Irish65. Clapton is the ultimate blues guitarist. There was an album out in the sixties called Clapton,Beck,Page.
A cut called "Tribute to Elmore " by Clapton is a blues masterpiece. Good luck finding the album. I was a teen in the sixties and was into Clapton big time. He was hot. He was bigger than Hendrix. Jimi was great with effects and feedback, but he avoided jamming with other guitarists like the plague. Hendrixs' biggest weakness was spontaneous
improvising. When Hendrix went on stage with other guitarist's, he would fly into his own thing and wouldn't
blend in. His intent was to overide to avoid improvising.
Clapton was the Grand Master of improvising. You really need to spend a lot of time to hear the best blues guitar ever, Clapton, and listen to his works between 1965 and 1968. There are many albums of blues work from Clapton from
that time that would knock you out of your sit, but those albums are hard to find. Check out John Mayall and the Blues Breakers with Clapton from the sixties, a masterpiece. Clapton took blues and advanced it to a whole new level, intergrating blues with hard rock themes. Clapton intergrated blues with the structures
of heavy metal and hard rock, which he invented, so it was
an easy ride for Hendrix and others to ride on his coat tails of what he pioneered. |
>>11-16-10: Audiozen
There was an album out in the sixties called Clapton, Beck, Page.<<
No, that's not correct.
The album is called "Guitar Boogie" and was released in 1971 on RCA.
Great album but the total playing time is only 25 minutes. |
I really really truly do not understand how on earth anyone who knows what blues music is could possibly even try to call Clapton a 'bluesman'
He's not even American for gods sakes!
If it weren't for JJ Cale..........
Rocker ? Yes. Bluesman? Sorry, not feeling it here.
I guess it's another one of those Chet Baker-Miles Davis things... I'll never understand. |
I like all of the names mentioned but lets not forgot Stan Webb |
The great thing is that young musicians still like the blues so there will always be more to enjoy - like this talented young man Kenny Wayne Shepherd |
wow.. glad i read this one. objective analysis is impossible. you can not measure art with data, nice parlor room conversation but come on. subjectively everyone here is entitled to their opinion. the blues genre has been interpreted, innovated, hybrydized, reinvented, redefined, and copied for a few hundred years. no one can define who is the best. when? where? what night? what recording? what condition was the audience in? what guitar was being used that night? who was the guitar tech? ha, it is like the famous judge said when he remarked i can,t define obscenity but know it when i see it. to say buddy guy isn,t the best of his generation is absurd. bet muddy waters would pick buddy again but what did he know? ha. it;s like if your football team needed a touchdown to be the best ever would you give the ball to jim brown or walter payton.the answer is either one. i do love these arguments. thanks. buddy guy plays with more energy than anyone i have ever seen or listened to in 50 years. this is why i love him and he can still do it now,,,tonight somewhere so by default he is the best tonight, right?!!! if technique was the criteria i guess i would be listening to van halen or via,,, both boring. give buddy a break. and for my last broadside musicians generally have the worst stereo systems on earth so what do they know about about audio sound quality and reproduction of stereo ? they love playing music. every musician that ever came to my home or store was blown away by the sound i have. so their opinion about musicians has to be taken with a grain of salt. i,m going to be blasted now ha john |
Clapton had great respect for Peter Green. I heard him talk about Peter Green in an interview many years ago. |
We can argue over some of the stuff Clapton has done over the years but his couple of years with Cream were historic. I was at the Winterland concert the weekend Crossroads and Spoonful were recorded at the Fillmore for Wheels of Fire. They remain the finest live blues/rock recordings ever made. The band brought blues/rock to a level that's never really been equaled even by Led Zepplin or any others since. The great Peter Green deserves further discussion but I've run out of space. |
what is the best peter green cd to start with? does he have a retrospective sampler available? would one start with a live or studio selection.? thanks |
Get the Bluesbreaker's "Hard Road" which has Peter Green replacing Clapton on guitar [excellent] or a couple of the first Fleetwood Mac recordings with Green on guitar. All are easily available on CD. The 'middle period" Fleetwood Macs without Green were surprisingly good. You might check them out while your at it. Avoid the later Stevey Nicks based Macs even though the band was hugely popular at the time and even to this day iconic to many ears. |
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i found a anthology with several old fleetwood mac songs. peter green can really play with some emotion. |
I agree with those who feel there is no "Best" blues (or any other idiom) guitarist. For every name I can come up with someone will have one that does it better. Everyone's style is different and what appeals to some might not float your boat. I do feel though that Clapton's style changed over the years and moved away from the blues guitar playing he was so good at early on (with Mayall's Bluesbreakers and others)to a more commercial popular style. His hero early on was Freddie King. These days I happen to like Ainsley Lister, Lightnin Malcolm, Studebaker Bob, Chris Cain, and Guitar Shorty. |
Eric was scheduled to appear on the Late Night show back in its early hey day. His people had phoned my friend, as they were on a search to locate a Fender (tweed) Twin,@ Eric's request to use for that performance.
