"Eric Clapton Talks Hendrix, Cream and Guitars at Home: Premiere Guitarist sat down to discuss Guitar Center reproductions, but conversation goes deeper"
On the subject of Clapton interviews and MBH forum - I remember back when someone posted a thread about a year and a half, or maybe two years back which had Eric C. in an interview reportedly saying some disparaging things about Little Walters playing. Well, if I remember correctly, the thread attracted a lot of responses here, some harp players being a little peeved to see what Clapton had supposedly said.
I have no reason to doubt that the guy who posted that thread was accurately reporting what had been written, but since that time I reread an old Rolling Stone interview from the 60s which recorded Clapton as saying the following -
"There's a blues harmonica player called Little Walter Jacobs who plays really good harmonica. He's influenced me a lot because you can transfer what he's doing to a guitar."
This interview was copyrighted in 1968. If I recall correctly he has nothing but praise in that interview for the many older blues musicians which he cites as having had a major influence on how he has developed as a musician. At one point saying- "I still don't think there is a better blues guitarist in the world than B.B. King."
I thought that it was interesting to see that at the tail end of this same interview he made some comments about how he had oftentimes been erroneously quoted in printed interviews.
"...I'll say a complete paragraph, all of which will make sense as a paragraph, but someone will take three words out of it and put it on top and making it controversial." - Eric Clapton
2. He was a "Blues Nazi" type guy that really did respect the old black musicians and does mention Little Walter as a great player and influence on him. ---------- The Iceman
Well that would be a goofy thing to say about Little Walter, unless of course Clapton was talking about that certain time near the end of L.W.s life which really WAS a time when Little Walters playing was a bit shaky.
Anyhow, for all I know Eric Clapton is a jerk. I'm not qualified to argue differently, but I can't help but compare him to a lot of people who I myself know who just turn out to be different things to different people.
I just feel uneasy about passing final judgment on someones character based upon one interview or on what someone says about him on the net. Also, you have to know, people are dumb. REALLY dumb. Talented, ingenious, ridiculous, smart, and thoroughly stupid, and then they prove it in an interview. If he's anything like the rest of us I'm sure that Clapton has been a real fool and an asshole during various parts of his life.
I'll say one thing for him though, he was once very kind to a couple of friends of mine. I have a couple of friends who he once entertained backstage at a concert in florida. He had nothing at all to gain by meeting and spending time with these guys. He had never met them before that night and they meant nothing to him, they were pretty freaked at suddenly finding themselves backstage at their heros concert and were probably acting like a couple of giddy teenage fan girls, but by their account he was very warm and friendly and treated them like they were important to him.
My theory is that the publics perception of any given famous person is always twisted and charicaturized by the warping light of celebrity. People who figure in the public spotlight are rarely as good or as bad as they appear to be at any given moment, but any or all of them tend to look pretty crummy when you shine a bright light into every corner of their lives.
Eric should have made someone turn up Jerry Portnoys harp on Me & Mr. Johnson. Jerry got buried too low into the mix on that album.
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Anyone know where I can find tabs for Jitterbug Waltz in the style of Chet Atkins? Diatonic or chromatic. Thanks.
with the exception of duane allman,eric is my favorite guitarist of all time...I enjoy his interviews and find him to be very intelligent...he said he was not a fan of rice miller,that little walter was his favorite harp player....his statement that little walters skill on harp was raw contradicts that....little walters instrumentals on harp like blue midnight,sad hours,etc leave me with an opinion that his skill on harp was incredible and certainly not raw....just dont get it
I remember awhile back reading something with him saying when he was overseas as a kid he would always be playing and wanting to play little walter tunes in his bands as a young guy. And while Walters playing was not sloppy or raw in anyway I could see how you would think Little Walters sound was raw. He was probably speaking of the over sound him and the band got. Lets be honest from the guitar tones, drum tones and harp tones the stuff LW was layin down as far as tone was raw to the bone and for me thats what made him the best. He always sounded natural and edgy in his tones but always landed those notes with grace. Listen to You better watch yourself, or the Rocker the tones on those recording were nothing short of the nastiest blues harp tone every made in my opinion. Walter mixed laid back, intense, raw and just pure excitement into blues if ya ask me.
@Bigtone - I think you may have hit close to the mark there. The controversy, such as it is, I think is caused by semantics. My guess is that EC's use of the word "raw" was in the context of tone, not playing ability. And even then I would bet it was meant as a good thing. After all, it is well documented that EC praised LW on many occasions as well as citing him as an influence. I remember reading somewhere EC making the comment that he learned the technique of playing a note with the string bent up a tone and then relaxing the bend to drop to the the tone below from hearing Little Walter use this technique on the harmonica. ---------- LSC
Last Edited by LSC on Feb 07, 2013 4:21 PM
look forward to seeing eric next month in nashville...I realize that his statement about little walters skill could be taken out of context...as far as the yardbirds backing sonny boy,it seems that eric and rice just did not hit it off too well....
Thats what I figured. When I tell someone who's never heard LW I always say he was the Greatest, Technical and Raw player and singer there was. I read in the Muddy Waters Bio book and he said Little Walter was his Favorite Blues Singer. And to me he was one of the best. He could have this slick cool vibe and then he could have this let it loose "raw" sound the next song. Same with his harp he was cool calm and collective on Little Girl and then you hear Come back baby and he's is taking the band right to the brink of insanity which is why he was the master of his craft. Even if you do not like Clapton you have to know that he was no dumb ass, he listened to the same stuff we all listen to to become a better musician.
yep....clapton preferred blues to all other forms of music and like so many of our british cousins,they knew what they had to do to be successful....jimi hendrix always wins the greatest guitarist ever and he took a lot of his influence from blues guitarists...
