I have been wrong about Eric Clapton

[dave_mc]

that's only later, though, surely? i mean, some of the things he wore in cream, and did to his hair, could hardly be considered sensible... o_O

[Elliot]

One day, young grebo grasshoppers, you will desire an Armani suit (although for me it would be something Saville Row and 3 piece) and then the ghost of Clapton will laugh at you :)

[_tom_]

Theres nothing wrong with wearing a nice suit, but playing boring (imo) music is what I have a problem with :P

[Philly Q]

You can't really compare him to Hendrix. I think most of this judgment is more on the character than the music. Hendrix was more flamboyant shall we say, an exciting character with a crazy lifestyle. His music was psychedelic and interesting. Whereas i think Clapton gets lumped with being known as a plain dressing sensible blues player.

Go and check out some photos (and music) of Clapton from the Cream period - he had more different hairstyles than I've had hot dinners.  And even though he dresses in a low-key, "sensible" manner, he's more in touch with art and fashion than you might think - those suits he wears on stage are bloody expensive ones, and he has a whole series of Strats custom-painted by ever-so-cred street artists (like the one in the I Shot the Sheriff clip at the top of the thread).

Going back to Tellboy's post, it's true that his music got a lot more low-key (and arguably more dull!) when he switched to Strats and went through the whole Delaney & Bonnie/Derek & the Dominos period, but he was never comfortable with the whole guitar hero, "Clapton is God" thing, and he was making a conscious decision to get away from it.  Plus he was dealing with some pretty serious addictions, as already mentioned!

[Philly Q]

One day, young grebo grasshoppers, you will desire an Armani suit (although for me it would be something Saville Row and 3 piece)

Hasn't happened to me yet, I have to say... 

[Elliot]

Well PhillyQ, I wouldn't mind an Armani suit, but as I wear proper suits for my job (being a lawyer) i'm not sure Armani are cut properly or look right for the English gentleman.  If I had the dosh, it'd be Anderson and Shepherd for me :)

[Philly Q]

I have to wear a suit for work, but I won't pay for more than cheapo Next ones!  :lol:  Still hate the feeling of a collar and tie even after all these years.

[Elliot]

Funny thing about Clapton and Strats, is that when he plays old Beano era stuff he sounds like he's playing the various guitars from that era.

Guess its the old 'in the (slow) hands' vs 'in the pickups argument'

[Crazy_Joe]

Cream is only a smidgen of his career though, he spent most of his career doing solo work and that's what he's most known for imo.

[Johnny Mac]

You can't really compare him to Hendrix. I think most of this judgment is more on the character than the music. Hendrix was more flamboyant shall we say, an exciting character with a crazy lifestyle. His music was psychedelic and interesting. Whereas i think Clapton gets lumped with being known as a plain dressing sensible blues player.

They're both from the same era and were good friends who both greatly admired each others playing.
As Philly said, Clapton, back when he recorded the beano album, (have a listen to the phrasing on it) and with Cream he would have been as flamboyant as you can get. Your totally misunderstanding the bloke, sadly. The 60's revolution didn't come about over nothing, this country was as conservative and uptight as you can possibly imagine and these musicians music and clothing was nothing short of radical.

Also just for his ability to play the guitar, this was written on walls all over London.
That wouldn't happen if he couldn't play.

[Crazy_Joe]

That's all well and good, but i never said he didn't dress flamboyant at one point in his career. i think you're missing the point of our debate. My point is that he is not remembered for his life back in the day and that everyone looks at him as the dull person he became later on in his career.

As i said Cream was only about 2 years of his whole career. That's not enough time span to be remembered as a crazy dressing psychedelic guy. He spent the best part of his career dressing normally and playing the blues. Hendrix spent his whole career like that which is why he gets remembered the way he does (whether or not he would have changed his style later on in his career we will never know but he died before he could)

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

I see your Clapton is God and raise you Clapton is dog!

[Elliot]

Err, Jimi Hendrix's career (excluding the chitlin circuit) only lasted 3 years before the hellhound caught up with him (just when he was deciding to become a jazz guitarist - so let that be a warning to you), so we don't know if Jimi would have donned an Armani suit in the 80s.

[gwEm]

Cream is only a smidgen of his career though, he spent most of his career doing solo work and that's what he's most known for imo.

frankly +1

clapton was wicked in cream and the bluesbreakers, but he IS more known as a solo artist.

sometimes he can pull it out of the bag these days (for example the original clip posted), but yeah, my dad listens to him too and i think he does have a boring image. also my dad prefers clapton's solo work strongly to his cream period. not that my family is any sort of indicator of general clapton opinion, however when i was still living at home i recall several times my old man would try to stick on a bit of clapton and my mum would turn it off saying he looked like an old tramp now and preferred his psychedelic era.

tonewise, i do like claptons bluesbreaker, cream and blackie era tones.

edit:
i'd love to see clapton again with one of his gibson classics, and hes played many memorable ones:
50s les paul
the fool SG
firebird
es-355
'clapton cut' explorer

wouldn't that be great

i suppose his arty painted strats are attempting to hint at the psychedelic past of his fool SG. i don't think it quite works.

[Philly Q]

Err, Jimi Hendrix's career (excluding the chitlin circuit) only lasted 3 years before the hellhound caught up with him (just when he was deciding to become a jazz guitarist - so let that be a warning to you), so we don't know if Jimi would have donned an Armani suit in the 80s.

According to some.  From what I've read, it seems that everyone who knew Hendrix has their own version of what he was going to do next - he was going to clean up and go back to working with Chas Chandler, he was going back to the Experience, he was going to do jazz, he was going to move more into soul/blues....

In effect, they all imposed their own wishes onto the "future Hendrix" who was destined never to exist.  Or maybe Jimi himself was very good at telling people what he thought they wanted to hear.