I was think the same. Clapton has never been known for speed. He is very smooth not fast

lol I kept waiting for the speed and all I got were hackneyed, slow ass blues kicks

He was always called Erik slow hands Clapton

😂 he IS SLOWHAND. His GUITAR is SLOWHAND. This was pretty quick for him these days...​@georgerucker9263

@jordanrosner4362 anyway you put it at best he was ONLY a decent guitarist

hahahaha

Age is catching up, I've played since 9 in the 60s definite slow hand now.

There's the comment I was looking for lol

@@torineg.847 Steve Vai is 63 and still rocking, is possible!

Clapton's nickname of "Slowhand" came from Giorgio Gomelsky, a pun on the slow handclapping that ensued when Clapton stopped playing while he replaced a string.

I hope you're being sarcastic....

@@kennethmckeith7908 🤣

😂😂😂

The man in the video is not him. So fast he is miles away now

@@forelectricstring8833 it doesn't matter because he's not fast anyways

And it still sounds good !

So does Malmsteen

people still love hearing them since 1834

Layla solo version #888

​@@juancarlos-dx1ordeflect much?

I was there (Wembley Stadium), it was funny, I was absolutely glazed over for the whole thing, couldn't understand what the guy near me was going so wild about, just didn't get Clapton at all. Then Elton came on and I was going wild the whole time, looked over at the guy who liked Clapton and he was glazed over! You can't do anything about your taste!

Slowhand it's in his tone and vibrato 😮

Go listen to your Steve Vai douche

God he's overrated, I love jam music and I find him so boring

​@@Mnil52- Exactly.

Was too fast, you didn't even notice. Actually, anyone notice.

Prefer Clapton to Tim, how Hanson's bunch of tricks became music I don't get.

Pretty well said. I’d like to add that speed is only one element. It’s art not a race…

Yes but Allan Holdsworth is lightyears ahead of Eric Clapton and he came from the 60s too. Check the solos holdsworth did with soft machine. No one was playing like that till the 80s

To comment this long about it says a lot about how much time you have on your hands

These naysayers believe the local GE plant producing light bulbs is full of individuals more inventive than Edison. They are mesmerized by mindless shredding, absent of melody, created by a guitar and dozens of pedals daisy chained .

Actually, he was very, very-fast when he wanted to be, such as this live Cream Vol II song called "Steppin Out". This could be the best solo he ever laid down.(1968) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jqdyaa5emr67hWg.html

@@RayJCanPlay Thanks for the sound bite. As mentioned elsewhere in the comments section, the Clapton critics would be happy to have 10% of his chops. I'd go as far as to say I'd be happy to have 1%! However, just as I can't play football and yet am able to analyse the game, see better moves and judge players strengths and weaknesses, so it is with Clapton's "abilities" In the example you gave, yes, Eric is moderately fast. But he's also repetitive, inaccurate, at times running out of ideas, other time's putting ideas together badly. Some of his phrasing had me smiling and I even LOLd at 11:02 where he ran out of key, talent and ideas all at the same time and the train hit the buffers :-) (I'm writing this at 3am in bed, listening through headphones, so not a good time to LOL) I realise this is '68, it's live and he went on to do vastly better things but I never bought into the Clapton is God thing and listening to this track hasn't changed my opinion. But thanks for trying.

I agree with your take on Stepping Out. That being said. Eric has never been a fast player and his fastes stuff is below average at best. But speed is also not what he's know for. And for those that rank him in the top guitarist of all time. Im sorry but no way. There are thousands of Casino guitarist playing tonight that would absolutely destroy Eric.​@RayJCanPlay

...and one didn't fit at all near the end there. But I love Clapton & he is top 5 male white blues vocalist of all time.

Yeah...he added the 9th over the minor chord. He's always played the flat 5th though. In this passage; he also masterfully included the blue note!

lol!!!

IM WEAK

bro is literally just playing the guitar he’s vibing

Yep, and he's a antivaxxer.

@@James_N34L and notoriously racist. His famous on stage racist rant is the reason "Rock Against Racism" started.

He added the 9th in that one phrase, and sort of had a Dorian feel over that minor chord.

and he did it better than you could too!

