Eric Clapton’s music “mediocre”?

[Beedster]

16 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said:

I wonder what Phoebe Whosit will be doing 50 years hence.

Which is of course the key point here. I imagine in about 18 months time she'll be cancelled when her mutterings about Clapton are scrutinised in the context of the emergent 'Ageing Rock Stars Feelings Matter' movement 

[oldslapper]

35 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

So much knowledge of model railways on this thread i've now started a Model Railways thread in OFF TOPICS.

Save us derailing @Baxlin's thread.

Dave

Pardon me sir, isn’t this the “Cantona and Choochoo” thread? 
 

[dmccombe7]

2 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

Pardon me sir, isn’t this the “Cantona and Choochoo” thread? 
 

I don't know who Cantona is. I believe he's a footballer but living in Scotland we have no knowledge or experience of good players .............. IMHO of course

Dave

[Baxlin]

4 hours ago, Grangur said:

Something we BCers are possibly failing to see here is, this woman whose name escapes me, moves in different circles to us. We've been considering Clapton's history of recorded work. She may, of course, be talking about his current style of playing in concert performances.

After 50 odd years of playing, yes, maybe he is less innovative and exciting. But then what people book Clapton for is to see the old stuff.

Maybe he is less innovative and exciting nowadays, but that doesn’t necessarily make his playing mediocre.

And I agree, audiences tend to go to concerts by ‘maturer’ artists to hear the old stuff anyway.  eg, Barbara Dickson is one of my favourite female singers, but I went to one concert where she had a very small band, and hardly played any from her well-known catalogue , instead concentrated on traditional folk stuff, with weird bagpipes and the like.  Quite disappointing.

[Mickeyboro]

40 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

 traditional folk stuff, with weird bagpipes and the like..

Maybe this is just what Eric needs...

[skankdelvar]

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

I recall a thread on this forum a few years ago in connection with the Beatles. One poster expressed the opinion that they sounded like 'just another '60s pop band'

It's like the woman who opined that Shakespeare is over-rated, his plays being no more than a string of popular quotations.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Like The Beatles, Clapton was of his era and the rest is mostly cashing in. Asking these people to remain edgy and groundbreaking for 50 years - or even 20 years - is a bit rich; popular music isn't supposed to work like that IMHO.

Some people manage it. Neil Young for one...

[Bassfinger]

So a never-was is accusing Clapton of being a has-been?

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Bassfinger

[PaulWarning]

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

 

Like The Beatles, Clapton was of his era and the rest is mostly cashing in. Asking these people to remain edgy and groundbreaking for 50 years - or even 20 years - is a bit rich; popular music isn't supposed to work like that IMHO. I wonder what Phoebe Whosit will be doing 50 years hence.

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's, who knows what they would have achieved if they'd stayed together?

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some people manage it. Neil Young for one...

Springsteen has also done some of his better music in the second half of his career. I think there's a fine line between edgy, best and out there however. Neil Young perhaps still has an edge, Springsteen perhaps great music but not edgy, Tom Waits has just gone out there

Clapton's an odd one, up against the blues guitarists that he 'borrowed' heavily from, would people have described Muddy Waters, BB King etc as mediocre or no longer relevant when they were at the same stage of life as Clapton? I know what I think

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, PaulWarning said:

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's, who knows what they would have achieved if they'd stayed together?

Lengthy jail terms for murder, at least the two surviving members would have done

[PaulWarning]

27 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Lengthy jail terms for murder, at least the two surviving members would have done

with loads of bands the sum of the parts is far more then the value of the individual members, I agree that Macca has achieved very little since the 70's and Lennon and Harrison's solo work was patchy at best ( Ringo has done ok for someone who couldn't really sing or write songs 😊), in that respect they are like Clapton

Edited August 21, 2020 by PaulWarning

[Huge Hands]

36 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's, who knows what they would have achieved if they'd stayed together?

Surely you could argue the same of Yardbirds with Eric, John Mayall with Eric, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and The Dominoes etc etc.....? 

[PaulWarning]

6 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

Surely you could argue the same of Yardbirds with Eric, John Mayall with Eric, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and The Dominoes etc etc.....? 

I may have answered that in the previous post

[taunton-hobbit]

17 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

( Ringo has done ok for someone who couldn't really sing or write songs 😊)

Is he still doing Thomas The Tank? - He could join the model railway thread -

😎

[Beedster]

13 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

Is he still doing Thomas The Tank? - He could join the model railway thread -

😎

Post of the day

[GuyR]

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's, who knows what they would have achieved if they'd stayed together?

Mediocrity?

[leftybassman392]

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's...

I know; I was there. 

Serious point; with due respect, the point you’re suggesting is not quite the point I was making. The key phrase in my previous post was’... of their era...’. 

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some people manage it. Neil Young for one...

[odysseus]

Never saw the appeal in EC. Other people do. Fair play. I always thought Jeff Beck was head and shoulders above him. One man's opinion and all that.... 

[Dan Dare]

Really, all pop music is "mediocre". It may be well, even brilliantly played, but it's a fashion product that, with a few exceptions, dates quickly and ages badly. I'm OK with that. It's the soundtrack to our lives (cliche, I know) and we and our lives are all different. I still like stuff I listened to back in the days when my face left its imprint in the pillow, rather than the other way round, but I don't care whether others like it or not..

[Beedster]

4 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Ouch

[Beedster]

6 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

the Beatles aren't like Clapton at all, they broke up at the end of the 60's, who knows what they would have achieved if they'd stayed together?

Clapton had also largely broken up by the end of the 60’s

[Beedster]

23 hours ago, Beedster said:

This 

 

Reason I posted this is that, to my mind, not only is Clapton’s vocal delivery bland as hell, but Robertson’s guitar playing sounds so much more alive (overdubs acknowledged). And this was 45 years ago

[casapete]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

Reason I posted this is that, to my mind, not only is Clapton’s vocal delivery bland as hell, but Robertson’s guitar playing sounds so much more alive (overdubs acknowledged). And this was 45 years ago

Eric’s appearance in ‘The Last Waltz’ wasn’t startling I have to agree, although it’s not helped by his guitar strap coming loose ( just after 1 min in the video). You can see it doubled over from the beginning, so it was inevitable! He was also fighting his demons around this time - possibly off the heroin but replacing it with alcohol I think. Robbie did cover for him very well, but think EC managed to pull it back a bit before the end. Mind you, he counted it in fast so that didn’t help either...😄

Edited August 21, 2020 by casapete