Eric Clapton is God

When I was eight I was going through my Dad’s cd’s and there was good shit there. Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here, Momentary Lapse of Reason, Animals, Beatles Abbeyroad, Mike & The Mechanics and some pure shite as well like Genesis and Kenny G. Then probably the single most important discovery of my young life. I pulled out an Album called Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream. The guys on the cover were washed out with psychedelic lights and looked like a combination of pirates, gypseys and courtiers from Louise XII’s court. I said to dad ‘Look at these crazy guys’ and dad said ‘Hey Cream there fucking excellent put ‘em on’ or something to that effect.
Blown away. Dad put it into heavy circulation on the CD player regressing back to his Uni student days. For me the music just got ingrained. Probably two years later I took an active enough interest to learn Eric Clapton was the guitarist of Cream. I’d always been raised to believe that Clapton was the best guitarist in the world but I never questioned way some old dude who sang Tears In Heaven. I like probably most people of my generation could have ignorantly cruised through life not knowing how truly awesome Clapton is. My definition of a priveledged upbringing is if you had a dad who was into The Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Deep Purple you know bands that actually fucking rock. The Beatles I excuse only because defining them is much harder than most other bands.
I guess more than anything else, the music industry really has forgotten Rock. The raw concept. There is no better way in my opinion to turn anger and frustration into something beautiful. The guitar is such an important fucking instrument to my development even though as a lefty I can play less than most people not even ‘Wonderwall’ by oasis. Rock was Alive and kicking as late as 1997 then I’s just died with this Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and other pure shite that doesn’t challenge anything. Faith No More is the only other band I’d put in the same category as cream as knowing purely and simply how to Rock. Infact Cream where together for 2 years and the only real supergroup ever. People call AudioSlave (a band I love) a supergroup but it just isn’t true. Jimi Hendrix tops all those guitar magazine polls of the Top 100 guitarists of all timeand Eric Clapton kicks around between 2-5 generally but there’s a simple explanation for why this happened Jimi Hendrix died at the peak of his career, but he is an amazing guitarist in his own right. Eric Clapton popularised the wah peddle with White Room, Sunshine of Your Love is the most played guitar riff ever he was eloquent and thundering where Hendrix was experimental and rebellious. Ginger Baker would still be a contender for greatest drummer ever, Jack Bruce blew open the Bass Guitar world by playing all over the place instead of the oppressive root note of the chord every first beat of the bar.
Fact was for the two years they where together, the first band to ever go platinum, the band that topped the sales of the bible in two years versus forty years of bible sales, is largely forgotten or at the very least, least likely to be mentioned as an influence by modern bands.
Nirvana, Faith No More, Tool, Primus, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails all the bands that fucking rocked the 90’s are the all the bands that rock the fucking new millennium (apart from those that have disbanded) but most of the ‘Alternative’ acts to have emerged have been side projects of these bands. I don’t mention these to demonstrate how hung up I am on living in the past but more to validate the staying power of these bands in sales versus the late 90’s groups Limp Bizkit & Korn are struggling more than Marilyn Manson and all the other progeny of the nu metal wave. The Strokes where massive too but where have they gone? Koolio who? Headline acts at festivals are the same bands that rode the crest of Nirvana’s biggest contribution (which turned out to be a brief respite) of getting record companies to take a risk. Tool have complete creative control over there albums and put out 1 every four years or so, like RATM did also never resulting to fill the blanks compositions like Korn who I’m sure had to put out 2 albums a year at some point. At the moment there are no albums like Mother’s Milk (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) thrashy inaccessible but impressive shit before they blossomed on Blood Sugar Sex Magic & One Hot Minute. Instead you have artists like Linkin Park going on tour with only a debut album worth of material and Alien Ant Farm. You get a simple plan where all the group members where the same outfit? I know the Peppers used to do the same but there outfits were tube socks covering their genitals. Simple Plan couldn’t even convince me they have even started shaving yet (unless it’s their armpits).
