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This may be heresy for many here but there is a new star on the guitar firmament that just may eclipse them all. I've seen, and been entranced by nearly every guitarist talked about here but none have affected me more than Derek Trucks. He does what Lazur rightly describes SRV as having been able to do, play fast and slow with equal ease and conviction. If I were quibbling on the technical aspects of things I might say that Stevie was the better rhythm player (mebbe the best ever) and Derek is a more original stylist. Aw heck! How can you choose? |
Aw heck! How can you choose Well, one is with us (fortunately) and the other isn't (sadly). |
I'd take Jimmy Page over Clapton or Green, even though I like those guys too. Freddie King was the man though. |
Neither. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Then, Clapton. |
certainly not "the best" but some recently discovered young guns for include Chris Whitely, Aynsley Lister (for some too pop but for me enyoyable nevertheless), and Chris Duarte |
Buddy Guy? What a hacker. Ronnie Earl can out play BG with on finger. The original question was Clapton or Green. While Eric had a blues sound to his style, this is not true blues as anyone who studied the blues and plays the guitar knows. Green played more to the original blues masters. T-Bone Walker and players from his era were the blues masters that many guitarists learned from, even Stevie. Stevie brought the blues back to a new audience but even he copied many of has licks from the old blues masters. He was more fluid at playing the blues style then they were and much more exciting. I learned to play the guitar because of Duane and then looked at his roots to discover where he got his chops. He also had great tone and energy to his playing. I cried when he died.
Happy Listening. |
Bigkidz, calling Buddy Guy a "hacker" is a pretty big insult to a man that has been admired by and shared the stage with most of the great Blues guitarists of the past 50 years. I'm even sure Duane and Ronnie Earl who is one of my favorites, and very under appreciated would strongly disagree with your opinion of a living legend. You must be a pretty special guitarist in your own right to hurl such BS around. I understand we all are entitled to our opinions, but perhaps you could expand on your opinion of Buddy? |
I have been fortunate to see some great blues guitarists live. I saw SRV three times and he was a true force of nature when playing live. As good as his albums are, they do not do justice to his power as a player. I saw Buddy Guy in a small club in Northhampton MA, The Iron Horse about a week after SRV died, and it was a very emotional experience. Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson showed up and sat in as well. I bought several rounds of shots for them during the intermission and got Buddy's autograph on a piece of cardboard from a beer case! Buddyis the real deal. I have seen B.B. King several times and was also fortunate enough to see Albert King when he was still alive. I have also seen Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, Robert Cray, Johnny Winter, and many others from when I lived in Chicago.
I would not want to pick one as the best, there are many great blues guitarists, but they are all different and all with their particular strangths. If I was forced into a corner, I would have to go with SRV, but on other days I might go with Buddy Guy. T-Bone Walker is also one of my favorites |
not to start a war but the appeal of clapton mystifies me...imho hes the most overrated of all time. he has technique but no soul and no musicality.
if you want a blues guitarist you have to go with guy or freddy or albert king. and if you want to dig deep and hear someone do things decades before others, give a listen to the otis rush cobra sessions...thats blues guitar.....
duane allman cannot be denied either..... |
Blblues68,
IMHO Buddy Guy has not played a lick that was worth anything. His notes don't send a message to me. Sure he played with a bunch of guitar greats but I never found one of his licks to take a solo anywhere special. Listen to T-Bone who played in one position the entire time he played his solos. That basically means that he was limited to the number of notes he could play but when you listen to his solos, most of the time his licks sound very different even though he is using the same number of notes. Buddy Guy uses the entire guitar and he basically says nothing with his solos, same old crap to my ears. I have been play the guitar for 43 years, own 30 plus guitars. I could hold my own with just about anyone when I played regularly. I can send you a copy if you want to hear what I can do. There are so many better guitarist then Buddy Guy, he just bores me to death. There is always something to learn from another but Ronnie Earl blows Buddy away. Just my opinion.
