Eric Clapton - Favorite Band

[DudeAsInCool]

With Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival going down this week, I think its only fitting that we take a look 'slow hand' himself', and other great guitar players this week. So what is your favorite Clapton band and why?

[DudeAsInCool]

I like all his bands equally, but i give the edge to Derek and the Dominoes. After playing with all those great bands, he seemed to come into his own with that album.

[Umma]

I cant make my mind up . I like his more recent stuff better than his earlier I think.... but tomorrow might be another day

I went with the current notion that he does what he does now better than what he did... but I could be wrong .... :D

[Umma]

why is this thread so quiet??? who died?

nobody likes Eric Clapton.... that must be it....

[DudeAsInCool]

why is this thread so quiet??? who died?...nobody likes Eric Clapton.... that must be it....

With all those great bands? That would be a tragedy

[moonglow]

I had a hard time choosing too but Derek and the Doms won out, only cause they happened to be in the middle of the choices

[Umma]

I had a hard time choosing too but Derek and the Doms won out, only cause they happened to be in the middle of the choices

nice way to choose :bigsmile:

[MxRob]

Tough tough choices

I voted for Cream as they were that was the first band I heard when I was 5.

I loved all of his bands as well as his most current material.

[KiwiCoromandel]

With Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival going down this week, I think its only fitting that we take a look 'slow hand' himself', and other great guitar players this week.  So what is your favorite Clapton band and why?

cream.... fav cream album?..." live cream vol 1 ". what a band cream were live! they were a world apart, just listen to the improvisational chemistry between the band members. this album remains one my most treasured possessions and that's for the musical value! in my opinion it is on a par if not better than the live portion of " wheels of fire ".

Live Cream

Producer: Felix Pappalardi

Recording Engineers: Bill Halverson, remix by Adrian Barber (except for the studio track – see below)

Released: UK – 6/70, US – 4/70.

Highest Chart Position: UK – 4, US – 15.

Eighteen months after their demise and 12 months after the last official release ("Goodbye"), these new live recordings were released. They had probably been prepared for the consideration for the proposed live album of the "Goodbye" double set. The reasonable chart success showed the continuing demand for Cream’s music.

In terms of ensemble playing this is, in totality, superior to "Live at the Fillmore" with the sound better balanced, especially the drums. It’s the best production job of all the live albums. The Winterland Ballroom had better acoustics than the Fillmore.,

Track by Track

NSU (Jack Bruce)

Eric – lead guitar, harmony vocals; Jack – bass, lead vocals; Ginger – drums.

[Recording: 10th March 1968 (2nd show), Winterland, San Francisco, Bill Halverson eng; Adrian Barber, remix

The syncopated opening is now extraordinarily effective with the amplifier power of the live performance. Once they finish the vocals they move into their unique ensemble improvisation playing: Eric is just as intensely creative, if not as compressed, as on "Crossroads, he just does it for longer and with more interaction with Jack & Ginger.

Jack and Ginger interplay between themselves and with Eric at a level that defies description. Their individual playing is stunning but it is within the group dynamics that they are incomparable.

With every listening it seems to get shorter!

Sleepy Time Time (Jack Bruce/Janet Godfrey)

Eric – lead guitar; Jack – bass, lead vocals; Ginger – drums.

[Recording: 9th March 1968 (1st show), Winterland, San Francisco, Bill Halverson eng; Adrian Barber, remix]

An extended version of the strong riff based blues from Fresh Cream. Not spectacular but a style of rock blues that few others could carry out as effectively. The strong Freddie King influence in Eric’s playing on the original has now been absorbed into HIS own style. Jack is in full shout mode playing endless subtle variations of the bass riff while Ginger just syncopates, fills and pounds the bass drum in his inimitable style. A too short bass solo, [Dave Walzer:] great Clapton cool dominant 7th comping , and totally searing bluesy, melodic, solos on this cut.

[Vinyl Side 2]

Sweetwine (Ginger Baker/Janet Godfrey)

Eric – lead guitar, harmony vocals; Jack – bass, lead vocals; Ginger – drums.

[Recording: 10th March 1968 (1st show), Winterland, San Francisco, Bill Halverson eng; Adrian Barber, remix]

I’m probably going to upset some fans but I think the improvisation is better then Spoonful, which was also from this show. This was the final song for the show (therefore the "see you later" at the end) and they are interacting and interplaying at a more refined level. It is a very jazz performance in that the dynamics of the playing shift between them and they are clearly responding to each other. Dan Tingstrom: "particularly that part in the middle where everything gets quiet and subdued and Ginger goes to the hi-hat (alternating open and closed) and the cowbell, while Eric is hitting a high group of notes or a chord....and Jack does the little solo thing that is so prominent!!!!"

This performance probably exemplifies Cream’s style and strengths as an ensemble. The vocals/basic song are just bookends to the real business of the extended group improvisation. That improvisation involves complex interplay between the three with Eric being the lead but Jack and Ginger, individually and in combination, pushing and pulling him down alternate paths. Eric has never, except for Duane, again played with ‘backing’ musicians of this caliber who were clearly Eric’s equal and in some aspects his superiors. Eric is jazzy on this, if only he played some jazz progressions! He has rarely been as instrumentally creative since, excepting the Layla album.

Rolling and Tumbling (Muddy Waters)

Eric – lead guitar; Jack – harmonica, lead vocals; Ginger – drums.

[Recording: 7th March 1968 (1st show), Fillmore West, San Francisco, Bill Halverson eng; Adrian Barber, remix]

Eric’s twin Marshall stacks juice this up compared to the original. Just like the studio recording it rips along with all three providing the unflagging energy. Ginger’s use of brushes is unusual in Rock, especially live, but listening to this it makes one wonder why. Jack’s harp playing is more effective in this group context then on ‘Traintime’.

as clapton said in an interview about creams` live performances..." we just took off at one end and saw each other at the other end ".

Edited June 6, 2004 by kiwibank