Australian music is selling better than ever but rock is dead. The Australian obsession with mediocrity (look up mediocrity in the dictionary and there’s Delta Goodrem shaking hands with John Howard) means by promoting Australian music we’re pushing shit that in a open market not dominated by triple j, would never make it out of the pub circuit. The plethora of acoustic Australian artists to have been jammed down my throat (particularly Missy Higgens) baffles me. Everyone went to school and listened to the acoustic and vocal numbers. I don’t have a problem with this a few of them are really good, Robert Johnson lay the foundation of rock with an acoustic guitar and his sweet vocals in the Mississippi delta oh so long ago, Ani DiFranco I will happily listen to. But the message, the fucking message is what it comes down to! The message is all the same. Australian music doesn’t push or challenge anymore it’s the same whining message that life’s unfair and I’m a victim and boohoo. My generation isn’t in anymore and music reflects the attitude of the main consumer of singles 12-14 year olds who are getting handouts. It’s marketing idiocy, everyone knows kids want to be older round about till they hit 21. You sell to the uni student market like the good old days you pick up everyone younger for free. If you like Missy Higgens you should love Dolly Parton. I personally prefer the music I listen to come from a diverse cultural melting pot like the California Bay Area than my highschool and every other highschool in Australia, or Australian fucking Idol, if Mike Patton walked in there they’d send him away and he’s the greatest vocalist of all time. And a screamer too, like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Jack Bruce, Chino Moreno of Deftones, Maynard of Tool fucking injected energy into music and could be heard over an electric guitar. There’s a reason people used war cries in ancient times, you feel good jumping up and down on a bed, and smashing things makes you feel good when you’re angry. It’s the energy, it makes you feel alive. Rock made me feel like I could fucking change things, it made me feel superhuman not ordinary. Rock was empowering, Grunge was empowering because it tought us not to bother with pretenses. Grunge’s demise probably had more to do with not being able to sell clothing or image (don’t pay off your loan on that Ferrari Fiddy buy some fucking Jewellery) when cool was buying flannel shirts from an op-shop sunglasses from a petrol station and neither cutting or washing your hair.
It is really a testament to the bands who rocked the early 90’s that they dominate the arena concerts in Australia still, they probably should have been buried long ago, but nobodies been given a chance to dislodge them, clapping your hands to Delta Goodrem or letting the relaxing melodies of Alex Lloyd wash over you just can’t compare to having your ribcage rattled from 800m away by Justin Chancellor’s drumkit, or bits of your brain broken by Tom Morello’s guitar solos. Women should enjoy it too, why when I saw AudioSlave the entire evening was spent rubbing up against buff half naked men.
Seeing Tool and Audioslave however was shat on by seeing the Who. I always watched those adds for those Irish folk groups playing just for old times sake concerts in front of senile pensioners and looking forward to when my dad hit that age and the just for old times sakes concerts where Cream, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones etc.
That day has dawned I’ve never looked forward to retirement more than seeing Pete Townsend bald with grey hair in a navy blue suit leap around stage like a Springbok carving the air up with his axe. No matter how many times today’s R&B singers, neo punk groups and manufactured alternative bands go platinum they’ll never have it that good. It breaks my heart that I’d rather talk music with 50-60 year olds these days than people my own age.
Buy and listen to these albums:
Cream – Disreali Gears, Wheels of Fire
Faith No More – King For A Day, Angel Dust
Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience
Led Zeppelin – Remasters
Tool – Aenema
Primus – Frizzle Fry
Nirvana – Nevermind
Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Mother’s Milk
The Who – (Any best of there masterpieces are too spaced out)
Pink Floyd – Animals
Jane’s Addiction – Ritual De Lo Habitual (Perry Farrel had a girlfriend overdose and his mother commit suicide, Dave Navarro’s Mother was brutally murdered in front of him when he was a child, when Simple Plan talk about “not understanding” they should pull their head out of their arse)
Regurgitator – Tu Plang Kon Uak (just about the best thing Australia has produced)
Skunkhour – Chin chin
Powderfinger – Double Allergic (in case you’d forgotten)
Silverchair – Frogstomp (same again)
White Stripes – Elephant
Audioslave – Self titled
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
Mettallica – Black Album
Eels – Beautiful Freak
Rock is a vitality that is unsustainable for many artists and most calm down to focus on song writing which is a natural progression and most are better off for having rocked, there are slivers of light in the darkness too. Oh yeah and Richard Kingsmill can boil alive in his own urine for all eternity for what he’s done to triple j.