Who was a better guitarist: Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix?

I imagine this question has been asked and argued for a good 50 years by everyone, but I liked this guys take on it.

Who was a better guitarist: Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix?
David Stern

Updated Nov 14
I have been playing since 1968. Crossroads, from Wheels of Fire, is the song that made we want to play lead guitar. After 50 years of playing, I could probably play anything Clapton ever played, because his playing isn’t particularly challenging.

There are still many things that Hendrix did that I find challenging.

So, here is my evaluation:

Clapton had great tone, but he wasn’t particularly creative. He had limited ideas, mostly based around blues boxes. Because of that, the last 45 years of his playing has been mundane. He has been unable to break out of the style he first developed.

Hendrix knew his way around a chord far better than Clapton. He would add a 9th, flat a 5th, use a substitution and hit a passing chord, and would finger a melody while he was chording.

Hendrix saw the electric guitar as a wholly different instrument. You can play a Clapton solo on an acoustic guitar, and it will sound, more or less, like Clapton. Hendrix created a synthesis of guitar, amp and talent that was new.

The use of whammy bar swoops, feedback, hammer-ons, legato runs and all the things later developed by more technical guitarists were all first used by Hendrix.

Hendrix was a compelling physical figure, far more entertaining to watch than Clapton.

None of this is to say Clapton is a bad guitarist. He has entertained a lot of people, and influenced my early playing quite a bit. But, in his style, Duane Allman had better phrasing and Jeff Beck surpassed him in creativity and technical ability.

But, if you choose to differ, that’s OK - De gustibus non est disputandum

Didn’t he play the solo at the end of Layla? I always thought that sucked.

I agree, Clapton’s work is much more accessible. Not necessarily worse but different.

I liked that solo and for years I kind of thought it was that solo that helped create the “Clapton is God” trope that was prevalent back in the day. Till I found out it was not Clapton.

I mostly agree with your pal, Ape. I read a piece by Les Paul many years ago (maybe mid seventies) wherein he said that he was in London in 67 and went to a club to see Hendrix, and it was a life changing event for him.

I will say though, that in the mid-sixties the style that Clapton developed, even though it was mostly lifted from old blues records and nicely tucked together, was indeed something pretty special for the times. Clapton playing blues-tinged material was arguably a tiny bit better than Beck playing similar material. The origin of the Clapton is God trope was in England in 64-65 when he was with the Mayall band and the Yardbirds, way before Cream. And Cream took him out of that largely because of Bruce, which was a big jump really.

As far as Allman goes, yes he was quite a synthesizer in his own right but only marginally better than Betts who is still kind of underrated in terms of the early ABB work. Still, neither of them is in Beck’s league let alone Jimi’s. Duane did do some notable session work, but not much of it impressed me except on Herbie Mann’s album where Duane and Szabo both played guitar. I really thought Duane was better in the context of ABB.

I didn’t like the Layla album very much. Too much heroin, too much pain. Of the nine guys on that album, only three were still alive a decade later, and one of them institutionalized for life.

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Who is in a “home”?

In my imaginary ghey porn video this has always been on my short list of key scene music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR64lF2agbM

Bass – Chuck Rainey
Drums – Bernard Purdie
Electric Piano – Richard Tee
Flute – Herbie Mann
Flute [Alto] – Herbie Mann
Guitar – Cornell Dupree, Duane Allman
Harp – Gene Bianca
Organ – Richard Tee
Percussion – Ralph McDonald
Piano – Richard Tee
Producer – Arif Mardin

This album has been mentioned as the nucleus of the seminal jazz/pop/funk band of the 80’s, Stuff, With Tee and Dupree.

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Jim Gordon, the drummer. Undiagnosed schizophrenic, kilt his mother with a hammer.

I thought Bobby Whitlock was the key member of D & the D’s.

Oh yeah that’s right I had known that. I remember seeing that in multiple sources. Derp.

Oops, sorry. I conflated this album with another one where Szabo and maybe Almieda were the guitars. It was a bossa nova album though, not Herbie.

Dupree and Luther Allison BTW are very underrated Chicago bluesmen of that time.

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I always thought it was out of tune. Like he never learned to bend all the way to the note he was aiming for.

Pretenders, usurpers, all of them. They all copied Fleegle, ALL of them.

Oh man that takes me back

Now I am recalling Sigmund and the Sea Monsters

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