Kbuzz, ever listen to Clapton doing Nobody knows you when you're down and out or the solo for Bell Bottom blues, or even while my guitar gently weeps? Just a few examples of Clapton playing the blues on a studio recording. In the early years he played da blues, not like the originals mine you, but his way, and it was very effective. He is more of a song writer these days and seems to care less about using the guitar as a voice for him or his emotions. Duane was my all time favorite guitarist but don't forget what Dickie Betts can do with a Les Paul. He has one of the sweetest sounds and is a fantastic blues player and blues rhythm player.
Happy Listening. |
Neither Clapton or Green. This is probably heresy, but I think the best blues guitar playing I have heard in the last ten years has got to be John Mayer on Clapton's Guitar Festival DVD. OMG!!! I don't know who or what he was channeling at that moment, but it is unreal.
I always liked all the King's. Especially Albert. Have to agree that T-Bone Walker has great tone and timing, not only on solos but also on vocals. After a few cold ones, almost anybody playing on 6th Street in Austin sounds pretty good as they do their various Stevie Ray Vaughn extrapolations.
If I had to pick one though, I would have to say Jimi Hendrix because I have never heard anybody else who was at one with their instrument like that dude. |
BigKidz, thank you for your opinion. I think i'll stick with
Hendrix, SRV, Clapton, Page, Beck's and my own. I think their opinions speak volumes more than yours or mine ever will! I do admire most of the guitarists you enjoy I just can't figure out how you can hate a man that has done so much for the Blues and inspired so many greats!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Guy
Eric Clapton said "Buddy Guy was to me what Elvis was for others." Clapton, who's not prone to hyperbole, insisted in a 1985 Musician magazine article that "Buddy Guy is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive...if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit, I guessÂ… He really changed the course of rock and roll blues."
In recognition of Guy's influence on Hendrix's career, the Hendrix family invited Buddy Guy to headline all-star casts at several Jimi Hendrix tribute concerts they organized in recent years, "calling on a legend to celebrate a legend." Jimi Hendrix himself once said that “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” Songs such as "Red House", "Voodoo Chile" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" partly came from the sonic world that Buddy Guy helped to create. According to the Fender Players’ Club: “Almost ten years before Jimi Hendrix would electrify the rock world with his high-voltage voodoo blues, Buddy Guy was shocking juke joint patrons in Baton Rouge with his own brand of high-octane blues. Ironically, when Buddy’s playing technique and flamboyant showmanship were later revealed to crossover audiences in the late Sixties, it was erroneously assumed that he was imitating Hendrix."
Stevie Ray Vaughan once declared that Buddy Guy "plays from a place that I've never heard anyone play." Vaughan continued:
Buddy can go from one end of the spectrum to another. He can play quieter than anybody I've ever heard, or wilder and louder than anybody I've ever heard. I play pretty loud a lot of times, but Buddy's tones are incredibleÂ…he pulls such emotion out of so little volume. Buddy just has this cool feel to everything he does. And when he sings, it's just compounded. Girls fall over and sweat and die! Every once in a while I get the chance to play with Buddy, and he gets me every time, because we could try to go to Mars on guitars but then he'll start singing, sing a couple of lines, and then stick the mike in front of me! What are you gonna do? What is a person gonna do?!
Jeff Beck affirmed:
Geez, you canÂ’t forget Buddy Guy. He transcended blues and started becoming theater. It was high art, kind of like drama theater when he played, you know. He was playing behind his head long before Hendrix. I once saw him throw the guitar up in the air and catch it in the same chord.
Beck recalled the night he and Stevie Ray Vaughan jammed with Guy at Buddy Guy’s Legends club in Chicago: “That was just the most incredible stuff I ever heard in my life. The three of us all jammed and it was so thrilling. That is as close you can come to the heart of the blues.” Image: Jeff Beck with Guy.
