that is completely off the map as far as critics or cultural commentators are concerned.

None of these things intrigue me enough to make me listen to Clapton's music, which always seems irredeemably bland when I hear it. But they are both interesting challenges to my cosy prejudices about who listens to what music and why.

I went into WH Smith's on the way to work this morning, saw it was in, picked it up as usual, and was on my way to the till when I looked at the cover, saw The Twerp Formerly Known As God and thought, "No, I do not need this" and put it back on the shelf.

Hurrah!

I will spend the money saved on, oooh, a copy of Miles Davis, "On the Corner" from Fopp tomorrow.

"I Can't Stand It" is listenable. It's cool at the end where the band does the traditional chilling it down and then bringing it back up, all the while stopping on dimes after each part of the chorus.

If it means August and after it, I'll say that plenty of the songs on August are solid songs. "Bad Influence," "Miss You," "Hung Up on Your Love." If you imagine them without the overproduction that they unfortunately got, I think they're all right. It would be nice to hear them without all the added hoohah.

I will also say that Clapton/Collins/Phillinganes/East was a not-too-shabby rock band.

The acoustic "Layla" is pretty good.

Can't really stomach "Tears in Heaven" or "Change the World" or "My Father's Eyes," though.

1) plays real instruments
2) attempts to sing (a melody! anyone remember what that is?) without the assistance of technology other than amplification.
3) writes their own lyrics or composes their own music
4) songs don't rely heavily on sampling other people's music

I know this is earlier than we're talking about in this thread, but one of my all-time favorite musical performances is Clapton doing "Further On Up the Road" with The Band in The Last Waltz. Gotta love it when Eric's strap comes loose and Robbie picks up the solo without missing a beat.

I also just love to listen to, and even more to watch, the difference in style between Eric and Robbie. With the exception of his fingers playing quite articulately, Clapton barely moves, while Robbie's much more soulfull (in my opinion, and that doesn't mean I dislike Clapton's performance in any way) performance looks like he's doing his best to control a guitar that's trying its' best to escape his grasp! Heh heh heh, I just love that.

Apart from that, I quite like "The Mask (who do you love)"

Clapton is hardly an exemplar of this requirement…he has been dependent on hit doctors for years and years, and only wrote Cream songs…

The spell wore off over the years, however.

I can't stomach his output post-Derek and the Dominos. His guitar playing has lost so much spark over the years, his choice in material is so pedestrian and safe. There's no passion (perhaps you could lay claim to "From The Cradle" having some spark and passion, but the last time I listened to that, it made me run for my Elmore James and Freddie King records - not the desired effect, no doubt).

So I'm having a hard time saying something good.

At least he didn't do an "American Songbook" grab for dollars. That's good, isn't it?

Which Clapton has done in the past.

You'd be happier if you listened to stuff because you enjoyed it, instead of basing it on tangential "criteria" like this, trust me!

-- Konal Doddz (stevem7...), April 20th, 2006.

Ditto. I had that tape when I was in elementary school and listened to Bad Love over and over again on my *Walkman*

3. He is not Mark Knopfler.

Hey, Knopfler wrote some fine songs post-Dire Straits. His latest stuff seems deadly dull, but Golden Heart has a great opening 6 numbers. Pity there are 15 or so songs on it. And Sailing to Philadelphia had good stuff scattered around on it. And unlike Clapton, I don't have the vague urge to cringe whenever I hear him.

In a thread that is devoted to people wracking their brains to come up with a single positive thing to say about a real guitar player, Martin VanBuren comes down on me for basically saying that people are being WAY too judgemental here: "You'd be happier if you listened to stuff because you enjoyed it, instead of basing it on tangential "criteria" like this, trust me! "

Uh, Marty, I was trying to say precisely what you said about me to everyone on their high-horse about Clapton, and that I'm quite happy to give anything that is not in the Britney Spears or 50 Cent (for example... sorry if I don't include every specific no-talent celebrity, so-called musician) category a good listen.

