Blues master, rock star and even pop icon. Eric Clapton is one of few guitar players who have earned the respect of preceding guitar legends, while acquiring mainstream fame. The reason is simple: he deserves both. His music has reached millions and revolutionized the face of rock. On the other hand, he’s kept musical integrity and a deep commitment to the blues roots. His talent and devotion to guitar music is an example for everyone to admire.
Eric Clapton’s music is deeply based on the blues, a music genre he continues to honour and that got his interest since early in his life. From his start with the Yardbirds in 1963 to John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1965, he always kept the roots clear. Blues was his main inspiration and he wouldn’t play anything too far from it.
By the time he left the Bluesbreakers in 1966, Eric Clapton already had a solid reputation as a guitar player and had earned international recognition as well. It was time for him to start Cream and take his career even further. Cream raised the bar really high when it came to music execution. Its three members (Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker) were at a technical level above their peers. With Cream, Clapton was free to keep his blues roots and experiment with elements of rock, which marked the powerful style of this trio until its separation in 1968.
Shortly after the end of Cream, Clapton started Blind Faith, with the intention of having a lower profile and have more musical freedom. This project lasted a few months and ended in 1969. He then stayed active, but away from the limelight while preparing for his first solo release: Eric Clapton in 1970.
Shortly after, he started the band Derek and the Dominos, with whom he released the album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" in 1970. This was a very brilliant period in Clapton’s guitar playing (regarded by many people as his best material). The collaborations of Duane Allman in this recording make it one of guitar’s highlights in rock music. Despite their artistic success, the band was shortlived and dissolved.
During the first half of the 1970’s, his career went back to a lower profile, in part due to a substance abuse problem. Then he released albums such as 461 Ocean Bouleveard, There’s One in Every Crowd, No Reason to Cry.
In the 1980’s his career picked up again and with Phil Collins’ collaboration, he released two very successful albums: Behind The Sun and August. Towards the end of the decade in 1989 he released Journeyman, a very polished musical work as well.
Throughout the 1990’s his successful career continued to gain momentum, being the release of Unplugged in 1992 a major success, then followed by From the Craddle in 1994, which is great electric blues work. In 2000, he recorded Riding with the King, which is a blues masterpiece with the great BB King.
In 2004 he released Me and Mr. Johnson, a tribute to legenday bluesman Robert Johnson, who is a central influence in Eric Clapton’s deep commitment to the blues.
With his dedication, integrity and talent, Eric Clapton has earned himself a prime spot in the history of blues and rock. Great guitar players everywhere have been influenced by his music and will continue to do so for many generations.
Guitar Style
Like I mentioned above, Eric Clapton’s source of inspiration lies in the blues. Being raised thousands of miles away from the Mississippi was no obstacle for him to embrace a passion for it. Most blues legends grew up with the blues in their backyards. Clapton had to accept being an adopted child of the blues instead. But while others had the blues in their veins, he had it in his heart. Today, after roughly 40 years of musical career he still has the same passion for the blues roots.
Robert Johnson is arguably Eric Clapton’s main source of inspiration. It is more a spiritual one, as their guitar styles are very different. Clapton never really followed the acoustic path of the blues, nor the traditional school of Robert Johnson’s Mississippi Delta blues. Robert Johnson’s material was long kept in obscurity, until the release in 1961 of the compilation King of the Delta Blues Singers. These works had a deep impact on the British guitar players of the time, including Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and Clapton, among many others. Clapton has recorded several versions of Robert Johnson’s songs, including the mega-hit Crossroads .
Jimi Hendrix is known to have left a deep impression in Eric Clapton’s life. They go back to the days when Jimi was starting his career in England in the mid 1960’s. They admired each other and acknowledged their different styles. However, some accounts mention Clapton -as the perfectionist he is- being sometimes frustrated with what he perceived as Jimi’s superiority. Not sure if it was with the intention of emulating Hendrix, but Eric Clapton even adopted a similar fashion style during these years!
Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton have different styles, but they also have similarities. Rather than having a musical influence on each other, they share musical roots. Clapton found guitar inspiration on artists such as Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, BB King, Freddie King and Buddy Guy.