@@CargoShorts7 🤔

The nickname ‘Slowhand’ came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying Eric was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into ‘Slowhand’ as a play on words.” It has nothing to do with Claptons lack of speed, Clapton has done more for guitar music than any other guitar player. Don’t forget that he is a living legend.

@@ThuderDuck Not correct - the nickname was from the audience slow clapping while waiting for Clapton to replace broken strings - which he did, a lot!

@@ThuderDuckmore than Chuck Berry?

@@colindakers113 thats part of the story! If you read the full comment I wrote the name was derived from the slow clap. And yes I read the story the way you have written it but what I wrote are literally Claptons own words. I think Eric himself would know better than you! So you are incorrect, and don’t be correcting me! I know what I’m talking about.

​@@ThuderDuckTwo words: Jason Becker.

And for that we should be thankful

@@Andy22882 she didn't suffer

This comment wins the internet.

If you play, try doing what he🤩 did/does at his age🤔?!

And malmsteen is not even close to shawn lane

Yes he crossed John petrucci limit😂

Not sure they're really bashing Clapton, but perhaps the poster (@EnterTheJam) for his wording of the title. It just drives nit-picking comments which boosts the YT algorithm for his content... which incidentally, we're both contributing to. 😎

Why? Check the video title.

We've seen good players on yt so we know real speed. Like Jake Eddy, 200bpm. Clapton, 70bpm

@@christophercooksey7016 Meah

What, dull and repetitive beginner blues?

I thought all the racism was what kept him alive. Laughed my arse off when he bought a mansion in Brazil.

@@steveymoon played like a guy who just learned the pentatonic scale and people still call him the goat. What a world.

@@golfer4039 - Yeah, it's bizarre. It's like they watched Clapton and then never saw another guitar player. The idea that Clapton scores higher on a poll of best guitar players than Eric Johnson or Joe Bonamassa or Slash or Eric Steckel or Robben Ford or Gary Moore or about a million others is mind blowing.

Cream era Clapton is one of my fav guitarists.

@@mrpzak I agree - a little. Derek & Dominoes was his best couple years. His best is on those live performances. IMHO that is :-)

He was amazing!!! I have been grieving since I rec’d the awful news of his passing! This Mother’s Day weekend will be 10 years since I was able to see him play live. It breaks my heart 😢to know I can only watch DVD’s from now on. Last show for me was an outdoor venue in Jermyn, PA called Mtn. Sky. Followed him & his band around from 2006-2014 & seen him 8x’s in that timeframe. Would have been more if other obligations didn’t get in the way. What an amazing songwriter & guitar player! Such great times going to see him & his band tear it up!

I know…. 😢😢😢

I just like how you added the word Thursday

Indeed. The nick "slowhand" comes from he is not the quickest when it comes to pay the beers

@@alfredochofre3169 Slowhand comes from the saying “A slow hand clapped on”

@@bobwalker200 I thought it was a reference to how slow he was on changing strings when he broke a string on stage. The crowd would slow clap while he replaced the string for 5 minutes.

Excactly. He played fast solos when he was a kid, even before yarbirds and the Cream.

​@@bobwalker200 What's that phrase supposed to mean?

But real guitar players aren't on the bandwagon.

So can Martha Stewart! 😂

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and others can pack larger venues. Doesn't make them good.

McDonald's is the world's leading seller of hamburgers. Not sure what your point is.

He still isn't fast, but then again he never claimed to be. He's more of a conversationalist than an auctioneer. He can play as fast as he needs

To be a great player you need to have the speed. Yes, he plays with some soul but lacks great creativity because of his improper technique.

@@kennethmckeith7908 and who are you Sir?!

@@minnaaminetj102 who I am sir has no bearing on this conversation. But if you must know, I've been playing guitar for about 40 years. I keep up to date with today's styles and with the old ones. I play all kinds of types of music. I play both rhythm and lead. I've had lessons and my taste in music is quite vast. The only thing I never got into was hip hop but they don't play much guitar in it. Anyways. I play soul, Rock, metal, country, and just a little classical. But my favorite is funk. I just think if a guy's a professional player and has almost nothing to do but hone his craft such as guitar playing, he should be a lot farther along than what Eric Clapton is. Personally I've had people say I'm a great player but I don't think I am. No. I reserve that for the guys I respect mightily.