My friend answered "I do not have that amplifier, but I will give him lessons". Very true!! IMHO, Eric would have learned much. Also true! My friend has long since passed. |
I think it's the first 'Blues Breakers' album. John Mayall with Eric Clapton.
I bought the CD in the early 80s as one of the first I bought.
Album? Sounds like it was recorded in a garage. It has a real nice, rough finish that is authentic. Album dates from Pre-Cream Clapton days. classic. |
Any true blues musician recognizes this as a ridiculous question. There is no "best" blues guitarist. Blues is (are) played for expression, not technique and certainly fretboard pyrotechnics are not a criterion for "best." Expressiveness wins. At any given time a "primitive" player like John Lee Hooker can humiliate a capable player like Clapton. As a guitar player myself, the adulation for Clapton eludes me. He's quite ok, even good. I scarcely listen to him. Obviously capable technically, Clapton just lacks expression. I'm old enough for all of Clapton's recorded output to have been new when I heard it. At no time in his career has he impressed me as unsurpassed. He's always played into a context of many "better" guitarists. Green arguably played closer to Blues but still was not a standard-setter.
Blues isn't about "playing circles around another." when I want to listen to Clapton I listen to Clapton because no one else sounds quite like him. But I don't confuse what he does with a guitar with Blues. It's Blues-influenced and that's fine. But if I want to hear Blues on guitar, give me Joe Callicot, T-Bone Walker, Hubert Sumlin, Albert King, Little Milton, Gatemouth Brown, Luther Tucker, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulson, Elmore James, Guitar Slim, Matt Murphy, Lightnin' Hopkins, Leadbelly, Bloomfield, Hendrix in Blues mode. Certainly Buddy Guy. and if you want a case for Duane Allman, just listen to him on Boz Scaggs' "Loan Me A Dime," 1969. Clapton? Where's the line between Blues and rock? Listen to Hound Dog Taylor on "See Me In The Evening." That will show you Clapton plays Blues like a rock guitar player, not quite competing in Blues expression.
Now we have Bonamassa and Trucks. If they had been Clapton's peers in 1966, I'm not sure we'd be remembering so much about Eric, or even Green.
Phil |
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Just came across this thread. IMHO, the best blues guitarist was........
Jimi Hendrix!! Yes, Hendrix could play the blues, just listen to some of his earlier recordings and see what I mean! |
1- Robert Johnson
2- Eric Clapton |
"MY PERSONAL OPINION".." ERIC CLAPTON IS THE NUMBER ONE ROCK GUITARIST OF ALL TIME". B.B. KING..1987. In August 1968..Eric Clapton's band Cream and their blues album "Wheels of Fire" was number one in sales on the charts in the U.S..no other rock/blues guitarist in the sixties had a number one album..not even Hendrix..during Cream's run from July 1966 to November 1968 they sold fifteen million albums..Hendrix
up until his death in 1970 sold eight million albums..nuff said..Hendrix NEVER HAD A NUMBER ONE ALBUM DURING HIS LIFE TIME..CLAPTON IS KING..which is why the Beatles idolized him and had him play lead guitar on two tracks of the White Album.."While my Guitar Gently Wheeps"..and "Yer Blues"..I saw Hendrix live in Sept. '68 and Clapton twice..in 1970 with Blind Faith and 1978 on his Slow Hand tour..Eric is Beethoven of the guitar..everyone else falls below....The live track on the Wheels of Fire album called "Spoonful" recorded at the Winterland Auditorium in San Francisico in February 1968..is the greatest blues guitar piece of the entire 20th Century and of all time..its a monumental masterpiece..can't touch it.. |
Rolling Stone says it's Jimi Hendrix, so I guess that settles it...lol! |
Between the two, I'll take Peter Green. Both Clapton and Green are blessed with marvelous melodic gifts and both are great when on their game, but....
Both guys run hot and cold, both had big-time drug problems.
Check out Fleetwood Mac's "Man of The World". A friend of mine who has toured profesionally playing rhythm guitar for The Cult for 2 decades put it nicely:
If that playing doesn't reduce you to tears, you have no heart.
Marty |
If clapton plays the blues, what the heck does B.B. King play? Or herbert sumlin, buddy guy , etc........ |
Rok,
Have you seen Clapton in concert over the last decade or so? He basically plays ONLY the blues: straight up, and - more often than not - acoustic. You may (or may not) dig his playing, but the music is every bit as much the blues as anything BB has played. In fact, it's often exactly the same songs. And BB's influence is very much evident in EC's style.