BB King is a clear influence on Eric Clapton. By the time Clapton was starting his career in the mid 1960’s, BB King was already an institution in the world of blues. Eric Clapton takes BB King’s traditional blues style and sometimes the use of the famous "BB King Box", which became a blues trademark. However, the influence is mostly conceptual as Eric Clapton’s style is more rock oriented and uses more speed, plus a different phrasing approach (his guitar doesn’t try to "talk", the way BB does).
On the other hand,Buddy Guy had a more evident influence on Eric Clapton’s playing. Strongly based on BB King (especially in his early material), Buddy Guy took this traditional electric blues and took it to a different level. Buddy Guy transformed the intensity of the Chicago blues style and his sound is present in Clapton’s sound. The use of a rich, distorted tone was shared by Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton and was essential for the future of rock music in general. Eric Clapton’s phrasing is closer to Buddy Guy than BB King in terms of tempo and aggression too.
While he played with the Bluesbreakers, his style followed a more traditional blues pattern. But during his years with Cream, Eric Clapton didn’t restrain himself in terms of technical performance. His playing while in Cream is rich, daring and powerful; setting the standard for contemporary bands from the British rock scene of the 1960’s (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones among them).
One of the most challenging things about being traditional is finding a unique voice, while still honouring the roots. Pure innovators like Hendrix don’t have to worry about this. They can just take the roots as a reference and then add as much personal elements as they wish. But Clapton is not a natural innovator; he is rather a conservative guitar player. Nevertheless, he still managed to find his own voice. It doesn’t take long to listen to Clapton’s material and recognize his guitar playing.
His left hand approach is very dynamic. He often ventures into the highest section of the fretboard in a very natural way. When he does this, he likes to use fast repetitive patterns in the high strings as a phrasing resource. Also, he doesn’t tend to use open string patterns very often. He makes a very efficient use of all the sections of the fretboard and is able to play the same scales using different string and fret combinations. This ability is very handy in order to have a fluent phrasing, which is one of Clapton’s most distinctive playing features.
An important aspect of BB King, Buddy Guy and Freddie King’s playing is the alternate use of minor and major pentatonic scales. This is something Clapton follows very naturally, as he switches between minor and major even in the same phrase, as needed. This is a very distinct approach in modern blues playing. He often supports his scales with the use of pull-offs and very effective bendings.
His right hand technique is very traditional. He uses a pick to attack the strings and like most electric bluesmen, he also plays with the guitar knobs. Overall, Eric Clapton’s technique is simple as well as his showmanship. He is dynamic but very concise at delivering his blues message. He knows the right amount of notes to play and wouldn’t play in excess of that.
Even though Eric Clapton now mostly plays Stratocasters, it hasn’t always been that way. At the beginning of his career he was a strong supporter of Gibson guitars (which he still uses in the studio and some performances).
His first famous guitar was a 1964 Cherry Red Gibson ES-335. A very popular guitar at the time, this semi-hollow model remained as a favourite among mostly blues and jazz players. It was designed to reduce feedback, while still keeping the tonal characteristics of a hollow body.
His second famous guitar was a Gibson 1960 Les Paul Cherry Sunburst, which was stolen while he was with Cream. Solid body Les Paul guitars have a higher gain and better response to feedback than the semi-hollow ES-335s. Therefore they are more suitable for a rich, loud, rock sound. They were also a breakthrough for Gibson, as this was the first solid body guitar they ever produced. Also, considering Clapton’s double 100-watt Marshall amp heads cranked all the way up, it was a perfect match.
While still with Cream, he also played a 1964 Gibson SG, known as the "Fool Guitar". It was decorated by the Dutch duo Simon and Marijke, known as "The Fool". Originally released in 1961, SGs were meant to compete against Stratocasters. They’re lighter than Les Pauls and were intended to have a faster neck, featuring double cut-aways for easier access to higher notes.
Into the 1970’s he switched to Fender Stratocaster guitars. The first famous one was "Brownie", a 1956 sunburst finish Stratocaster. This is the guitar featured in his first solo release Eric Clapton in 1970 and the guitar he played in the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs the same year.
In 1971 he started playing "Blackie", a black finish, maple neck strat. This became his most famous guitar. It is assembled from different guitars he bought in Tennessee. He used this guitar extensively until the mid 1980’s, when he switched to his signature model. After the guitar was auctioned in 2004, Fender released a limited edition replica in 2006 (which sold for $24,000).
