DVD: Eric Clapton: The 1960’s Review

Eric Clapton: The 1960’s Review
(Sexy Intellectual)

So you have heard of ol’ “Eric is God” Clapton, huh? You’ve seen the Armani suits, heard the big hits, maybe even caught him recently playing with his old buddy Steve Winwood? Well the Clapton we know now is by far not the guitar slinger who emerged out of early 1960’s England as the foremost electric blues players and one of only a handful of guys who can truly be called a Guitar God.

This well researched DVD takes us from Clapton’s birth to his early years, finding common musical ground with fellow musicians in art school, playing in bands we’ve never heard of like “The Roosters,” then finally landing the gig as the replacement band for The Rolling Stones, when Clapton’s band, a little outfit called The Yardbirds, took over Richmond’s Crawdaddy club.

Along the way of Clapton’s joining-quitting-then joining another band, what becomes apparent from the people who opine hee: Top Topham and Chris Dreja of the Yardbirds, band leader John Mayall, Paul Jones of Mannfred Mann and critics like Chris Welch, is that Eric Clapton wanted to play the blues more then anything else. He pushed his abilities on the electric guitar to the point where he surpassed Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck (two famous guitar slingers who later joined the Yardbirds) in playing the blues.

It’s fun to watch the archival footage gathered on Eric Clapton: The 1960’s Review and hear the man himself talk from various interviews over the years. But it’s the difference between the Clapton then and the Clapton now-and more than just the passing of years-that’s most astounding.