According to Jimmy Page: “Buddy Guy is an absolute monster” and “There were a number of albums that everybody got tuned into in the early days. There was one in particular called, I think, American Folk Festival Of The Blues, which featured Buddy Guy—he just astounded everybody.” Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman: “Guitar Legends do not come any better than Buddy Guy. He is feted by his peers and loved by his fans for his ability to make the guitar both talk and cry the blues… Such is Buddy’s mastery of the guitar that there is virtually no guitarist that he cannot imitate.” Guy has opened for the Rolling Stones on numerous tours since the early 1970s. Slash: "Buddy Guy is the perfect combination of R&B and hardcore rock and roll." ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons: "He (Buddy Guy) ain't no trickster. He may appear surprised by his own instant ability but, clearly, he knows what's up." Lonnie Brooks: “Buddy Guy is a master. He’s the bravest guitar player I’ve ever seen on a bandstand. He’ll pull you into his trap and kill you. He owns that bandstand and everyone knows it when Buddy’s up there." Image:Guy performing with the Rolling Stones at the Orpheum Theatre |
Blblues68...Thanks for saving me all the trouble of voicing the same opinion but not doing it as well. Although, to be fair to Bigkidz, Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, Page and Beck could ALL be wrong and he could be right. He did state that he has owned over 30 guitars. |
I saw Dire Straits over two nights at the Greek in Los Feliz in 1984 and Mark played each song, note for note, lick for lick, perfectly. I have been in the live music space for 30 years with 4,000 plus shows and I have never seen anything like it. Never bended a note. I have seen Eric play sloppily on numerous occasions=--very overated in my opinion. |
If you like Stevie Ray check out Jimmy D. Lane. I believe his best album is Long Gone. I can't get enough of this recording. |
Neither: if we didn't have both of them to enjoy this question would be moot, and it is. |
As stated earlier- SRV is the best IMHO- fluid, emotion, technique and never boring.
However, Clapton has some real gems out there, especially in his drug and booze, broken hearted rage for Layla. Nobody knows you..., Have You Ever Loved a woman, Bell Bottom blues.
One of the best all time recorded guitar works, IMHO is Crossroads. Attack and emotion and fluid. Burns it up!!! And Spoonful??? Another one.
Of course, Clapton did Beyond The Cradle- this definitely put him in the realm of greats.
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I never understood the appeal of that generation of technically refined rather timid British guitar players. Give me the raw intensity of Freddie King, Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf's guitarist), or T-Bone Walker anyday. |
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neither.......Muddy Waters, you did say blues guitarist. I think Clapton is more rock. If you really want the blues, give Muddy a try. |
Michael Bloomfield, dead or alive. |
Surprising to find no mention here of Davy Graham. Invented English folk baroque. (John Renbourn, Burt Jansch and others all freely acknowledge this.) Invented jazz blues. Was the first to introduce Indian & Moroccan styles into modern guitar. Intro to "Stairway to Heaven" is a direct ripoff of his "Cry Me a River" (available on YouTube). Playing, no one could touch his tone or fluidity on acoustic guitar.
Never heard of him? Look at your copy of "Sounds of Silence." Remember the guitar solo Paul Simon does on that album? The attribution to "D. Graham" as the writer of the tune is the very same. If you look up Davy's version, you will probably recognize Paul's as a pale imitation. Word is that Davy taught Paul how to play folk, but he could only teach him so much. |
in about 1975 Clapton's band was from Tulsa.
and sometimes they would play around town always with out Clapton.
they had a 70s smooth R@B groove.
but once in the middle of their smoothfest in cut like a knife came the fastest nastiest guitar lead you could ask for - it was Clapton standing back by the drums in the dark facing away.
Clapton had just been released from jail after being arrested for public intoxication and no ID the night before at the Tulsa airport.
i had seen him a few times but never like this- fast like Roy Bucannon but tasty like Albert king.
i seen Winter wear the cape and who i am loyal but Jimi Hendrix takes the cake.
i was fifteen and pushed up to the stage and my hands on the wood felt the vibration from hum between songs from all those big marshals and then i was blasted by the feedback like a giant monster screaming in my face.
jimi was like tiger woods or Michael Jordon with no ridged bones and seemless with the music that was not being played as much as released.
