Saturday, July 28, 2007

Clapton interview: On blues, Chicago

Interesting interview with Eric Clapton on rock critic Greg Kot's blog on The Chicago Tribune's website. Among other things, there's this exchange:
Q: You've done so much to nurture the blues. Do you think it will carry on?

A: Oh, sure. There is no shelf life for that. It's classical music now. It's on another level with the music of the great masters. It's very important. It touches people in a way that classical music touches people. It's on the same level.

Q: But are there new people coming up to keep it going or will it survive only in the recordings?

A: Both. There will be a certain element preserved and enshrined, but as a language it will continue to flourish, because the people who understand the language know how to put it into any kind of music you can play. It's possible to use that root to embellish rock, pop, jazz. It doesn't have to be strictly uniform. It can be applied in different ways.
But Clapton also takes on subjects ranging from punk (he thinks it almost killed roots music for a while) to woodshedding (he has small children and doesn't have enough time for it), B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Chicago. On Chicago:
Q: When you were listening to those classic Chicago blues records as a teenager, did you have a mental picture of what Chicago was like?

A: A certain amount of image was created by the guys themselves. It was well known there were these clubs called Smitty's and Pepper's Lounge and the South Side of Chicago was the hot place to be. Needless to say, where I came from, we didn't get the full picture, the harsher aspects of it. It seemed incredibly romantic, gangsterish and exciting. The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy
He's in town for Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, to be held today in in south suburban Chicago.

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