Eric Clapton and his music

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Solomon Burke & Jools Holland

Кстати, Соломон Берк является автором отличной вещи, None of us are free. В записи Рея Чарльза этой песни в 1993-м Эрик и участвует. Классное соло...Но и недавняя версия Берка с Blind Boys of Alabama просто очумительна!

20th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

B.B. King. One would think that with age, ongoing health issues, and just the fact that he has been doing it for the past 60 or so years, he might consider retiring, but the opposite is the fact of the matter. The thrill is not gone for him. With no reduction in actual number of performance dates, which averages about 250 a year, a chair is all he needs.

Considering his preeminent position as the "king" of blues of performers, one might anticipate a royal demeanor from B.B. King, but such is not the case as he begins his Buddy Guy induction remarks: Good evening ladies and gentleman. They usually reserve the place for the oldest and the ugliest to speak first."

Fellow Rock And Roll Hall Fame member Eric Clapton jokingly concurs, "Go ahead" as the crowd laughs.

"I don’t have a prepared statement about George Guy, oh yeah, "Buddy" Guy, excuse me. Buddy Guy has been a friend for a long, long time. He’s been an inspiration to many many people including myself. I never was as handsome as he is. And I think Lucille liked him better." [More laughter from the crowd].

"Anyway, I’d like to say, to have known him as many years as I have, I should say, I don’t want to say how long because I hope to get married again one day...ladies shouldn't know old I really am - then I won’t make it. But I’ve known him a long time.

"When I first met Buddy Guy, I met him with who I call the Godfather of the blues. And you blues lovers should remember the great Muddy Waters. But I’ll say this and move over for the handsome one [referring to Eric Clapton]. Um...when it comes to being a great person, Buddy Guy’s that. When it comes to being a great guitarist, Buddy Guy’s that. He’s a good friend. And he’s been a friend to most of us.

"I didn’t have a prepared statement, as I said, to read. But I think my friend here [referring to Eric Clapton], and I’d like to say this where you can hear me, the number one rock 'n' roll guitarist today is my friend right behind me, the handsome one. And he play blues better than me and most of the others. But I think that Buddy Guy is very close second to him. ...my friend... [introducing Eric Clapton]"

"B.B. King." Eric Clapton acknowledges B. B. King then continues...

"It’s a great honor and a privilege to be able to induct this distinguished gentleman [referring to Buddy Guy] into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. A man that means so much to me personally and who as a musician has given so much to us all. It also provides me with the perfect opportunity to say thank you for all the inspiration he’s given me over the years. His style of playing and singing and his love and concern for the welfare of the blues has been a great example for me and countless others who have had the good fortune to share this road."

Clapton elaborates on how, as a young musician, he discovered the music of Buddy Guy and and how Guy inspired him to follow his dreams as a blues musician and how he related to Guy because of the fact that Guy was a young player in a field dominated by the old masters.

He talks about the first time Guy played in England in 1965 at the Marquee club, "In the flesh he was earth shattering. His style, on every level, was fantastic, doing all the things we would later come to associate with Jimi Hendrix - playing with his teeth, his feet, and behind his head, he brought the house crashing down."

"But beyond all that," Clapton continues. "it was his actual playing that got through to me. With only a drummer and a bass player behind him, he gave a thundering performance, delivering the blues with finesse and passion in a way that I’d never heard before. And incidentally, he got me thinking that a trio was a pretty good line-up for a band." A slight laugh stirs in the audience for those who get the joke.

"All in all, everything about that night was deeply profound for me, the blues was clearly alive and well. And it looked good, too. For as well as being the real thing, musically, Buddy was a star. His suit, his hair, his moves, his sunburst Strat, everything was sharp and perfect. He was for me, what Elvis was for most other people. My course was set and he was my pilot."

Clapton concludes with, "For that I thank you Buddy Guy, and I welcome you to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame."

Buddy walks on stage with an old, lo-fi sounding blues song playing in the background that gives the impression that one is listening to an old Chess recording through a Victorola.

"Ah, that’s Muddy Waters' song, saying 'I got a black cat bone. I got a......It’s black, I got it.'" Buddy Guy muses.

