Eric Clapton reveals this week of his declining health

"I heard Eric Clapton play and decided to buy a flute."  ~ Ian Anderson  

Rock era is ended long time ago.

Sorry to hear of his declining health. However we are still graced by many great rock guitarists.  

N

Nutty no doubt but not like EC.  

irish_tim - Lol.. Love Ian Anderson. Saw him twice. Gotta tell you this. The funniest moment I ever experienced at a concert to date was during the second time I saw Jethro Tull at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Ian just started into a magnificent flute solo, I was standing in front of the stage and about five rows behind me was this goof ball banging on his tambourine. Ian was really pissed. He stops playing and yells in the microphone.." If you don't stop playing that fu&king tambourine I'm going to jump off this stage and rip your fu&king head off ! ". At that moment a guy standing behind Mr. Tambourine man, grabbed it out of his hands and threw it across the Coliseum. The audience applauded and Ian continued his solo. Your probably aware of Ian's' Smoked Salmon business in Ireland that has become a global success.

Rock era ended for me when I had to get a full-time job...

Beware of the Marshall Stack!

So so sorry to hear that. He’s certainly my favorite guitar player. Wish him the best...

Yeah, Getting old is just no fun.

Clapton is a class act.  When asked one time what it was like to be the greatest guitar player on the planet, he said,"you'd need to ask Prince about that"  Classy.🎸

I'll listen for as long as he is willing to play. Thank you EC

@hifiman5, Wow. Classy, yes. He is the man.

Too bad for Eric. I wish him all the best. Mark Knopfler is the greatest living guitarist according to EC himself and my personal fav. 

@mickeyb, You might like Shangri-La by Mark Knopfler, SACD, import. SQ is class A

Hifiman,

Heard that same quote - but it was asked of Jimmy Hendrix, he supposedly stated ask Jerry Garcia :-)

My favorite Clapton Album is the double CD - Blues

https://www.amazon.com/Eric-Clapton-Blues/dp/B000WTTC9O/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb?ie=UTF8&qid=1517194728&...

Good Listening

Peter 

There are so many really talented players out there--I think any ' the best ----- player' is b.s.  Nothing but opinions.

Clapton needs to live his life one day at a time (like we all should do).  And if that includes playing guitar that's fine, but it's OK if
he wants to put it down (sometimes) and do other things also.  There's always composing, or writing about what it was like when he was a kid listening to Robert Johnson.  He's done some nice stuff
over the years, And I never tire of hearing him play "Crossroads"- a perfect song if there is such a thing.

I thought Rock era was declining until I heard Muse.  Without Rock there would be no Muse,  so its influence is certainly not dead and in my opinion there is so much in the music surrounding 'Rock', its influence will survive despite the 'opposition'... 

I saw him in 1973 and in 2003. It's a great loss to the music world going forward. But on a personal level, his life isn't over. I hope he makes the most of his life moving forward.

His Music will stay forever

A wise investment....Last fall I purchased Cream's "Wheels of Fire" album on a SHM-SACD from Acoustic Sounds. Paid $60.00. A year ago I went to a friends home who purchased the disc for a listen and was absolutely floored. Since SHM is the current standard for the SACD format, the quality of the album is stunning. Richer, fuller, very smooth, and very analog sounding with no digital artifacts whatsoever. Far better than the Mo-FI gold or re-master disc's from the past. The one tragedy I'll never get over when the album was cut by Atlantic in 1968 was how they butchered the track "Crossroads". When Clapton performed that song on stage, it was a very long piece, it was edited down and shortened so they could fit it in on side three due to the length of "Spoonful". We can only imagine what ingenious guitar work we will never hear from the full length version.

I hate to judge before all the facts are in but according to the Official Dynamic Range Database it appears the fairly recent Japanese Led Zeppelin SHM SACDs are horribly compressed. Is no one safe? 😬

The quality would be determined by which master tapes were used from the Zeppelin albums. Physical Graffiti is a terribly engineered album. The song Kashmir has always sounded harsh and cold. Their second album was much better engineered. "Whole Lotta Love" sounds warmer, richer, and more analog sounding. My SHM-SACD of "Wheels of Fire" sounds spectacular. If third generation master tapes were used would probably account for poor sound quality.

Shortened Crossroads.  How idiotic.

They did the same thing on 24 nights with "old love."

Mark Levinson did ongoing testing between standard SACD and single layered SHM-SACD disc and concluded that the SHM-SACD format is superior in sound quality and resolution.

@french_fries 100% right. Everyone has right to retire if needed.

I've always been convinced that Eric Clapton would not be alive today if it wasn't for his son, Conor, falling from the 49th floor window of Claptons condo in March, 1991. What a tragedy. Up to that point Eric was battling ongoing drug problems, and Conor's death hit him as a wake up call resulting in a change of life style and cleaning up his act, causing him to build his drug rehab center in Antigua.

Hah! I remember that one! Anyone else on Eric’s place would be thrown to prison for good (pretty heavy sentence in fact). Neglected toddler is fault of parents and only parents regardless if they’re rock star(s) or not.

Need to be a rock star like Eric Clapton to get away with such problem case, but instead, song Tears In Heaven got him another figures to the wealth level. Ain’t no bad without good isn’t that after all?

Cause and effect makes the world go round and round.

