Out of all the famous musicians I have seen live, Clapton was the only one that was disappointing. Of course, his opening band was Buckwheat Zidago. It's hard to follow that and not look dull!

Wrong EC ;)

Saw him around 79 in Buffalo in that concrete bowl of a stadium...horrible. I think he was as high as the other 50,000 tailgaters. I'd much rather watch him on 16 mm in Farewell Cream at Alberts Hall. Still boring but Ginger Baker makes up for it, (high on heroin). Great band in a somewhat trashy film.

Great thread...so many memories. Magazine? Buzzcocks? Moody Blues? Waiting for Columbus? Thrilling retro variety. How about National Health? Bill Frizzell? For gods sake Joy Division.

edit PIL. The Specials, Sousie and the Banshees, Husker Du, Desmond Decker, Al Green, Rory Gallagher, Brand X, Mahavishna, Chick Corea...what a trip the 60's,70's and 80's gave us. It was all good even when it was bad.

Frank Zappa.

First year in college was culture shock for me. Nobody else seemed to appreciate Parliament, EW&F, Zapp and Roger, Lakeside, Brothers Johnson, etc. It was all Meatloaf mania, Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, Rush (college was practically in Canada), and who could forget Gallagher smashing those horrible Unica-Nitor saddles with that huge sledge hammer?

Always liked the Live Aid rendition of Sultans of Swing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plsMlX-qYP8

Fifty five bucks!? Heck, that's cheap these days. They play here at the local outdoor venue once in a while, along with the other quasi-ressurected bands like the Beach Boys, etc. I saw them back in 1970 or so, and we even had one of their albums in the house. But it was my sister's album. Also saw Vanilla Fudge at the same place, and their warm-up band was…. Led Zep! Those were the days.

+1. While I would never put Frank in my best songwriter list, I would put The Mothers in my favorites list.
I saw them more than any other band in the early to mid 70's. Because they came to town a lot and we loved them.

I really miss Stevie Ray Vaughan.

And Roy Buchanan.

"The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World"

Now there was a guy with soul. Eric Clapton may be considered the best guitarist ever by some…many…I'm with Aaron on this score.
Stevie Ray had more soul in his playing than EC. But then, listening to Clapton's solo on Jack Bruce's We're Going Wrong on the recent Albert Hall reunion, just to name one, there's no doubting Clapton's greatness on the instrument.
But when it comes to "soul" , I'd rather listen to Stevie Ray than Clapton…. or Bob Marley rather than Aretha.

Traffic. Was there anyone with a more sublime voice than Steve Winwood?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN6_PZ_nlgI

Clapton tried to join the Band at one point. He along with many others were in awe of their music.

Thank God he didn't.

I really like both Winwood and Traffic. I'll take Stevie Ray vaughn well over clapton...not because of ability, because the stuff he put out was more listenable.

I know this will be shocking given my dislike of most prog rock, but jethro tull is a guilty pleasure.

How can you not sing along to Brother Love's Travelin' Salvation Show? Off-key at that.....at least in my case. Pack up the babies, grab the old ladies, and everyone go....

"wind up wounded and not even dead"

Not one mention of Buddy Holly or Bo Didley. Both were brilliant song writers. The Everly Brothers as well. As far as lyrics, Prince can be sort of silly, but he can also be brilliant. He's one of the most impressive guys around for my money and he's also one of the few where I look forward to a solo.

Well that’s one man’s opinion, and I am as big a fan of SRV as anyone; I think Clapton’s performance on “Have you ever loved a woman” is as soulful as anything SRV has done.

There are many “unknown or little known guitarist” here’s one…

I used to get the Bo and Buddy beat confused until I actually picked up a guitar and tried to play them. In my early days I thought Not Fade Away and Hey, Bo Diddley were basically the same rhythm. I love Road Runner by Bo.

It was Stevie's Tone. It was a lot more Soulfull/Bluesy than Claptons. Clapton considered himself a Blues player. He wasn't he is a R&R Guitarist and one of the best. But... as far as R&R Guitarists go he was a step behind Jimmy Page.

If you want to know why the Stones sound like they do check out Keith Richards: Under the Influence; I assure you it’s not about Keith’s struggle with his various addictions with the exception of music…


Another good one would be Muscle Shoals…

Yeah, well... I don't think anyone's mentioned the greatest song writer I can think of (for one random metric: wikipedia has a page devoted to each of 130 of his songs).


I don't always require great songwriting, though. Today I'm listening to "Pure Mania" by the Vibrators.

You can debate this all you want, like everything else on here it’s just internet expertise and I get it…it’s fun. But if you asked Page himself he would tell you Clapton was the better player period and Clapton would probably say the opposite because there is no “better”; in Yoda-speak there just is. Clapton has kept himself relevant by being a bit eclectic, forays into J.J. Cale, Bob Marley and such but he was always a student of the blues.

I guess no one else was listening to rockabilly back in the 70's? No mentions of Robert Gordon, Link Wray. We even brought Tex Rubinowitz and the Bad Boys down from DC to perform in our basement. Not great in the songwriting sense, but fun music.

And since we're on the Stones and under the influence, one of my favorite tunes from them:
Dead Flowers