Guy keeps his speech short and sweet and concludes by saying, "And to be in company like this tonight, I’m just out of words. I just wanna play for you. Look at this...to be standing here and get to pick up a guitar and stand between these two guys and play, man.....You gotta be me to know how I feel tonight, man. This is no small task." He refers to Clapton and King standing behind him.

Briefly, he thanks his record company and producers for "Putting up with my shit. I haven’t made a lot of records that make a lot of money, but I make a lot of records that uh, if you ever listen to it, it’s something that I might say that might fit you, like ‘You’re Damn Right I Got The Blues.’ "

He then turns to Clapton and says. "I remember Eric, when we came out of Australia, and you had a rock awards ceremony here in New York and we had Bo Diddley. And someone asked you ‘What is the Blues?’ and you said, ‘Mr. Donald Trump got the blues.’ And I said to myself ‘Wait a minute, you gotta explain this.’ You said, ‘Yeah he got the blues cause he got to keep it and I got the blues cause I got to get it.’

"And that’s been sticking with me ever since." Guy continues, "If you don't think you got the blues, just keep living. And if you don’t think you get drunk, just keep drinking what you’re drinking and thinking what you’re thinking."

He finishes with, "Ladies and gentleman, I’m gonna play a little blues for you, alright?."

He puts his award down and picks up his guitar - a white Fender Stratocaster with black polka dots randomly placed. "Damn right I got the blues!" he screams as the first line of his famous song. After the first verse, the band breaks down to almost an inaudible crawl.. "Shhh...damn right I got the blues." He coaxes the band and then they explode into a fiery crescendo.

"You gotta be me to know this. You know, we rehearsed it, but we didn't rehearse it like this. I’m not happy." he admits. "I want my friends to come out. Mr. Eric Clapton, ladies and gentlemen, and Mr. B.B. King. Yeah! Now we’re talking about the blues. "

"I might have been a little too loud, but I’m kinda happy tonight. If I’m a little loud, you have to put up with me. I’m gonna come down. When I do play, I like to...between these two guys, man, I gotta sit back and listen a little bit, so don’t look for me too much. I’m gonna cut them loose. And if we play too long just go like this," he says in the back ground as he waves his hands back and forth in front of him and the universal signal to 'wrap it up'. "I’ll know what that means. It means stop."

They tear into a hopping blues tune called "Let Me Love You Baby" with the three of them trading guitar leads and vocals, bringing it down only to say a few words.

"I wanna play a little something." Buddy says. "I’ve got to, talk a little bit now, ladies an gentleman, but between these two guys, I might play this all night. I don’t feel like I should stop."

"I say, B.B. King, play that thing for me." Guy sings. To which King replies with his signature riffs with his signature tone on his guitar, Lucille.

"I say, Eric Clapton, man." Guy sings again. "Won’t ya hit a sweet note for me." Clapton replies the way only he could with his famous "woman tone" on his Stratocaster.

"I could play it all night and I’ll stand right here all night and be so happy," Buddy sings and laughs.

"Congratulations for Buddy Guy" is announced in the press room as he enters.
Someone asks, "Buddy, you said that there were people who you thought deserve this award before you got it."

"Yes," he replied. "because they played a clip just before I came out with me playing with the late great Son House who taught Muddy Waters how to play. And I had the pleasure of playing with him, Fred McDowell, and Johnny Shine. And I wasn’t as wild tonight as I’d normally be, but I learned how to be wild by listening to a guy that made a famous record called "Things I Used To Do". And it was made by Ray Charles and a back up band. Ray Charles didn’t even have a band in New Orleans, just Guitar Slim. And I learned everything I know from them and I’m like saying I’m just a student and I’m just carrying on what I learned from them. And all this stuff should have been presented to them before it got to me. But at least I can tell you one thing, wherever they are. This is not mine tonight, it's ours."

When asked about comparing himself to the high profile career of B.B. King and the major label support King's received, he replied, "Die hard blues just need a little more exposure. I don’t envy anybody. You know, I copied so much from B.B. King. Without him, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me right now because B.B. King was there before me and before Eric Clapton and the British invasion as you call it. Him and Lightning Hopkins and T-Bone Walker, man, were playing this stuff.