BUT... my 3 choices for recorded blues is
1. john lee hooker live at soledad prison and the track- serves me right to suffer is as dark as is gets.
2.zz top Rhythmeen from 1996 on this Billy Gibbons finally lets it go and he is the alpha .
3."johnny winter And" live.---- great balls of fire.
PLAY LOUD |
Best acoustic blues player David Bromberg |
Neither. I pick Robert Jonson, Tommy Johnson, or Robert Wilkins. |
JEAN CHARTRON and Buddy Guy |
Albert King. The man practically invented the "bending strings" technique. I also 2nd Jimmy D. Lane. Believe Mr. Clapton would agree that Mr. Green is one-up on him.
Use to have the same discussions in grade school. Then our prime choices were Hendrix, Clapton, J. Beck, J. Page. Interesting.
Really difficult to disagree with most of those talents mentioned above, really. |
I consider JJ Cale ten times the bluesman Clapton is...... I just don't get this Clapton Blues god b.s., There are SO many Bluesmen who you can't even star to compare Clapton to.... it's like Calling Diana Krall an incredible Jazz singer. Give me a break. |
I replied to this thread 7 years ago and read the various replies written since then tonight realizing that the thread wound through a myriad of permutations mostly having nothing to do with the original question of the two blues guitarists and no-one else.
Obviously there can be no definitive conclusion. Each of these guitarists have brought their unique best to each their forefronts.
Clapton as an interpreter bar none and Green as a Blues innovator bar none and what do we do with those observations? SRV, Hendrix and all of their brothers (and sisters) have been introduced into this thread but the comparison remains; Green vs Clapton.
Why must there be a best or a winner? Are we not the better, the more musically enriched blueswise for the both of them to have co-existed and developed in their own unique ways?
I lay down tonight to my flawed reproductive system (I am 60 after all) ecstatic in the knowledge and audible estate knowing that I have lived in a time of greatness where I have physically and recordibly heard the works of contemporary genius unfold for the pleasure of those the receptive masses to which I humbly belong. To make scale of 10 choices as to who is superior seems irrelavent at this humble point in my short life.
It would be nice to lay this thread to rest reflecting merely upon the privilege of having so much musical Blues art available to all of us regardless of our individual preferences...
Having personally seen both of these men many times from the time they were in their early twenties until recently, I think the thread question is moot but then that's the personal and worthless opinion of just one musical soul among the millions who have an opinion totally worthwhile and of their own...
rel2 |
Rel2,
Quite an eloquent, poignant, insightful, and even enjoyable response. Thank you.
For me, Green is the better guitarist of the two. |
Even Eric Clapton will tell you he just cobbles together well known riffs to form a cohesive solo and has to think his way through every tune. The blues do not flow through him naturally. I think he called it "patchwork" playing. I like him at times but he is not imho among the best blues players. - Jim |
If you ask the studio guys they'll tell you when Mike Bloomfield was warming up. "Guys would stop playing and watch. Or look for something else to play". Al Kooper |
For me the best blues guitarist ever is Green - and the voice to go with it...this is what I've always answered anyone who ever asked me the general quiz 'Who in your opinion is the best blues artist ever'...I know it's odd - I've been playing guitar for almost 40 years (since I was 6 yo) and my current guitar is a copy of Clapton's psychedelic SG from his Cream days (so, a BIG fan!)...SRV and the likes don't do it for me, sorry...even though BB King is absolutely fantastic and Robert Johnson CERTAINLY demands a honorable mention! (don't hate) and have a FANTASTIC weekend! |
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Albert King, my favorite, taught Clapton. |
I like Guitar Shorty a lot too! |
I don't know who's better but Clapton has produced a lot more stuff over the years to judge by, hasn't he?