@@kennethmckeith7908 Its your opinion and I respect it! I am more into Bloomfield and Gallagher, but I don't consider Clapton a bad guitarist.

​@@kennethmckeith7908.are you 14 years old? Speed has NOTJING to do with "greatness". You can teach a monkey tom play fast. Speed impresses wannabee guitar players and NO ONE ELSE.

...and chuckling!

Clapton could never be Gary

​@TNCadillacEldorado you're right he was better

Gary Moore watching from above (yawn emoji)

From below

🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Great album

Yngwie🤙

you have to be kidding me

It sounds like a beginner just found the pentatonic box.

Yes I feel a lot from this. It feels bland, safe, predictable and repeated over and over and over.

​@@AverageHuman7026 🤦 You need to hear it in the larger context, and this little bit isn't bland if you are a guitarist and listen to specifics. His dynamics are nice but kind of being squeezed out by the compressor.

​@@AverageHuman7026 🤦 You need to hear it in the larger context, and this little bit isn't bland if you are a guitarist and listen to specifics. His dynamics are nice but kind of being squeezed out by the compressor.

@@whatabouttheearth I've been playing guitar for 33 years. I understand specifics and dynamics. I also understand the same old regurgitated blues pentatonic playing done by guys like Clapton, Mayer, Shepard, Bonamassa, Lang and all the other clones. If you really listen you'll hear the same licks repeated song after song, album after album. SRV is the biggest culprit. You hear the same riffs in every song just in a different key. Listen to sky is crying and then Texas flood. Same exact song. Listen to Pride and Joy then listen to Cryin...same thing. It is a boring and overrated style of playing.

To have since read in his biography (E.C.) that he was so captured by the heroin addiction much of that time even more incredible. Recall he could barely sit up on the stool to record the album 461 Ocean Blvd

@@vcv6560 The Cream days were before heroin for sure. I believe during Derek and the Dominos it was heavy alcohol use and then was the heroin, but I don't totally remember. I know alcohol was his last addiction that finally broke him though. Also I believe during his heroin time he was at home for like 2 years straight.

Yeah that rhythm track he laid down for Layla was amazing 😂 If Duane hadn't been there, that song and that album would never have seen a chart. Even Eric himself said he had no clue how much he didn't know and how much he couldn't play until Duane came along to give him some guidance.

​@vcv6560 , I know i shouldn't advertise it, but the effects of heroin also has the ability to make you very creative.

a yawn

overrated clapton is overrated

I agree

Maybe it's just too fast to hear properly?

Say that about SRV and their heads explode.

True

He's just wanking pentatonic man. This is shit, literally shit, there are no nothing right notes. It's so bad that even spectacular. The most famous ass-handed guitarist in the world. It must be a joke, but it isn't.

The right notes being...?

@@brawdygordii The most basic pentatonic that ANYONE can play after 6 months of pratice haha but apparently he is GOD 😂😂😂😂

@@lemuscleetudiant1225 Well I'm glad you spotted that one 😂😂😂

along with timing mistakes and flubbs

Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" was jawdropping good! Please look for it

@@mauricedorreboom5388 I'm about to look for that Cheers for the recommendation!

Search this in KZfaq: Cream - Spoonful (Live at The Revolution Club, London, England // 1967) Yeah apart from appearing on the website Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians (check it out LOL) he hasn't done much that was particularly masculine since Cream has he? Alright I suppose there was the 'butch' You Look Wonderful Tonight and Promises ergh ergh ergh (excuse me while I go and sick up)... BTW, Love Badge too, but I like I Feel Free and Strange Brew. They just have this quality about them, like Badge that I find delicious.

I like his solo on yer blues from rolling stones rock n roll circus 👌

This solo is quite MOR compared to his fire and brimstone 60s stuff as mentioned. Don’t forget all his playing on Beano album too.

i prefer it to speed, some young people have no taste..

Like vai or satriani have the required soul. I’ve seen them both live and they don’t do to me what Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan or EVH did.