"That glass of wine, which I just got, they’d put a hat down on the floor, and you’d play the guitar and the people that were throwing you the nickels and dimes, they’d look in the hat and they’d say ‘You got enough to get one?’ and he’d say ‘Yeah’ and he’d go out. And I even started that with Muddy when I went to Chicago, cause I thought they was living the life of luxury, but it was just like an everyday job, you know. So I don’t envy anybody you know. I envy the guys that be successful overnight cause you don’t know what to do with it. But if you ever had to split a hot dog with 5 people like I did with me and Jr. Wells and the rest of those guys in Chicago, when you do get a place to stay and a hot dog to eat by yourself, you appreciate it."

"Jimi Hendrix claimed you as a major influence, did you have any interaction with him and where do you think he took the music?" Guy was asked.

"He took the music...he was so creative, man, he took the music to places....as a matter of fact, he was here [Guy demonstrates by raising his hand up above his head]. And it’s before your time. They ran him away from here cause they kept telling him, like the Chess records was telling me in Chicago, that the ‘with the wild wild thing and the special effects, man, get away from here.’ Then some guy took him to London and the British people, they’d say ‘Play. That’s you.’

"And even when I went there, they told me, ‘That’s you - just play’. But here everybody had...I would go in the studio at Chess and they would say ‘Oh man, you sound too much like Tom, Dick and Harry. You can’t play that shit in here.’ And just before Leonard Chess of Chess Records died, he came back and put on a Cream and a Jimi Hendrix record and he said ‘You know what I want you to do, I want you to come in here and have your way because you’ve been trying to teach us this shit all the time and we’ve been too dumb to listen.’

"And I just talked to my record company about that a couple minutes ago, I want a little freedom on my next...I did a CD in New York the last three or four weeks and I’m in the process of doing another one. I wanna go in the studio and I’m not gonna get high....hehe. It’s good to be high sometimes when you’re playing music. I just wanna go in there and be free. You know, Hendrix even made a tune ‘bout Stone Free or something like that, right? And I think he meant just what he was playing and singing about.

"I think that’s why he was so successful at the things he did. And he was more successful when he was dead than when he was living. Most black blues guys get that anyway. My mother told me just before she died, ‘Son if you have any flowers, give them to me now so I can smell them cause I’m not gonna smell them when I’m gone.’ "

He finishes with, "So, ya’ll give me this tonight. I smelled this man. You hear me."

Программа посвященная первому аукциону гитар...1999

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Blind Faith "Hyde Park 1969" to be released 30 May

Blind Faith - Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, and Rick Grech - were rock's first supergroup. After more than 35 years, their debut concert in London's Hyde Park on 7 June 1969 will be released on DVD. "Hyde Park 1969" hits shelves 30 May. Running time: 58 minutes (all regions).

The concert has never been seen in its entirety. Blind Faith's set was only 40 minutes long, but the audience was treated to now-classic tracks like "Presence of the Lord", "Sleeping In The Ground", and a cover of the Rolling Stone's "Under My Thumb".

"Hyde Park 1969" also has archive footage of the various members of Blind Faith performing within their earlier musical guises. Clips of the Spencer Davies Group, Traffic, Family and Cream performing serve as a prelude to Blind Faith's first concert. The DVD also boasts other "Extras".

Running Time: 58 minutes (all regions).

Track List for the Blind Faith Concert is:

Well All Right
Sea Of Joy
Sleeping In The Ground
Under My Thumb
Can't Find My Way Home
Do What You Like
Presence Of The Lord
Means To An End
Had To Cry Today

БиБи Кинг в собственных словах:

Eric Clapton: "Number one rock guitarist in the world. And he plays the blues better than all of us."

Virgin Books are set to release 'Cream: The World's First Supergroup', a 282-page hardback book featuring rare photographs of one of the greatest rock'n'roll supergroups of the psychedelic sixties. Published in the U.K. on April 7, 2005, the book coincides with the much speculated and eagerly anticipated Cream reunion of the original three members.
http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/virgin_books/cream.htm