Please explain to me how my preference and openess to listen to almost any musician that actually puts a little work or soul into their art is "tangential". Last I checked, tangential means "Only superficially relevant; divergent: a tangential remark". It seems to me that making the fippant comment that you are making a positive remark about Clapton by claiming he's not Mark Knopfler falls more appropriately under the term "tangential".

My apologies to to the board in-general, and to MVB specifically. It was really early in the morning, and I evidently got up on the wrong side of the bed. ;)

I suspect that you have no idea how much work either Spears or 50 cent have put into "their art." This would be something that you, me and anyone else who has never been around either are not privy to.

"soul": rather a lot of soul in many many recordings I have heard by both.

now…off to listen to some fake guitarists!

I still find it incredibly ironic that anyone can support the efforts of the aforementioned in a thread that is dominated by people claiming that Eric Clapton sucks!

;)

it's amazing that he can make something so dirty and soulful sound so clinically sterile and lifeless

for my 'say something good' - he makes Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" sound even better than it otherwise should

Also - got great sex after playing Wonderful Tonight for someone once. So, I owe Eric respect for that at least.

-Forever Man and She's Waiting are too much fun to be hated
-Unplugged ruled my life for a while in high school
-Can you believe he left the Yardbirds because they were too pop! hah! Funny how things look in retrospect.

I really love those Phil Collins-produced singles.

That song has to be up there on the Top Misunderstood Songs of All Time. IT'S ABOUT A GUY WHO'S TOO FUCKED UP TO GET IT UP.

In any case even if you're correct, that doesn't change the fact that the song provided or enhanced an opportunity to get laid.

It's time to go home now and I've got an aching head,
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light,
I say, "My darling, you were wonderful tonight.
Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight."

maybe it was a bad night or something, but the live thing they showed on pbs was deadly. beyond deadly. like watching corpses watch paint dry.

LOOK INTO MY FATHER'S EYES

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2016/08/13/13-eric.w1152.h766.jpg

http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/eric-clapton-caught-a-massive-salmon-in-iceland.html

LOOK INTO MY FATHER'S EYES

― J0rdan S., Sunday, July 31, 2011

I'll never go broke guessing which boomer tune J0rdan will stan for.

every time i see clapton nowadays the lower half of his face has slid further into george lucas-style wattle and i like to imagine it's karmic justice for being such an unrepentant shithead

The only thing of Clapton's I ever really loved was the Layla riff. Then I found out that Duane Allmann wrote it...

Oh great now I can like that song without feeling guilty. Meanwhile...
OLD TROUT CATCHES FISH

"In this era of Britney Spears and 50 Cent (if I cared about being cool I guess I'd call him "fiddy"), I'm quite happy to listen to anyone that meets at least one of the following criteria:

1) plays real instruments
2) attempts to sing (a melody! anyone remember what that is?) without the assistance of technology other than amplification.
3) writes their own lyrics or composes their own music
4) songs don't rely heavily on sampling other people's music"

Old posts are so quaint, so refreshingly honest and unpolitical

what's a melody, grandpa?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ZUkx_gr0g

Don't know when "mid-period" begins, but I only went to see him at the end of the 70s because Muddy Waters was the opening act(!). Mud killed, from the very first note of his slide, and EC must have known he was a nard act to follow, especially with all the fancy guitar shit and Top 40 hits, but what the hell, he started with "Badge", which also killed. Albert Lee on second guitar, sometimes doing the heavy lifting, but Clapton did a lot more, sometimes I think losing big chunks of the sudience, at least the ones who kept yelling "CoCAINE!" long after he played the damn thing (a friend of mine, DC area baseball fan, suggests they were calling for the vendor, or were vendors---but no, this was after that part of the 70s---maybe?). I enjoyed the whole thing a lot more than expected.
But that was nothing compared to seeing him challenge himself with his own hire, with Robert Cray as foil. Then his kid died, and he lost the new spark. Maybe all the way 'til From The Cradle, which was pretty strong.

Try again

what's a melody, grandpa?

"It's In the Way That You Use It" is a nice tag for Dan Harmon to end an improv with