I can dig all that, but even then, did that ever come across in his playing? When Eddie was miserable and pissed off he came up with Fair Warning which is his darkest and arguably greatest album guitar-wise. Critics may not have dug it back then, but it's a treasure now. You can feel Eddie's frustration and hear the tension amongst the band while listening to it. Where is that in clapton's playing? I am not denying it exists, I am actually quite curious if it does exist.
Did he record anything (besides the pop song tears in heaven) during or after all that trauma he was enduring?
well, i am not an expert on Eddie's moods, as i thought he actually got much worse in the late 80s, 90s etc (i think he was a mess in the last decade prior to cleaning up, but as i said, i have not paid them much attention since David Lee left in 84/85)...Eddie was pretty functional throughout the time i was a VH fan (80 or so through-84)
as for Fair Warning, i defer to your knowledge of actual guitar complexity/technique as that being his zenith...
i thought Fair Warning was one of their weakest albums in terms of overall song quality, though, "Unchained" and "So This Is Love" were the tunes that started it all for me (and are still my favorites. (i used to go for Halloween every year as DLR from 1981-1985...try being a 10 year old jewish kid with blond hair, telling his parents he is going out on Halloween in NYC dressed in what spandex pants, cowboy boots and no shirt, with a red bandanna around his neck :wink
it met with a sturdy "OH NO YOU ARE NOT!!!" from my father..."but dad, i said, I am blond, and jewish, just like David Lee...he is a role model." (as you might imagine it did not work) anyway, i settled for trick or treating in the building, wearing red spandex, cowboy boots, a b lack van halen t-shirt, and the red bandana. so fuck you, dad. :biggrin1:
i loved Little Guitars almost as much as Unchained and So This Is Love, with Jamie's Cryin and Runnin with The Devil #4 and #5 in my all time faves.
back to Clapton, really there was no tension of the type you are describing, the boiling of which has fueled many a great band (BEatles/Lennon-McCartney) etc...
since Clapton was rarely part of a band, and left whenever he felt constricted, most of his misery is funneled into his bluesy jams and lyrics and such...though Clapton certainly had some great solos, they were much more tight ( it think that is the right word) then virtuousos such as Page and EdVH (but since i quit guitar after a couple months of frustration, you probably know the technical aspects of playing one million times bettere than I)
though there was definitely tension in the bands he was in, he actually was never that much at anyone's throats...Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were fucking up Cream later, and Clapton left the Yardbirds when he thought they were going "Pop" (which was a mistake, since in came PAge, who along with Beck ripped out Stroll On, Over Under Sideways Down, and tons of heavy blues riff driven rock...i love the Yardbirds)
he was barely with John Mayall long enough to cause much trouble in teh Bluesbreakers (less than a year IIRC)
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Blind Faith lasted less than 7 months...Clapton was always just sick of the spotlight, and attention seemingly
then it was D/B and friends, then Derek and the Dominos, which was the one place where he ever got into serious ego clashes, and they broke up and Duane Allman died etc...and after that, he was on his own from 1980 on (roughly)
I think when you listen to alot of Clapton stuff, it is easy to get lost in the "Big name" tunes...
while i love many of those, i prefer many hidden gems like "Hello Old Friend" and you might love a great jam called "Got to Get Better In A Little While"...with you as a guitar guy, i think you'd really dig it, and could probably rip that tune out on your ax and really enjoy it! :biggrin1:
(here is a link in case you have not heard it before)
YouTube - Eric Clapton-Got To Get Better In a Little While
after his son passed away, i think he really lost his edge, and withdrew to the point where i think music became salvation for him, as opposed to the way to really let out aggression that fuels really heavy music like Zep or VH etc...
for him, he retreated into the more introspective soft stuff...around that time he came out with Tears in Heaven as you mentioned, and he had a couple of other really quiet poppy tunes (Change The World) which were a far cry from the 70s tunes, but i appreciated the new side to him, even if it was not his best stuff....though the unplugged stuff was really nice. but i did not like that he moved into soundtrack work...he has been treading water pretty much ever since. (lethal weapon 3, 4, The Story of US, Phenomenon...blech)
I still personally am a Jimmy PAge devotee above all else though, with Jimi behind him because we only got Jimi for such a short time :frown1
which must have been *INSANE* to hear when it first came out...can you imagine what it must have been like to hear him for the first time back then? Even Clapton said that when he heard Hendrix the first time that it made him realize that Hendrix had totally changed the game, and he was just floored and felt that Hendrix was some kind of alien genius, far above everyone, Clapton included)