If the topic is British Blues guitarists, I'd toss Kim Simmonds into the competition. Not as high brow perhaps as those other two, but a talented guitarist who knows how to serve up a lot of fun blues rock + boogie. |
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Eric Clapton doesn't play blues. There are 50 or 100 blues guitarists better than Clapton -- at blues. Clapton plays blues the way rock guitarists think blues should sound but since he doesn't really feel it, he can't play it convincingly. Blues guitarists respect Clapton's chops as a guitarist but they laugh at the notion that Clapton is considered a blues guitarist by suburban rock fans with bedroom guitars.
Phil |
There was and is no better blues/rock guitarist than Mick Taylor. Just remember that he played his first live concert with the Stones at Hyde Park in London when he was only 17!! This was a hard act for even Robert Johnson to follow. The lead break on "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" has to be the best of all time. Pure Mick Taylor, a true bluesman not an ambitious person but a real artist. |
The best blues guitar player alive has to be IMHO, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters...try it...you'll like it. |
I saw Peter Green live in 1969 with the original Fleetwood Mac. Clapton is far better. The best live guitar performance in history, is Clapton with Cream on the "Wheels of Fire" album recored live in February 1968 at the Winterland Auditorium in San Francisco. The eighteen
minute live track "Spoonful" is Clapton's greatest work. It is a milestone of technique. It is the greatest and most complex spontaneous improvising ever between a bass guitar and a lead guitar, blending a fusion of blues, heavy
metal and hard rock. Clapton was the inventor of hard rock
and heavy metal form. When Hendrix went to England in October 1966, he outright copied Clapton and the Cream, who were the first group in history to form a power trio with two bass drums in the drum kit, double stacking Marshall amps, and Clapton producing the first high powered sound with his Gibson SG. Clapton was the ultimate pioneer that everyone followed. His group the Cream sold 35
million albums in the 29 months they were together. Hendrix
during the same period sold 8 million albums. No one can touch Clapton, he is Beethoven of the guitar. |
Audiozen,
Clapton may be very good but there are plenty who are more fluid on the guitar, including Peter Green. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Clapton is a better song writer than most with a terrific voice, which in addition to his outstanding guitar playing capabilities sets him apart from most.
Cody, By the way, Clapton is NOT God, he's just a quality entertainer. |
Never heard Green but I have a couple of complaints:
No mention of Robert Cray?
And not enough about Robert Johnson!
I didn't think you could talk about blues without mentioning these fellas!
I would cast my vote for BB also (saw him live and it was a beautiful thing)! |
I think Clapton is overrated.There is some very good blues players out there,, |
Other than spending excessive amounts of money on audio equipment, I have been fasinated with the blues for the last 30 years.
If you have never heard of Anson Fundenberg I suggest you check him out.
Fantastic blues guitarist!
Buddy Guy would be high on the list.
I can't even see Clapton from such a high perch as these true bluesmen.
Clapton sliced his bologna thicker than these guys.
Rumor has it, Muddy Waters sliced his bologna so thin it only had 1 side to it! |
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If you are truly a lover of the blues than you know that the artist is just a conduit to the music. So their is no best.
Their may be artist that do this better "for you" than others but that does not make them the best.
Clapton is no doubt a talented guitar player. However, as it has been mentioned he is not really a blues guitarist.
Listen to Son House, R.L. Burnside, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightin Hopkins, T-bone Walker, Elmore James, Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, Blind Willie Johnson, Ship James, Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, Mance Lipscomb, Mississippi John Hurt, Freddie King, Jimmy Dawkins, Albert Collins, Earl Hooker, J.B. Hutto, Luther Allison, Guitar Gabriel, Otis Rush, Junior Kimbrough, and John Lee Hooker to name a few. After listening to them you will realize that Clapton does not play like this.
Does it mean that Clapton is less of a guitar player than those mentioned. Probably not. Is Clapton a better blues guitarist? Probably not.
To show you how opinionated guitarist can be Rolling Stone comprised there list of the best guitarist. I do not agree with this list or for that matter understand how you could rate them as they have different styles. Even so look where Clapton appears. |