EC...One of the best.

audiozen OP
Mark Levinson did ongoing testing between standard SACD and single layered SHM-SACD disc and concluded that the SHM-SACD format is superior in sound quality and resolution.

>>>>That testing was either before SHM-SACD began to aggressively compress their discs a few years ago or there’s an excellent chance Mark Levinson is stone deaf.

FWIW -
I grew up in the era of "Clapton is God"...maybe only ever with a small ’g’ but, regardless, one heck of a fine guitar player and vocalist who has improved with age like a fine wine. Loved him in Cream; fell out over his initial post-Cream solo recordings. Fell back in love when I watched the 2005 Cream Reunion at The Royal Albert Hall. Anyone who thinks this "power trio" never figured out ensemble playing hasn’t really listened to this concert.  I'm sorry to hear of his age-related health issues.  Getting old ain't for the weak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtWzR5RkB3U

I remember that one   

 
Not sure parents were home.  Wasn't the nanny there?

pops..at the time the accident happened with Conor, there was a small party going on in the condo with about a dozen people present. Talk about reckless responsibility. Eric was just several blocks away at a recording studio, and when he got the news, he darted out of the studio and ran like hell until he got to the condo tower.

What has always amazed me about Clapton, is when he was 15 sneaking into the blues clubs around London, and his obsession with American blues at that age. Also, when he got his first electric guitar at the age of 17, and within 24 months he's rated the number preeminent blues guitarist in England. The fastest rise out of any rock/blues guitarist in history that I'm aware of. What a prodigy. Like Mozart. A natural gift.

Laughing..
if it weren't for hemodyalysis, Clapton nor Keith Richards, would be alive in 2018.

Hey baby better come here quick
This old cocaine is making me sick
Cocaine all around my brain

Cocaine's for horses and it's not for men
Doctor said it kill you but he don't say when
Cocaine all around my brain

One of thee best Rock guitar solos- Crossroads!
Derek and The Dominoes- one of the best Rock albums!

I'm pretty sure the "why don't you ask ______" quotes are mostly lore and untrue (I read a variation on this when Billy Gibbons supposedly was asked the same question and pointed the interviewer to Prince), but regardless losing Clapton will be a true loss.  

+1 on Crossroads having one of the top solos of all time. 

So much great music!  Apparently they were wrong.  Clapton is not God.  But I bet God sure would like to play like him.  It's a shame father time always wins.

layniesdad83
There are so many really talented players out there--I think any ' the best ----- player' is b.s. Nothing but opinions.

Agree. And I'm a guitarist. I never understood the Clapton hype, even in his own time. Now Hendrix on the other hand was revolutionary. IMO, the only other "revolutionary" guitarists were Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Today you can find a thousand unknown guitarists on YouTube who are as good or nearly so, as the best "known" guitarists of today. I know people will say "But today's guitarists are all soulless shredders", but that's far from true. For examples check out the albums Nick Johnston's Remarkably Human, Guthrie Govan's Erotic Cakes and An Evening with John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, or Steve Vai's song For the Love of God.

^^^^geoffkait,that is a Glen Fry/Jackson Brown tune,not Slowhand...
jssmith,Hendrix was NOT revolutionary,Link Wray was using distortion and feedback in rock and roll before Hendrix ever started his first band.Evolutionary,maybe.Revolutionary NO...

@freediver, actually it’s a Dylan song, Cocaine Blues, also Dave Van Runk, Mississippi John Hurt, Johnny Cash and many others. Clapton’s is a different song, Cocaine. Cheers

Yea I know all the way back to the Reverend..I still don't get the connection with Clapton...

The connection was that Cocaine was his drug of choice for some time. Like heroin, it has its downside, assuming you survive it. According to him he had a $16K per week heroin habit way back when, at his peak consumption as it were. 

Not only that.  He gave pioneer blues artist their due and their royalties.

The thread’s subject is his health, not his talent or generosity.

IMHO Clapton was at his best with Cream. I saw them in 1968. 3 supreme masters on one stage. There are many great guitarists who have never reached Mr. Claptons level of fame. I live near DC, which spawned some of the best: Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, (both deceased-seen them both), Link Wray, Tom Principato(still performing). Then there is Larry Carlton, Walter Becker. Many others who never rang the top 40 bell.

Young Clapton was amazing, but old Clapton has been mailing it in fo some years - the slow version of Layla??!!

But his last album, 'I Still Do' proved that he still can. Impressive on vinyl (double 45 rpm).

Have seen him live many times and was glad to see he could still dredge up some of the old fire.

I've been fortunate to have seen Clapton live many times through all stages of his musical career....starting with Cream and still strongly feel his musical journey is truly astonishing. As a musician myself, I view his approach to playing not unlike Miles Davis.....whom I saw a number of times...a true  genius.....though for me, the similarities were in their approach in that it was always equally important when not to play a note....it's not about speed, which too many young guitarists think....but rather making every note count, that's why EC's solo's are so recognizable and memorable,,,..they're integral to the song and not merely about showmanship. Ginger Baker once said, it was always about the music. That's also why why his good friend and fellow guitarist George Harrison, whom I admire enormously as well for his body of work....also had EC play on his signature song....George recognized EC's incredible talent for bringing something special to every song. As others have noted, EC always credits those who came before him and his quite comfortable handing it off to the next generation of great young guitarists.....that speaks volumes about his character.