Re: Clapton album recommendations?
Bluemac wrote:Thanks for all your suggestions. The impression I'm getting is that with the odd exception (Journeyman, for example), it is the live albums rather than the studio albums that he has released over the last 40 years that might stand some comparison with his earlier works.
This would suggest that he really built his stellar reputation 40-50 years ago and has been largely trading on that since, without really backing it up with a significant body of modern music of the same quality. Is that fair? Or am I being too hard??
When it comes to really playing guitar, for the most part, he leaves it to the live setting. IMHO, he has some great albums out there. I for one have a real fondness for Reptile, Slowhand, Unplugged, Money & Cigarettes, and even the self-titled release from a couple of years ago that Doyle Bramhall II produced. I think Eric catches a lot of crap because he doesn't play face-melting guitar solos on every song on every album. But they are good albums to me. I love the variety I can get from Eric Clapton. But that's just me. In my opinion, after Cream, he became more focused on making great albums and almost de-emphasizing the guitar in the album setting so he could escape the "guitar god" status and be looked at as a singer, songwriter, interpreter, AND guitar player. Unfortunately, ever since there's been people saying he doesn't have the fire that he used to have. Oh well. That's one opinion. There's still some scorching hot moments on most albums, but they're not every song. For instance, The Shape You're In off Money & Cigarettes contains some killer licks.
I think you make some interesting points here. I think one of the reasons blues and blues/rock guitarists become so popular is because the guitar in many cases IS the song - it is effectively the voice of the song. I think one of the reasons I went off Clapton in the early/mid 70s was because his guitar stopped being the song and started being only a part of the song...if that makes sense.
