The Ten Most Overrated Rock Performers Of All Time

[Anonymous]

Yup.

 Nu uh. Nope. No way.

[Bricktop]

Clapton = boring.

[Renee]

The only thing overrated in this thread is Spectre himself. His opinions are half-baked nonsense based on the claims that he was "there" when what we generally refer to as "classic rock" was born. Knowledge in obscure 1960s psychedelic musical crap does not an expert make.  



Everyone is entitled to their opinion on art and music but when you start pushing your opinion as THE valid opinion, it generally leads to be you being viewed as being full of shit. Eric Clapton is not overrated and that is not just my opinion it is the opinion of 99% of the musical world and many of those opinions come from individuals that are far more qualified to give an opinion than anyone here. In fact the only real opinions that truly matter would come from Clapton's peers and I'm almost certain that none of them living would refer to Eric Clapton as "overrated".

[RW]

You can't argue with his opinion Renee.  You need to respect the differences in opinions as it is all subjective.  Clapton didn't change rock music to this day.  We just believe he did.

[Renee]

You can't argue with his opinion Renee.  You need to respect the differences in opinions as it is all subjective.  Clapton didn't change rock music to this day.  We just believe he did.

I know that opinions are subjective. My point is that in this case, one opinion no matter how it is presented, is not more valid than another unless it can be truly justified. In this case claiming that EC is overrated goes against the common assessment of his achievements and contribution to the industry. I don't see how an opinion that is contrary to the so-called experts can be justified without some kind of valid backing.



Just saying that "I think he is overrated" doesn't really cut it.

[RW]

Hehehehe

[Renee]

Hehehehe

Something funny?

[RW]

Hehehehe

Something funny?

You say the same things I do :)

[Anonymous]

My husband is a musician. I could get him to come here and say Clapton isn't over rated.

[Anonymous]

It in fact I just asked him if Clapton is over rated....his face wrinkled in horror and he said "no". So there.

[RW]

Let's see what the experts say:



"Clapton always brings an indefinable extra twist of fluidity to his phrasing. He's a singer too and really knows where to judiciously weave his playing into a lead vocal top-line. He can be very languid but when he wants to step it up, he channels some kind of thug mentality, he's got such fury and fire in his belly, he almost hits bum notes but his deep understanding of scales means he can play his way out of any tight corner. He's pretty sodding fantastic."



What gives Clapton a unique place in history, however, is his timing. And, in this regard, I'm not talking technique. "The album Eric did with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers is seminal for all rock guitarists," according to Steve Hackett, virtuoso progressive rocker and former lead guitarist with Genesis.



Although not released until 1966, the album was actually recorded in 1965, following Clapton's brief stint with the Yardbirds and whilst he was on the verge of forming Cream. Hackett was 16 when he first heard the album, known to fans as Beano (because of the comic Clapton is reading on the cover), and it changed his life. Clapton was already a veteran of 21.



"The guitar was really the star of the show from the opening note. It's the touch, the finger vibrato, the tone, all of those things. It's also the incredible combination of a Gibson Les Paul guitar and Marshall amp combo, which Eric has said was all he could afford at the time, so there is a certain amount of serendipity.



"The hit and miss technique of standing near an amp to get great sustain, that was something he very quickly mastered. He did it just before everyone else, though The Who, Jeff Beck and Peter Green were all going that way. So there is something about being the right man in the right place at the right time with the right guitar and right equipment. It's an extraordinary sound, great control, masses of distortion, fabulous finger vibrato, spontaneous playing and the first time it all comes together is on that album. All my pals would sit around listening to into the night, hanging on his every note. That is the birth of the guitar hero.



There had been virtuoso electric guitarists before. In jazz, there was Les Paul himself, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and more. Black electric blues had given the world such charismatic stylists as Muddy Waters, BB King, Albert King and Freddie King. Rock and roll elevated the silvery country licks of Scotty Moore, James Burton and Carl Perkins, and the charged up R'n'B of Chuck Berry, a style extended by Keith Richards in the Rolling Stones.



