The one guitarist Eric Clapton claimed “everyone was in awe of”
There were a lot of truly phenomenal guitarists following the explosion of the blues in the UK. Across a plethora of players, the Mississippi Delta was well represented across the Thames. For most of the 1960s, Eric Clapton was considered one of the premier guitar players of the rock world.
While he wowed audiences in the London club scene during his time in The Yardbirds and as a sideman for John Mayall, Clapton’s work with Cream put him above any other guitar player on the scene, with fans even etching ‘CLAPTON IS GOD’ in graffiti across the walls of England.
While he has certainly done a lot to turn the masses away from his music and towards his politics, underneath it all, ‘Slowhand’ was a student of the craft. He has always spent time championing the musicians and guitarists who have left him inspired. Even as he got older, Clapton was still learning new tricks, and one guitar player left his jaw on the floor.
Before he was even interested in rock, Clapton was always a student of the blues. After starting on guitar, the first handful of songs that Clapton wanted to learn came from the blues scene across the Atlantic, inspired by everyone from BB King to Howlin’ Wolf. Although there were plenty of blues idols to aspire to as a youngster, ‘Slowhand’ kept Muddy Waters in a distinct category.
Originating out of the Mississippi Delta, Waters was among the first to bring the sound of the blues to the mainstream. Throughout his work in Chicago, songs like ‘Rollin Stone’ and ‘You Need Love’ sent shockwaves through the scene, with every other guitarist trying to emulate what Waters was pulling out of his guitar.
By the time Waters had started making a name for himself, Clapton had been cutting his teeth half a world away. When performing with The Yardbirds, Clapton exposed the English rock scene to the dirtiest blues known to man, shouting the praises of artists like Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon.
Around the time that he worked with Cream, though, Clapton started to expand beyond strictly blues fills in his career. Switching gears throughout his solo career, ‘Slowhand’ would turn in his gritty 1960s delivery for a slicker style. Though the blues was still present in albums like Slowhand and his future Unplugged recordings, it tended to be coated in soft-rock tendencies, as if Clapton was trying to spoon-feed his love of old blues to the world.
Though Clapton would continue to innovate and receive the same accolades as his heroes, he still claimed that artists like Waters belong in a class by themselves. As he explained to MusicRadar, “I’m always aware of the authority they carry, and it is immense. If the blues community is an army, then these guys are generals. It’s just acknowledged when they walk into a room. Muddy just carried a power that everyone was in awe of”.
Considering the depth of talent that surrounded Clapton during his heyday, it is impressive to day that one man seemed to rise above them all. The guitarist was among icons like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck regularly, and to note that they all bowed down to Waters is impressive to say the least.
Despite the fundamental nature of playing the blues in a band context, what Waters created whenever he strapped on his guitar was the sense of swagger that no one else could match. Even though every English guitarist may have wanted to play their version of blues tunes, no one sang a song like ‘I Got My Mojo Working’ with as much authority as Waters.
Regardless of how much Clapton has put into his craft, his most important role is preserving the legacy that blues masters like Waters had helped create. Blues has always been a communal exercise, and Clapton is just the latest in a long line of players who have passed on the good word.
