Since when did Clapton sound anything like Hendrix or vice versa for that matter? The only similarity that could be pointed to is that Clapton sometimes uses a high level of distortion with violently struck repetitive chords at the climax of long improvisations. But wouldn't anyone? What else can you do when you've been pulling out all the inventive stops for ten minutes or so. And in any case the only example of this sort of thing in the officially released live recordings of Cream is the version of' 'NSU' on 'Live Cream' and this is the most problematic of these well known performances (sometimes I think it works and sometimes I don't ) as it is so unrelentingly extreme.
Other examples of Clapton using distortion in this way can only be found on bootlegs of Cream and I really don't think that Caladbolg was referring to these.
Clapton's use of wah wha of course cannot be cited as an imitation of Hendrix. This was a newly invented effect through an accessory available to all for the first time but it is obvious that Clapton had complete mastery of it from the start that owed nothing to Hendrix. Between them they seem to have exhausted its possibilities so that it soon became a cliche in lesser hands as did many of Hendrix's other uses of the new technology available to guitarists. Clapton only used wah wah on 'Ulysses' and 'White Room' as far as I can remember and always used tremolo and vibrato and flutter with great discipline taste and discretion. Other guitarists made them a cliche(/). To be honest maybe Hendrix did. But he was permitted to and and could have gone on using this sound had he lived.
It is an undisputed fact that Clapton and Hendrix admired each other - EACH OTHER - got it? Apart from this they played different material in very different ways. The only time they played the same thing is when Hendrix paid Cream the compliment of playing 'Sunshine' and of course he played it in a completely different way and I mean completely - he plays it in fact in a light and loose sort of way as if he was just having fun - just the opposite of Clapton.
This brings me to my main point:- Clapton was perhaps the only guitarist capable of sustaining a long improvisation without losing interest and losing tension. It may be that this was made possible through the contrapuntal tensions provided on their parts by Bruce and Baker but there is no evidence that any other guitarist could have taken Claptons place in this unique form of music.
By the way if listeners were more capable of sustained concentrated listening they might begin to appreciate that 'Crossroads' is not the only instance in which Cream achieve perfection. There are also the widely available LIVE versions of 'Spoonful',' I'm So Glad', Politician'(both live versions),'Sitting On Top of the World' and 'Toad'.
I believe that Cream, along with the Grateful Dead, have made the most serious and important white contribution to rock music as played LIVE but at the same time I recognise that their particularly intense form of music is not for everyone and there is nothing to be done about that.
I also believe that if Jack Bruce had been rather more disciplined ( it may have been alcohol that was to blame) in the use of his great vocal talent in his post Cream career then his live work with his various bands over the last 37 years would rank with the above. I think he came within a hairsbreadth of being the Beethoven of rock. The comparison can be pursued. In black music he would have some opposite rivals, in particular James Brown, and more obviously, Hendrix of course, but no one of the same stature in white music except Dylan. Anyone who wants to hear what I'm talking about can find the best evidence on the 1977 concert that the Jack Bruce Band gave for the BBC which is available as a single CD and now as part of a 3CDset with other concerts given on the BBC over the years. But in that particular concert the man was on top form. So was the band.
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