Marty
BTW Fans have been bitching about these shows since "From The Cradle". Personally - when he's having a good night - I like them just about as much as I liked the rock 'n' roll shows that he used to do. |
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Hubert Sumlin. Thanks for the correction. He played guitar in howlin' Wolf's band. He also cut some CDs under his own name. |
If you stick to the original question and compare these two guitarists when both were dedicated blues guitarists in the late 60s, I would like to know any song that Peter did that excels Eric's playing on "Double Crossing Time", and "Have You Heard" while he was with John Mayall, or "Politician" and "Born Under A Bad Sign" during his time with Cream. |
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They don't even sound alike.
So, they're both best, so there! |
They're both the best in the world at what they do.
So are all the other great blues guitarists.... |
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Audiozen hit it right on the head. Eric popularized blues and trancended it in the late 60s. All guitarist, whether blues guitarists or not follow his lead, most especially in acknowleging the guitarists that preceded them. Eric has always been very humble and proud of his mentors. Bad-mouthing Eric because of his musical journies is quite trivial to what he has meant to the "Capture" of blues music as music's most magical moment. "Crossroads" concerts make my point perfectly! |
A related question:
Was Peter Green the best blues guitarist in his own band? That's no shot at Peter Green who is an unquestionably amazing player, but here's a clip of Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer playing "The Sky is Crying":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M530K4lc578&feature=relmfu
A little talent in that band, huh? |
steavie ray vaughn...but if i had to choose...clapton...although i respect P.G.s fleetwood mac... |
Are you kidding???? BB King... the name says it all |
blues...it is simply a state of mind that is sitting along a bilateral flow of energy...green, or not :) |
I have loved the blues since I was a kid and straddled the classic players like T-Bone Walker with the rock-oriented guys like Clapton, Page and Duane Allman when they were at their peak, in the late 60's. (Well, Duane died young, so we'll never know). We owe a debt of gratitude to the rockers for reviving a form that, in all honesty, really wasn't popular here in the States among a broad audience. Yes, I love the Chicago stuff, and the early Delta players as well (list me as a Skip James fan), but I really didn't get turned onto any of these guys until I heard Clapton do Crossroads and Allman do Stormy Monday.
One of the disappointments for me is that younger players, like Bonamassa, move toward a hard rock sound; the last time I saw him, there was barely any blues playing at all. I'd love to know about young emerging players that are not simply imitating their predecessors.
If I had to point to a consummate player of things with strings, it would be David Lindley.
Lately, I've been taken with more countrified players, like Bill Kirchen and eclectic guitarists, like Johnny A.
I'll also give a shout out to a relative unknown, a young guy who plays lead with a band called the Cosmic American Derelicts. They backed Terry Reid in a small club a couple weeks ago, and this young guy was tasty lick, nuance and just the right note every time, not one standard lick or fill all night.
On the other hand, I just saw the Kim Simmonds, Leslie West, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter and Johnny Winter show, and with the exception of Edgar, who was musical as hell, these guys were either well past their prime or playing it by wrote. It was not just uninspired- it was boring.
Final note- Clapton doing Stormy Monday at that Flamingo? gig- riding feedback the whole time. You get why he was considered an 'ultimate' player at that time. Me, I rather hear fewer notes, and more passion and taste. Hard to find. Open to suggestions.
Best, |
I think that the BEST blues Guitarist is very subjective .
I will have to say SRV was the most amazing...to me .
But here are some of my Favorites :
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Albert King
Freddie King
Ronnie Earl
Anson Funderburgh (listen to a song called "Tell Me what i want to hear" , or some of his older stuff, Change in my pocket album is Great)
Kirk Fletcher (relatively new )
Carlos Santana
Robert Cray
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin was very BLUES oriented )
check out Kirk Fletcher or Ronnie Earl if you haven't |
Joe Bonamassa is the best guitarist out there right now in my opinion......watch him play with Clapton in his Albert Hall BluRay and tell me who's better, him or Clapton....... |
+1 for Joe Bonamassa. Best is subjective, but Joe is great, and does not get enough acclaim. |
Bonamassa...now considered the best in the world. |
Bonamassa? You guys need to get out more. |
BB King put it best, "Peter Green is the only player who makes me sweat." In his prime there was none better. Superlative guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, Peter Green had it all |
The Fleetwood Mac tunes "Oh Well" pts 1 and 2 alone provides a nice sampling of PG's abilities as a player and is one of my favorite rock/pop/classical 1-2 punches of all time. It's all there! |
Strange thing about Oh, Well.
You'd have to look long and hard to find two guitarists with more divergent styles than Peter Green and Lindsey Buckingham. In concert, Buckingham (duetting with Neal Heywood) often plays one Peter Green song - Oh, Well. The song contains an acoustic section that actually snugs up against Buckinham's style. (Check out Family Man to see what I mean.) AFAIK it is the only piece in Green's catalog that does so, so the choice of Oh, Well might seem like a natural for Buckingham to cover live. But he never plays that acoustic part of the song. Always thought that was a little strange. |
