Mega Music Talent

Posts Tagged ‘Eric Clapton’

Don’t you just love that movie ‘High Fidelity’ where the hero is constantly making lists of his top 5 all time favorite records, girl friends, meals and whatever. I save all the concert tickets from the concerts that I have been to and I can’t help but make up my top five classic concerts and wish I had the concert tickets to go with the memories.

Classic concert ticket number 5: U2 plays on an L.A. liquor store rooftop, March 27, 1987. They were atop a liquor store rooftop, Los Angeles. It may not have had The Beatles’ originality, but Bono and the guys surely enjoyed their 20 minutes on top of the LA world nevertheless. The Irish super group was about four songs into the gig on an L.A. liquor store rooftop when the city police decided to end their impromptu performance and spoil the fun for the fans that had gathered below. Strictly speaking this wasn’t a concert with proper concert tickets but I love the video “Where The Streets Have No Name”, which was the point of the whole exercise.

Classic concert ticket number 4: George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, August 1, 1971 at Madison Square Garden, New York City. What had initially been conceived as a small political fundraiser aimed at bringing humanitarian relief to the refugees in breakaway Bangladesh quickly turned into one of the biggest rock fundraisers of the 1970s. Although Lennon and McCartney never ended up signing on to Ravi Shankar’s cause, many other stars did, including George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, and Eric Clapton, who actually collapsed onstage as a result of his protracted bout of heroin addiction but still managed to proceed with the concert. The 40,000 or so fans who crowded New York’s Madison Square Garden witnessed some rare performances, including a 25-minute Indian recital by Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Classic concert ticket number 3: Pink Floyd break visual barriers with The Wall shows between February 1980 and June 1981. It was a World tour. Pink Floyd’s visual theatrics took a turn for the legendary with their infamous The Wall concerts, which were the last shows Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Dave Gilmour, and Nick Mason performed together before the Live 8 show in July 2005. Each show required timed performances and unprecedented cooperation between the musicians, concert crew, lighting engineers, and computer programmers. In fact, extended instrumentals and Roger Waters’ impromptu introductions often served to cover up stage fires and other technical difficulties, which seemed inevitable when putting together a show that included a 30-foot-high teacher puppet, a scorpion wife and other such animated characters.

Classic concert ticket number 2: Jimi Hendrix wows Woodstock, August 18, 1969 at Woodstock, New York. After plowing through three days worth of rain, mud, minbending drugs, and music, the 30,000 or so diehard fans who chose to brave one more night for Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock closer were not disappointed. In fact, those who stuck around to witness Hendrix’s mind-blowing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” cannot deny its importance on the festival’s soundtrack; it became the eternal anthem of a generation of civil rights crusaders, anti-war protestors and music lovers everywhere. Now I know this was a ‘free’ concert but it didn’t start out that way and there were actual concert tickets issued for Woddstock.

Classic concert ticket number 1: The Beatles sell out Shea Stadium August 15, 1965 in New York City. After a thundering welcome at JFK airport, the American release of Help! And an electrifying appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles’ success at Shea Stadium, the first-ever stadium concert of its kind, was all but guaranteed. In fact, the sell-out crowd of 55,600 was so deafening that the The ‘Fab Four’ could barely hear themselves play throughout their 30-minute set. Instead, The Beatles’ grand armored van entrance, John Lennon’s ‘Jerry Lee Lewis’ onstage freak-out and the event’s record-setting gross revenues stole the show.

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If you were asked to name the three most influential guitarists of the past 40 years I wonder what names you would come up with?

Perhaps you would think of Frank Zappa, or Chuck Berry, or perhaps Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, or maybe it would be Chet Atkins or Barney Kessel.

Well, all great guitarists, and worthy of recognition, but they would not quite come into my top three choices.

So who would I vote for? These three, but not necessarily in any particular order ? Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix and Jeff Beck.

Eric and Jeff I am glad to say are still performing, but sadly Jimmy died in 1970.

Right then, let me say a bit about these three guitar hero’s.

First of all, Eric Clapton. Eric was born in 1945, and in 1963 he joined the R&B group, The Yardbirds, but within 2 short years he had left the group as he felt that they were becoming an out and out pop group, and he was right.

He then had a brief spell with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before coming back to the UK to form the supergroup known as Cream, along with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

In 1968 Cream broke up, much to the sorrow of so many people, and Eric formed Blind Faith along with his former partner in Cream, Ginger Baker, and Steve Winwood.

Following the demise of Blind Faith Eric went on to form his own band, Derek and the Dominos and it was while he was in this band that he wrote what is, in my opinion, his greatest song ? “Layla”.

Sadly, drink and drugs began to take their toll of Eric, and he felt that he had to pull out of the music business, at least for a while.

Happily Eric is now back in full swing, and we his fans are all expectantly awaiting the next great thing from him.

Well next up comes Jimi Hendrix, born 1942, and died 1970. A brief life of just 28 years, but what a name he made for himself.

He is considered by many people to be the greatest rock guitarist of all time, and I would not argue with that.

For a part of his career he was a sideman for such famous name as Ike & Tina Turner, the Isley Brothers, and Little Richard, but not surprisingly somebody with his talent and stage presence did not stay in the background for long.

Hendrix moved to New York and played in various bars and clubs, and it was whilst he was playing in Greenwich Village one night that he was approached by a member of the British rock group, the Animals.

He persuaded Jimi to pack his bags and head for London in 1966.

He was a most amazing guitarist, and an incredible showman, and he became an almost instant success.

His first debut single was “Hey Joe”, still a great record today, and his debut album in 1967 was “Are you experienced”.

His playing on stage was something which you had to see, to believe. He would play the guitar behind his back, and sometimes he would pluck the strings with his teeth. He oftentimes would smash his guitar against his amplifiers in order to get a certain effect, and sometimes even set light to them.

If you saw him on stage you would never forget the experience.

When he died in 1970 of a drug overdose the world lost a truly unique musician.

This brings me on finally to my last choice, and that is Jeff Beck, a musician not as well known as Eric and Jimi, but a musician of immense talent.

Jeff was born in 1944 in Wallington, England, and he has spent most of his time performing with various bands. He spent some time with the colourful characted Screaming Lord Sutch until in 1965 he joined the Yardbirds to replace Eric Clapton.

He stayed with the yardbirds until late 1966 when he went on to form his own band the Jeff Beck Group.

He spent some time working with Rod Stewart until Rod left to join the Small Faces.

He has played with many people including Mick Jagger on his 1987 album Primitive Cool.

In 1989 Jeff won a grammy for best rock instrumental for his album Guitar Shop.

Jeff is thankfully still performing today, and I heard him not too long ago giving a thrilling live performance and proving himself to be a musician of tremendous ability..

This has been the first of a series of articles on great performers. If you would like to be kept updated as new articles come out then please go to my website and email me, asking to be kept updated.

Author Bio: John Charles is a guitarist, and guitar teacher. To visit his website, and be kept updated, please Click Here