And then, more or less simultaneously, three ground breaking young guitar slingers from Surrey began making waves on the London scene: Clapton, Beck and Jimmy Page. But Clapton was slightly ahead of the curve, and one reason may have to do with his near fanatical blues purism. Clapton was playing guitar from thirteen and the first music he fell in love with was American blues. A young middle class boy, he had a record player, and spent his time seeking out obscure imported vinyl to learn from.



"In England we were bombarded with pop more than anything else," Clapton once explained to me. "You had to consciously steer a path towards black soul or blues. Most of the players in the rock framework were coming from a rockabilly stance. Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck grew up listening to white guitar players like Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup. I was obsessed with black blues guitar players, and for me the ultimate problem was trying to shift that style into a Chuck Berry rock format."

[RW]

A somewhat troubled young loner, Clapton applied himself diligently to the task. "Blues is a language you have to learn, like learning French," he told me. "It's not about a feeling, it's an action. There's a lot to learn and it means going to the library and listening to just about everything that was ever done and trying to learn from that.



"And then something happens. If you do your work and do your best to carry the burden of the past and the fellowship of the blues, so you know you've done all your research and you've studied everything you can, I think if you really love the music you'll start to express it your own way. It's almost impossible not to."



"All these different guitarists would have their famous five licks, and Clapton learned them all," explains Reid Savage. "He mastered those early blueprints to perfection, so he had a dozen licks, then two dozen, and he would link them all up on the pentatonic blues scale in ways that gave him almost unlimited twists and wiggles, played utterly heroically, I think.



"He was one of the first guys to really turn it up, so the amplifier started to bend toward feedback and get a really cutting tone. In rock, guitar soloing wasn't much more advanced than Chuck Berry. No one had heard this kind of extended extemporisation before. He owed a debt to the original blues guys, but everyone else was learning their chops from him."



If there is a guitarist who the rock world universally acknowledges as number one, it is not Clapton, however. Jimi Hendrix appeared on the London scene in late 1966, and by all accounts his sudden emergence really shook Clapton's confidence. "You never told me he was that good!" a chain smoking Clapton complained to Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler after the American prodigy jammed with Cream at Regent Street Polytechnic.



But Clapton recovered in an interesting way, by extending his playing range. He formed Cream with two jazz players, worked with Steve Winwood in the blues soul fusion of Blind Faith and left them to play acoustic guitar as a sideman to his folky blues support act, Delaney & Bonnie, moving on from them to the fierce pop rock of Derek & The Dominoes with American virtuoso Duane Allman.



In the space of a few years he played memorable sessions with The Beatles, solo George Harrison and John Lennon, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Frank Zappa and Leon Russell. He embraced reggae, popularising Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff. It is all indicative of a powerful musical curiosity.



He also developed as a singer and songwriter, with a canon of absolute classics including Layla, Bell Bottom Blues and Let It Grow (as well as such sentimental ballads as Wonderful Tonight and Tears In Heaven). And he has never stopped touring and recording, with 23 solo studio albums since 1970. On the question of whether he can still be considered a significant player, his professional admirers seem united.



"He is still the best in the world, for my money," according to contemporary blues virtuoso Joe Bonamassa. "I think a musician's ability to reinvent their playing is the most important quality they could have. Eric's playing has a depth of life in it now that wasn't there in 1966. Just listen to Groaning the Blues from the album From the Cradle (1994) and tell me if it is not one of greatest recorded blues solos of time? Or River of Tears from One More Car, One More Rider (2002). He's just on fire, like he is saying to all kids – beat that! He's still the man. If he turns up with a new amp or guitar, we all want the same piece of kit."

[Renee]

Hehehehe

Something funny?

You say the same things I do :)

Just like twins; you're the smart one, I'm the good looking one.  

[RW]

Hehehehe

Something funny?

You say the same things I do :)

Just like twins; you're the smart one, I'm the good looking one.  

Apparently we are both dumb because we weren't "there".

[Renee]

Hehehehe

Something funny?

You say the same things I do :)

Just like twins; you're the smart one, I'm the good looking one.  

Apparently we are both dumb because we weren't "there".

  Oh yeah, I forgot about that.



But at least I have an excuse. I'm fat AND I'm an American. I'm probably lucky that I don't wear my shoes on the wrong feet. ac_biggrin