The Fender Eric Clapton Signature Model Stratocaster features noiseless vintage pickups, MDX (Mid Active Boost) and TBX (Treble Bass Xpander) circuitry. The TBX increases the treble by using the 2nd tone control knob in the 5-10 range. From 0-5, it works as a regular tone knob. MDX boosts the mid-range frequencies, which is very characteristic of Clapton’s sound. The noiseless pickups are known to sacrifice a little of the sound body, but they deliver a clean and crisp effect in return.
He uses thin Ernie Ball Regular Slinkies, which are .010, but sometimes he uses the Super Slinkies, which are .009.
In terms of amps, he’s used several combinations throughout his 40-plus year career. While in the Yardbirds, he used a Vox AC-30 and a Telecaster. This amp was very common among British rock bands of the 1960’s, providing the flexibility of a nice clean sound or overdrive, as desired.
While in Cream, his best known amp setting would be a pair of Marshall JTM45 100-Watt heads with four 4x12 cabinets. That’s some serious power right there! Jimi Hendrix was also known to use a similar setting (only he would use 3 amp heads sometimes). Clapton would also crank up all the controls of the amp (is there a better way to keep it simple?)
During this time, he would also use a Vox Wah and was known to use a Fuzz Face pedal as well.
While with Derek and the Dominos, he went to a more modest setting consisting of a Fender Champ amp and "Brownie". The Champ amp is a 5 watts vintage, simple piece of equipment. It’s been reissued in 2006 by Fender. Many guitarists use a line out to bigger speakers, as the amp itself can’t handle a live performance.
These days, his amp of choice is a Fender 57 Twin-Amp Tweed, which is in fact a perfect match for his trademark strat sound. This amp is serious stuff when it comes to quality vintage tone.
Album Highlights
Eric Clapton has had a very impressive and prolific career, with an incredible amount of high quality and historic material. I know I might risk leaving some very good stuff out, but here it is anyways:
Wheels of Fire is an excellent example of what Cream was about. Half of the material is recorded in the studio, and the other half live. It features some classic blues material, such as Born Under a Bad Sign, Sittin’ On Top of the World or Spoonful, along with a legendary live performance of Crossroads at the Fillmore. If you want to get a good glimpse at Cream, this is it.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Some people argue this is Eric Clapton’s greatest album. I can only say it best shows what Clapton is capable of. In addition, it is one of the top highlights in blues and rock music. This album was his vehicle of expression after his impossible love for Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s wife (well, it seemed to pay off since he ended up marrying her some years later).
This is the type of material you will never regret adding to your collection. From Layla to Anyday, Have You Ever Loved a Woman, Nobody Knows when You’re Down and Out, Bell Bottom Blues, I Looked Away, this is really good stuff.
Son House couldn’t have put it better: "Ain't but one kind of Blues... and that consists between male and female that's in love".
If you want to hear a mature Eric Clapton playing the blues, then From the Cradle is the answer. This album was released in 1994 and is a great journey to blues classics. A very successful journey, I must add, since it reached #1 in US and UK charts and won a Grammy award. Due to its own success and being released 2 years after the mega-hit Unplugged, I’m sure it made a younger generation turn their heads towards the blues.
If Unplugged makes a statement about the simple beauty of an acoustic guitar, From The Cradle reminds us there is a powerful force intrinsic to electric guitar. The album is recorded "live", without overdubs. An intense album and when it comes to Clapton, always refined. Highly recommended.
Riding With The King. I remember how I just snapped up this CD from the music store. That was back in 2000 when it was released and I first saw it in the shelves. You can’t go wrong when Eric Clapton and BB King play together in an entire blues album! Most of the songs are traditional blues standards, with a few mode modern tracks such as Riding With The King, Marry You, Hold On! I’m Coming. This album won a Grammy too for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Me and Mr. Johnson. Who knows how many times Eric Clapton thought about this project before materializing it. He has expressed his admiration for Robert Johnson countless times, so it’s surprising it took so long before he released a tribute album. Although, Clapton is not new to recording Robert Johnson’s songs (think Crossroads and If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, for instance).
This album is a great piece of work; played in a traditional setting that reminds me of the Chicago Blues beginnings. It doesn’t sound as scary as Robert Johnson, which would have been a big mistake anyways. Instead, Eric Clapton finds his own voice to pay tribute to a great guitar legend. When it comes to Clapton, you can only expect respect and dedication to the blues. And he delivers once again.