Age has nothing to do with it. Lack of good technique and drive was always his problem as well as illegal drugs and messing around with married women... That will hold you back more than anything else, but age ain't the problem

@@kennethmckeith7908 First of all he was probably 55 here . Secondly you’re right in your point about messing around with drugs and married women holding him back , but you couldn’t be more wrong about him lacking technique.. I mean cmon man it’s EC we’re talking about here , he may not be all flash and speed but his phrasing is IMMACULATE. That takes perfect technique. Could he have been better if he was more dedicated and didn’t mess around? I honestly don’t think so . He is a legend for a reason and the best exponent of the notes you don’t play or the space between them that has even lived, my favourite player? Not by a long way but you gotta give him his due ..

@@johnkk7863 Eric Clapton has horrible technique. Ask any well-trained guitarist and he will tell you that. Go ahead! Ask a trained guitarist. I'm not talking about a guy who's only been playing for 4 years. I'm talking about a guy who's been playing for 20 and he will tell you. Eric, claptons technique is just deplorable. Besides that, yeah he might be good at phrasing but that doesn't make him a great player. The great players are able to do just about anything they want in any genre. It doesn't come natural to them. They just have talent. But they decide to hone their talent to become the great players that they are. And Eric Clapton has not done that. People tend to say people are great when they don't know what the hell they're talking about. I'm sorry I'm not necessarily talking about you, but you could be included. If a person hasn't played guitar. There is no way they can make a right judgment about who is great and who's not. I think the truth is that when people like something they tend to think it's great and really don't give any analysis to it. Eric Clapton, Hendrix and the like are those players that people like to talk about as being great but have absolutely no idea what it takes to be great. Great. They know what they like and it's okay but please don't try to defend The idea that he's great. It's okay for people to like what they like, but they should use more analysis on whether that is great or not. It is usually not great but they like it and so they think it's great and that's okay. I found that people tend to attach emotional feelings to the things that they like and so they will defend with an inch of their life that they are great when they're in fact not.

John Mclaughlin is in his 80s

Jeff Beck was in his 70s

You dont know what you’re talking about. Rock came from blues. It was already in it. Get your info right. Chuck Berry did it way before Clapton.

@@luix3141 ...and Buddy Holly did it before Chuck....etc. I like Check Berry, too. EC was the preeminent 'channel' not to say there weren't others, too.

You obviously dont play guitar. he is a Freddie king rip off. Go and have a listen. Even his voice is like Freddie's. This is what you sound like when you dont practice. I hear three mistakes in that short piece.

​@davidnewstead7898 you don't play guitar and it's obvious

The solo from White room - with the wahwah pedal (which I'd never use myself) is the one that comes to mind

Try 60 years.

If you were making millions doing that, would you stop? :)

​@@Olegstuff21986if I already had made millions I would at least try to...in the end its art and not Bank!

​@@Olegstuff21986 That mentality sounds like somone without any creative drive

@@jks3190 Indeed, but that often happens to good artists once they get critical acclaim.

No such thing...

​@@kennethmckeith7908says nobody

Not

Not! He asked Paul Kossof how to get to Kossofs level with vibrato

@@CaribbeanMischief A Master Of Vibroto on a bend is BB King. Just look at his wrist on videos. I saw him live. He doesn`t play Rythm. Solos sound very similar, but still fabulous.

Nobody is saying his playing is bad, people are criticizing the headline, cos he is not playing fast (which he doesnt need to, BTW)

Huh? Yuck. I guess now there is such a thing as a "blues apologist."

Naaa. When you get where he is, you gotta take criticism. Wether its in spite or true. The fact is he plays better than the average Joe. But that doesn't mean he's still top dog. Personally, I don't know what everyone sees in him. It sounded good in the 60 cuz thats as good as it got, plus effect pedals and LSD helped. Then I saw the Song remains the same and some Hendrix documentaries. Apearently, Eric was a bit jealous of Jimi, literally handed his crown to him. But watching Pages fingers in Dazed and Confused was not of this planet. I worked in a night club in the early 80s and there were bands consisting of little kids, seriously, 13, 14 maybe that blew all my ambitions of playing out the door. One kid even had his arm in a cast and was smokin on a strat. And to him it was no big deal. Just like doing tricks on a skateboard. From that point on, thats all Eric was anymore. Just a legend. But hey, he was top dog for a while.

That last line is all we needed lol.

