I think most guitarists would rank Clapton among the best for most of the reasons listed here. The “Clapton is God” was never his idea, but he was the foremost blues-based guitarist in London at the time, and fanboys will be fanboys. Still, he’s a terrific player. Take a look at him doing “Further on Down the Road” in The Last Waltz. Some absolutely fantastic guitar licks and he doesn’t even appear to be trying hard.
Really? Has he said this somewhere? I’ve heard this song at many weddings and never thought that.
I think Clapton’s appeal (and he’s one of my favorites) is in his phrasing and feel more than in his technique or innovation. His work in the Yardbirds and Cream was seminal for its time in that he brought a hardcore blues sensibility into rock and roll and in so doing helped to contribute to the development of the hard rock/heavy metal genres. Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were logical extensions of those bands (in fact, Jimmy Page replaced Clapton in the Yardbirds).
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the Layla album but that’s flat out one of the best rock guitar albums ever recorded. Yes Duane Allman was a significant part of that record but the songs, the riffs, the melodic licks, even the singing all kicked major ass. The main riff to the title song is probably one of the top ten riffs of all time.
I also think there’s an authenticity to Clapton. Even though he crosses over to pop he never quite feels like a sellout and there’s a sincerity in his work.
His appearance on MTV’s Unplugged was a standout that showed what a real musician he is. Most of the rock guitarists on that show would just play their electric stuff on the accoustics without really changing anything or adapting the songs to make them real accoustic performances rather than just elctric performances played on accoustic guitars. Clapton made his Unplugged gig all about loving the accoustic for its own sake and adapted songs accordingly (e. “Layla”).
I know his leads are easy to play…or are they? The notes are easy to play. It’s not especially taxing to learn a whole solo and play it verbatim, but I’ve noticed that it’s really hard to get them to sound like Clapton- to get those vibratos just right or duplicate that sad, melodious quality that he has. He’s more subtle than he appears to be. He’s one of those guitarists who you can always recognize after hearing just a few lines and that’s a sign of a real artist.
FTR, I also agree that Jeff Beck is a magician of simplicity. He gets the fattest coolest tones I’ve ever heard in some very slow and simple phrases. I don’t know how he does it, but at times he does it with a single note. He hits one note and holds and it and I’m like, “holy crap that sounds cool, how did he do that?”
He’s like a witch or something.
Gotta agree with Diogenes; Layla and other asssorted love songs is a must have album.
Just gotta add, since folks are making their own guitar ‘greats’ suggestions, that I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Carlos Santana. IMHO, he gets more emotive force out of his guitar playing than anyone out there.
There are different kinds of guitar skill. One is technical wizardly. Yngvie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani can play lightning riffs. They are technically gifted.
But, in my opinion, the really great guitarists are the ones who can wring emotion out of their instrument. Hell, the same is true for any musician. Slash, for example, can make a guitar cry. That takes more than technical skill - there’s a point where the musician just blends into his instrument and makes it say what he wants to say.
Eric Clapton is in the latter category. This really comes out in his blues recordings. The Adult MOR stuff he does puts food on the table, but his heart is in the blues, and that’s where the talent shines. The same is true of BB King.
Then there’s Stevie Ray Vaughan - who had both the lightning speed and the emotional control over his instrument. He was a genius who was a level above Clapton, in my opinion. But he died relatively young, and we’ll never know how great he might have been.
I have seen BB King twice. Both times, he had another guitarist helping out, and that guitarist shredded him. Of course, BB King is older than dirt, and not all that healthy.
Duane actually came up with that riff, though he copped it from a Freddie King song. Duane did more than just guest on most of the album, he contributed some ideas. But the big thing is like Biffy’s comment about Jack Bruce. Duane and Clapton loved each other’s playing, and Duane made Clapton elevate his playing in a way nobody has since.
IMHO as a guitar player and music fan:
AS others have said, Clapton was at the right place at the right time. He appropriated American blues and wove them into the burgeoning rock music arising in the early 1960s. His work, with Richards, Page, and Beck and others laid down what we still call rock and roll.
The man can play: my favorite work of his is “Crossroads” by Cream. Both solos tear ass. But the most important demonstration of his virtuosity is how he makes the solo an extension of the song, in a very lyrical style. His solos have beginnings, middles, and ends. He has a set out purpose for his solo, so he tends not to over- or underdo them. They fit the music.
