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Absolutely agreed on Peter Green. The guy was a fucking genius.

And yet Eric Clapton made enough of an impression on Peter Green that he changed the guitar he was playing (harmony Meteor) to a Les Paul because he liked the tone Clapton was getting.

Clapton really lit a fire under all those British dudes(and many Americans) with what he was doing. I like Peter Green too but Clapton fathered British Rock and so many guitar greats from over there he gave them a style and a sound to run with.

And I decided to go back on lead guitar after seeing Eric Clapton. I'd seen him with The Bluesbreakers before he considered singing and his whole concentration was on his guitar - he had a Telecaster - and it was really impressive. Then he had a Les Paul and his fingers were marvellous. It took everything away from me, like my birthday, Christmas; you forgot everything, just listen to this. All music that you'd ever heard was washed away by this group of guys that were letting Eric Clapton take the floor.

I loved Les Paul and Mary Ford and I was surprised to see this guitar turned over to this style, but once it got there it was just… you couldn't compare it to anything. This guy knew how to do a bit of evil, I guess. - Peter Green "Guitarist Magazine,
September 1999".

And yet Green is well-documented as having turned up to many of the Bluesbreakers early shows and called him out on all the blues riffs he'd stolen and appropriated that night. He'd stand beside the stage and shout them at the end of the songs, infuriating Clapton.

I agree with you to an extent, but just because Clapton managed to handle himself better when the fame started to roll in and made himself a world star doesn't make him a better player than Green by any stretch of any kind of warped imagination. Green was the absolute king, and was never afraid to lay out his influences on the table straight away. The first few Fleetwood Mac albums are an absolute mess of wonderful music that Clapton could never imagine himself stooping to. He was always too locked in. The truth is that Clapton only ever truly shined as a player when he was playing in somebody elses band, playing somebody elses music, with Cream being the only slight exception, and even then only because he was forced to work in some kind of democracy with two other mavericks who wouldn't take his shit lying down.

ekwatts wrote:Green was the absolute king, and was never afraid to lay out his influences on the table straight away.

Are you suggesting Clapton tried to hide his influences? Nothing could be further from the truth and really nobody outside of maybe Keef from the Stones has done more for the Blues guys they copped those licks from. Clapton has always been a champion of a lot of those dudes who's music influenced him.

Just vomited blood. Clapton gave me the claps.

jcyphe wrote:

ekwatts wrote:Green was the absolute king, and was never afraid to lay out his influences on the table straight away.

Are you suggesting Clapton tried to hide his influences? Nothing could be further from the truth and really nobody outside of maybe Keef from the Stones has done more for the Blues guys they copped those licks from. Clapton has always been a champion of a lot of those dudes who's music influenced him.

Rory Gallagher was always one to talk a lot about all the old guys too. I suppose he took in loads of different folk influences too, though, so he was talking about loads of people, not just blues guys.