Eric Clapton reveals this week of his declining health

I’ll accept Mike Bloomfield"s opinion of Clapton:

The Rolling Stone Interview: Mike Bloomfield - Rolling Stone

You were telling me that Eric Clapton was a perfect guitarist. What makes you think that?
His attack is flawless, that’s one of the things. A perfect musician is dedicated. He has ideas, attack, touch, ability to transmit emotion and abillity to transmit his ideas. His ability to transmit his ideas and his emotion logically is kineticism; he can build. Eric does all of these about as well as you can do them. It shows in the area that he plays that his attack is perfect. His tone is vocal; his ideas are superb; he plays almost exclusively blues–all the lines he plays in the Cream are blues lines. He plays nothing but blues; he’s a blues guitarist and he’s taken blues guitar to its ultimate thing. In that field he’s B. B. King cum the Freddie King and Ernie Cahill style of guitar playing. Eric is the master in the world. That is why he is a perfect guitarist. Eric plays in bad taste when he wants to. He can play crappy. But, like, Eric plays almost exclusively perfect.

No one is perfect, of course, I think that Bloomfield is talking about Clapton’s schmaltz when he says Clapton plays in bad taste when he wants to, and Clapton played many concerts that were drunken messes in the 70s and snooze fests in the 80s..

Everyone has the right to like or dislike Clapton, of course, but when people say his playing is junk, there are a lot of really good guitarists who disagree.

Again, if you think Layla is a classic album, give the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s version a listen. I think you’ll like it.

There always comes a time, but still sad to hear. Clapton's music was a mainstay on my Walkman during high school. I had a chance encounter with him in the men's washroom in the KLM Lounge in Schiphol airport about 15-years ago. But before I realized it was EC himself it was already a bit late to get an autograph. 

Without a doubt one of the most significant guitarists in rock & roll history.

-a

A lot of us grew up hearing so many great guitarist's. For me its eons ago now, and in case anyone hasn't noticed those greats are disappearing pretty quickly now.

Yes there are a lot of fantastic new artists, some we'll never even know at all.

I try and play guitar myself, but it still amazes me the dedication to music Clapton must have had. He just oozes the blues.

I only wish modern music listeners could get into it the same way we did. There's no dedication, its all hit or miss, and it has to be quick.

 I wish him all the best.

Thank you, jssmith. My sentiments exactly, particularly regarding the massive disparity between Clapton’s ability and those of Jimi, Chet Atkins, Eddie, Yngwie, Morello, and plenty of others.  Say what you want about Yngwie’s “music”😂 but to put Clapton and Yngwie in the same sentence is ridiculous.  If you want to play the “there’s more to playing guitar than just technical proficiency/virtuosity” game, I don’t see much in the way of creativity or innovation in Clapton’s playing. No more “soulfulness” than the guy at your local tavern this evening.  
Clapton, any way you slice it, is not in Jimi’s galaxy, let alone stratosphere.

Easily the most overrated guitarist in the history of popular music.

I mean, he’s…fine.  Many peers were equally adept at dispensing standard-issue minor-pentatonic licks, and thousands of bar bands over the decades, on any given Saturday night in Anytown, USA, have been as well.

I could offer many speculations as to why this above-average co-opter of blues formula attained the hyper-elevated status he’s enjoyed (and maintained for decades via the perpetuation of the media’s mythologizing his status) but the fact remains that, just because we’ve seen the photograph of a spray painted wall a hundred times, we are grossly overrating this “god” of guitar.

@cfjl1

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.

Great list of guitar players but Gatton, Roy and the others are not really considered by me to be Rock Guitarists.  Clapton could never play like Gatton like most of us cannot.  But to your point there are many great guitar players still playing today.

I do not feel that Eric sold out - hey you get tired of playing your hits songs over and over again.  Enjoy them while you can.  It is also hard to be creative.