I don’t like his blues voice or his pop stuff that much, but his guitar playing makes up for it. I was watching a DVD of the Crossroads festival (a Dallas guitar festival from last year) and his voice is growing into the blues with a bit of age, though. But he holds his own with all those blues guys like Cray. The thing about Clapton is that he has spent the last twenty years paying back what he took from the blues. He has tried to bring his fans to appreciation of honest-to-goodness blues with two tribute albums and numerous shows and concerts (like the Crossroads festival).
Nobody criticizes Segovia or John Williams for not playing their own stuff. Clapton can be admired for being able to perfectly copy people like Robert Johnson and Freddy King while still producing serviceable music of his own. Nobody is holding him up as a technical whiz. Nobody can compare him, or anybody, to Hendrix, who did more to advance the playing of the electric guitar than anybody except perhaps Leo Fender and Les Paul. He did not invent a new subgenre of the blues like SRV. But, in other ways, he has furthered the blues more than either of them, by ceaselessly emulating, promoting, and extending it.
I don’t have access to the liner notes at present, but I’m told that most of the brilliant guitar work on the later Beatles albums was the handiwork of Klaus Voorman and one Eric Clapton. So yeah, I believe you are missing something.
To my knowledge, Clapton played on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and that’s about it (and used a Les Paul, not a Strat). Don’t know that Voorman did anything other than the art for the cover of Revolver and playing bass for Manfred Mann, but I can re-check my Complete Beatles Recording Sessions if it is important… I do know that McCartney played the lead in Taxman, and that Harrison hated having to give him the credit when people complimented him (George) for the improvement in his playing…
I hear you spooje about BB King - I saw John Lee Hooker right before he died, and I’m really not sure it was right before he died - he was propped up in a chair and if he played one single-string note, I’d be suprised. Just awful. But both were the real deal in their prime…
And Diogenes - you and I are in complete agreement about Beck. Pretty much The Master. The thing that is cool about him is that, unlike say Clapton, Beck could hold his own against Hendrix. Clapton aspired to be Hendrix and could never compare; Beck has a completely different vibe and style and in his way equalled Hendrix in his ability to interpret the blues in a modern way.
and Eonwe this is probably fruit for another thread, but I have never been a Santana fan. I find him to be a noodler - every now and then he hits a great note or phrase, but it feels like he just keeps his fingers moving in the hopes of stumbling into something. And since I really don’t like his rig - PRS guitars (awful tone) and MESA/Boogie amps (everything and the kitchen sink features, which again compromise tone) - I am not really there for him. I know he has a ton of fans and respect, so more power to him - I don’t mean any disrespect here; just MHO.
Sam Stone I completely agree with you about Slash - great slow phrasing guitarist. And another Les Paul player. I am constantly amazed at how many slow tasteful blues-based players are Les Paul players, not Strat players (Slash, Clapton on Beano, Beck on Truth, Mike Bloomfield, Peter Green, Duane Allman, etc…). Why Clapton and Beck switched to Strats I’ll never know - Hendrix and SRV got amazing tone from their Strats, but it is harder to do. (FTR, I am a long-time Strat player who also plays Les Pauls…)…
I sometimes wonder what kind of impact it had on Clapton to lose Hendrix and Allman, two players he cared about so deeply and who inspired him so, in the span of 12 months.
That’s nonsense. Voorman didn’t play on any Beatles group albums (he did the cover art for Revolver and played on various solo albums by John, George, and Ringo); anyway, he’s a bass player, not a guitarist. Eric Clapton played on exactly one Beatles song (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”). The Beatles used plenty of session players on horns, strings, Indian instruments and such, but not on guitar.
For Clapton it is. 
Boy, is this way off.
Most of the brilliant guitar work on the later Beatles albums was the handiwork of one Paul McCartney.
I know this is off the topic of the OP, but since a few others have put in plugs for great guitarists other than Clapton, I can’t let this thread go by without mentioning Andrew Latimer of Camel. One of the all-time great but largely unrecognized guitarists of the last thirty years, in my opinion. He’s more in the Clapton style, in that he’s not flashy or fast, but he brings forth real emotion from his instrument. His one-long-guitar-solo instrumental, Ice, is second to none in that regard.
Eric Clapton can’t be that great.
After all, in Shallow Hal, Jason Alexander refused to attend an exclusive Beatles reunion concert because, although Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the not-yet-late-at-the-time George Harrison were going to be there, Eric Clapton was filling in for John Lennon.