Most people don't realise (or don't care) that he suffers with peripheral neuropathy, which is damage to the nerves of the hands and feet. Causes chronic pain and restricts movement. Not that dissimilar to severe arthritis. Over ten years ago, he was talking about how playing the guitar had become a battle and that he didn't know how much longer he could continue. It's a miracle he can still play at all, let alone play "fast," as if that even matters in the Blues.

Artistic expression, the feel of the moment.

This is what makes guys like Clapton, Gilmour, and Knopfler legends.

thats true but what's he feeling here? ive taken lessons for 6 months? hack player

True but there’s no speed or feeling

It is about being able to express through the instrument what you feel. Technicality, speed, etc. are just tools to express emotions. If you can't play fast, there are some things you will not be able to express.

exactly

It's really not hate man, like sincerely. This is some beginner level improvising.

People wanna be on one side or the other of this one apparently. Eric Clapton isn’t exactly Donald Frump. He shouldn’t be a polarizing figure. He was the original guitar god. “ Clapton is God” was literally scrawled in spray paint all over England or at least London way back when- 50+ yrs ago. Obviously better players have come along since. Clapton is not an innovator( ‘ cept for Layla and Othsr Assorted Love songs lp). He plays the blues…Very Well. More melodically and with better phrasing than most. But he’s not a guitar hero in the modern age when their are 15-20 yr olds that play as well as him. It’s evolution. He def. doesn’t deserve haters. Half the people on here probably wouldn’t know much about rock guitar with guys like him creating the whole thing outta the blues ( and rockabilly, etc) back then in the ancient history of the 1960s.

@@golfer4039 How you define beginner level improvising? His phrasing is obviously at master level. If you cant hear or appreciate it then musicianship is probably not your thing.... Can you upload a video and improvise over the same chord changes so that we can get an idea what advanced playing is?

@@LordPrutsikas obviously at master level how???

I've had this same thought for years... all the greats were intermediate at best 😂 Everyone was so fucked up on drugs that it sounded expert level to them

@@xMyNameisJames88 It wasn't their speed that made them great. It was the songs that they made with what they had. Guitar playing is just one part of music anyways

They created the music tho, I get where you're coming from to a degree lol especially if talking about Clapton, he's a decent guitarist at best imo. Andy James, Rick Graham and many others would absolutely slay him in a shred off. ​@@xMyNameisJames88

Electric guitar was still barely new back then. Clapton, Hendrix, beck, etc paved the way to Eddie, randy Rhodes, satriani, yngvie, etc who paved the road to whoever you like today. It is weird seeing kids on youtube shredding like pros though.

@@jlobiafra Guitar is an amazing instrument, nobody is disregarded from learning it. Even people without limbs find a way, go get yourself a guitar. It was the best decision I ever made over a decade ago, I'm still no pro but have gone leaps and bounds ahead of what I thought I'd ever be. Still always learning, some guys pick up guitar and never learn anything but a few riffs in 30 years. Don't be that guy/gal. Study, practice dedicate an hour-3 a day, use your ear. Try to hear everything

Many played more notes, few if any played better ones. I've loved him for over 50 years.

Not really , boring is boring , completely overrated

100,000,000%​@@christopherkyle5639

I've been a musician since the early 80s, and all I hear is lazy pentatonic licks.

The phrasing isn’t even good lol. This sounds like someone who just learned the pentatonic scale lol

A bit of a pun "Slow hand clap" (ton) I heard a different "origin story". Clapton said someone in the 60s thought he was a fast player back then, so they said this as a joke

😂

And, lots of Heroin......

@@nyc9993 Hey, whatever works for the listeners…

Meh…he doesn’t look back on his playing in those years so fondly.

listening to a solo that uses one mode over a diatonic progression is not hard to "get". People get it, its just not very interesting.

@@jojothetasmaniansassmonkey8866 haha what do you know about modes

@@jojothetasmaniansassmonkey8866you’re playing probably sounds like shit to anyone that isn’t trying too hard to be artsy. Just live and let live you don’t have to be a dumbass hater

I agree in part. He never was world's greatest guitars because saying that means that he would have to be the only one in the world doing it. There are just too many great guitars out there to say that anyone is the best. Too many styles, and such...

