The guitarist Neil Young and Eric Clapton agreed was in a league of his own
As two of the most celebrated guitarists of all time, it’s something of a tragedy that Eric Clapton and Neil Young haven’t been presented with more opportunities to play alongside one another.
Aside from their appearance on stage together during one of the jam sessions of The Band’s infamous final concert, better known as the live album and documentary film, The Last Waltz, the two haven’t really crossed paths during their careers, and we’re left to only speculate what wondrous feasts of guitar playing they would have presented the world with had the two had more chances to collaborate.
Of course, while they were both obviously busy working on their own individual projects and establishing themselves as two of the most illustrious figures in rock music around the same time, this has never stood in the way of other guitarists of a similar ilk working alongside each other to make standalone works of beauty. Had Clapton and Young ever attempted to do this, it seems pretty certain that they would have produced something to marvel at.
Despite the fact that they’ve not really had the chance to cement any form of relationship, the similarities between their styles and origins make you think that they would at least share a handful of common ideas and opinions on musicality, and as it happens, the pair of them both appear to look up to one particular guitarist as being an unstoppable force who should have served as an inspiration to all budding guitarists.
A legend of Americana, blues and country rock, JJ Cale is an unfortunately overlooked guitarist whose career quietly shifted around in the shadows of all of the most notorious players who are frequently cited as the greatest of all time, but despite his desire to remain a background figure who went about his business, his resolute and inimitable style was something that still managed to catch the attention of some of the greats, not least Clapton and Young.
Clapton worked alongside Cale on their 2006 album, The Road to Escondido, but had been mutual supporters of one another long before they released this collaborative record. Having won the Grammy for ‘Best Contemporary Blues Album’ for this release, it was evident that the two had some sort of kinship, and Clapton would later comment on just how influential Cale had been to how his own sound changed at various points in his career.
“What seemed to evolve out of the 1960s and into the ’70s and then, in another way, the ’80s was volume and proficiency and virtuosity,” Clapton argued in a 2014 interview with NPR. “I wanted to go in the other direction and try to find a way to make it minimal, but still have a great deal of substance. That was the essence of JJ’s music to me, apart from the fact that he summed up so many of the different essences of American music: rock and jazz and folk, blues. He just seemed to have an understanding of it all.”
While Cale was most certainly an influence upon Clapton’s ever-changing style, Young proclaimed that even though Clapton was the one who got the recognition, Cale was still the superior musician. “You could say Eric Clapton’s the guitar god, but he can’t play like JJ,” Young wrote in his autobiography. Like Clapton, he also commented on the fact that he wasn’t the sort of player who would play loudly, and relied on subtlety to carry his performances.
Despite acknowledging that Cale was perhaps more shy than he is, Young also stated that despite his reclusive nature, he was more than just a peer of his because of the sheer amount of talent that he possessed.
“His touch is unspeakable. I am stunned by it,” Young later said in a later book. Those aren’t words you use lightly, and for them to come from Young and be corroborated by Clapton says a lot about just how mind-blowing Cale’s work was.
