What Will Eric Clapton’s Legacy Be?

I love Clapton. While I don’t think Clapton is God, like many did early in EC’s career, I do really dig his 2009 DVD Live At Budokan God Meets Buddha. Clapton is one of those performing artists who can deliver in a very broad range of genres, from radio top 40, classic rock, seventies, sixties rock,

Clapton is rock royalty, that’s for sure. The list of performers he’s played with ranges from Pavarotti to the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy to BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, to Carlos Santana. He’s now recording and touring a lot with Doyle Bramhall II. Every time I see him in a video on stage with Buddy Guy or BB King, he knows his place and his role. He appears to be a true English gentleman and respectfully lets his peers solo first and waits for his cue, or rather, hand off.

But in some ways you could compare him to Picasso in that he had his periods. Or what I would otherwise call his “creative phases”. He played with the Yardbirds, he formed Cream. There was Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. 461 Ocean Boulevard could also be considered a landmark album with Motherless Children and I Shot the Sheriff. The eighties were tough but he returned with 1992′s Unplug to win six Grammies including album of the year.

An important turning point for me was 1994′s From the Cradle at which point he returned to his roots, the blues. Ever since, he’s been coasting his stardom by delivering what all his friends love most to hear and see him play live, again, the blues. His acoustic playing will linger forever. His playing is timeless.

What will you remember EC for? I like to think that when he dies he’ll be going to Alpine Valley.