@@jfal4782 nah trust me mate, this is what I sound like. maybe the tone sounds a little cheaper, but the extra technical skill thrown in makes up for that.

@@kennethmckeith7908 I defiantly agree, I just think people now forget Clapton did this in the 60’s. not to mention he wrote some pretty killer riffs in his time too. people just look at this stuff and compare it to modern times, and have no ability to think about what it meant for him to be doing it in the 60’s.

@@Duarki you may or or may not be right about the past. I disagree with that though because we're talking about popular guitar players of that era and not all the other ones that decided to become the best guitar player they could because it was obvious that Clapton didn't decide to do that. We are living in this time in Clapton is still playing. So therefore I am judging his current status of his playing and not what happened back in the 1960s and '70s. I maintain that his drummer was better at playing the drums than he was at playing the guitar in the band cream. In any respect, it is obvious that he stopped becoming the guitar player he could have been. Now why that is? I'm not sure, but I would bet it was because he rather would have taken illegal drugs and partyed all the time. Instead of becoming one of the greatest at his craft. I think his mind is completely burned now and he couldn't do it if he wanted to. Illegal drugs never help anybody.

@@kennethmckeith7908 yeh your right, i think there’s a lot of famous guitarist who are guilty of the same, they could of spent the next decade evolving and getting much better, but they basically retired advancing the guitar and turned into drugged up business men selling their product. fact still remains most guitarist are only relevant to their respective decade, and always get surpassed by the next generation of guitarist. but for the 60’s, Clapton was still one of the best. People can choose to judge him off his technical capabilities compared to guitarist from other time periods, or they can compare him to other guitarist from the 60’s. fact remains not many dudes were playing like Clapton was playing in cream in the 1960’s.

The GOAT

thats his signature phrasing which defines his sound .

@@cosmic687 Lol..another devotee..wake up

@@charliemen9512 THE DOPE

Yep! The 1860's

Any bluegrass flatpicker would make Clapton's head spin.

@@alan4sure Sure! How do you do

@@Rony-vg9wl familiar with Jake Eddy, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Trey Hensley or Jake Workman? They have real speed!

@@alan4sure all the artists you mentioned above are incredible. I wouldn't mind going as far as to thank you for introducing me to the likes of Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. However, regardless of how good they are, their virtuosity still does little to explain the apparent hostility people here seem to be having toward Clapton. Don't you feel it's still a bit snobbish to rush into conclusion about Clapton's musicality on the premise that he can't play as fast as Jake Eddy? Why don't we take a step backward and learn to enjoy a pint of beer with whatever music we find to be resonating the best with us..! Cheers!

​​@@Rony-vg9wl it's okay that people think Clapton is overrated. It's even okay for them to be a little bitter about it.

😂😂😂

😂

It's not that simple. It's actually: Dwee-to Piddley, Dwee-to Piddley, Dwee-to Piddley, (repeat ad nauseum until someone in the crowd shouts "Yeah!" ).....Peee.

There's a handful of nee-ner-alls and rutneys in there too.

Which does for nothing for me.

Bunch of boomers mystified by completely mediocre playing.

@@plgplgplg Think that was his point lol.

@@jensclarberg6419 I am aware, just agreeing with him

⁠@@donquixote8462​​⁠ Bunch of Gen Zers who wouldn’t know good music if it slapped them in the face.

You think this is beginner-level playing?

Not if he had reverb

@@rodjones117 yes,.after a year or 2 anyone can play this basic stuff. Compares this to Philip Sayce. Lol.

@@rayerscarpensael2300 It's not the scale that you play, or even the licks that you play, it's how you play them. At least in this kind of music. If you think a beginner could play this solo the way Clapton does you must know some very talented beginners. Or you're full of it. Disclosure - I think Clapton has got pretty lazy as he's got older, but this is not beginner level playing.

@@rodjones117 This is exactly beginner level playing my friend.

Clapton is more myth and legend than he is an actual great guitar player...

Speed can be a part of expression and creativity

And this completely lacks creativity imo

Thank god guitar icon tz7813 left his voice heard, this is really gonna move the needle.

@@treebeard9461 if you think that was a good solo then your opinion is worthless. Walk on fool.