Over rated rock stars: Eric Clapton

Yeah, I'm going there...

Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, a common epithet was “Clapton is God”, and it was scrawled as graffiti often.

But was he really?

First, I would like to get the elephant in the room out of the way. I am a player, and no, I am not better than Eric Clapton, far from it. But from the early 60’s the rise of British rock guitarists three stood out. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. All three were wildly influential, and engendered massive followings. Jimmy Page springboarded from The Yardbirds into some killer session work, before forming Led Zeppelin with the session icon John Paul Jones (probably the best musician in Led Zeppelin, don’t @ me on that) and two relatively unknowns that came as a package deal, John Bonham and Robert Plant. The rest is history.

Jeff Beck shifted into Jazz-Fusion, and had an on again, off again career, with several bright spots.

Eric Clapton really saw his fame rise when he was with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. The album was chocked full of delta blues and Chicago Blues Classics. Several Freddie King riffs and tunes.

And it was (and is) good. From there, we saw Cream, where he combined with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. A great band with some towering hits.

Then Clapton went on to Blind Faith and following that a long and storied solo career.

I have a LOT of his music, from all the eras, and it is good. Some of it is GREAT. But is Clapton God?

His playing is good, scratch that, very good, but many of his iconic songs were covers, written by others. He (like many in the budding British rock community in the 1960’s¹) borrowed liberally from a uniquely American genre, the delta blues, songs written and played by black musicians that originated in the Mississippi delta between their toiling in the fields. A combination of Creole music, some African rhythms, and a great melding of styles came together to form music that really gets you in your bones. Typified by Robert Johnson (the song Crossroads was one of his, but Clapton’s version is much more well known.)

So, I will grant that Clapton is a great, influential, and very prolific recording artist.

But, an innovator?

No. In the late 1960’s we saw the rise of a true genius, Jimi Hendrix, a once in a century talent, who pushed the boundaries, blazing the way for future players like Eddie van Halen, and the flood of the shredders of the 80’s.

Rumor has it that after Clapton heard Hendrix play, he chain smoked cigarettes while expressing worries that he wasn’t very talented. Truth was, he couldn’t and can’t hold a candle to Hendrix.

Don’t get me wrong, I would kill to have his talent. But I think he’s way over-rated.

Then there’s the egregious racism.

On several occasions, Clapton (usually on stage, and after the effects of alcohol reduced his inhibitions) has gone full bigot, raging against the “Wogs”, the “other” and railing that the British Government has sold out to the multiculturalism, and that it return to the iron fist rule of the colonial era.

Fact is that is inexcusable, and regardless of how many albums he’s sold, how many grammy’s he’s won, he is still a piece of human garbage.

I still listen to his music², but it is always with that image in my mind of his racism, his cribbing of his key style.

And for that, in my mind, Eric Clapton is way over-rated.

1. Listen to the early Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds to understand this appropriation

2. The irony, many of his songs that I like the most are ones that the incomparable JJ Cale wrote

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