“Proficiency”: The guitarist Eric Clapton thought was far beyond anyone
All great rock and roll has been descended from the blues. No matter how many times artists try to transform the genre into some new shape that no one had ever heard of, the art of putting together those first few chords and managing to make a tune out of it is the reason why everyone from The Beatles to Chuck Berry got their start in the early days of the genre. While Eric Clapton was more of a blues purist, he thought that this blues great’s touch on the guitar was something that no one else would be able to match.
It’s not like Clapton hasn’t done his homework on the subject, either. Throughout every tune that he has put out, there are always those fleeting glimpses of the blues everywhere you look, whether that’s him sprinkling in a few licks when he plays tunes like ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and ‘Cocaine’ to the entire love letters he’s made to the genre like the tribute albums to Robert Johnson that he made around the turn of the century.
And despite his reluctance to sing in the early days, he didn’t really need to when his fingers were doing the talking for him. Whereas Jeff Beck took most of the credit for being an instrumental artist, Clapton could just as easily find his place amongst the greatest guitarists in their field, whether that meant making his own instrumentals or playing solos that were as fast as they were tasteful.
But blues music has never been about making the most complicated lick library in the world. It all comes down to honing one’s talents to quote what was in their heart, and whenever BB King got behind the fretboard, he made his guitar sound like it was crying out in pain.
Although he had the potential to be a fantastic singer, the lion’s share of his best guitar moments come from him holding out one note and soaking it up for all it’s worth. Clapton could still play 40 notes and tell a vast story with them, but King was far more interested in being blunt, often hanging on notes and creating so much drama within the spaces.
Even though Clapton may have easily been able to smoke him from a speed perspective, he knew that King would never be equalled, saying, “I started to see more and more of B.B. and started to realise that his proficiency on the instrument was probably far beyond anybody’s reach. It was something else he was doing that these guys would attempt. Buddy [Guy] would tell you that he grew up trying to imitate him. But I didn’t realise that. None of these guys was doing the same thing when I first heard them.”
And listening to the album that they made together, Riding with the King, it’s like night and day whenever each of them plays a solo. Clapton has his signature warm tone, but King’s touch is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, always cutting right through everything in the mix and refusing to be silenced.
Because that’s what all the great blues songs are built on. Regardless of how many times people run up and down the scale and claim to have that bluesy spirit in their hearts, it all comes down to whether that pain can come out through their fingers or not.
