re: Joe Bonamassa: So It's Like That

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At one of Clapton's past crossroads festivals, a interviewer commented to Clapton that she saw him and Buddy Guy at the side of the stage intently watching BB King perform, she asked what were they doing, Clapton replied, "just trying to steal some more licks."

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1. He's paying homage by being deferential Nothing wrong with that.

2. All guitarists steal from other guitarists. I've been doing it since the age of 16 in my first band.

3. Eric Clapton is a better guitarist than Buddy Guy. And I love Buddy Guy, have most of his CD's, and have seen him live here in Los Angeles. But Clapton is a better player. Even Buddy Guy admits that, calling Clapton a natural while he (Guy) has to work harder to play the same music.

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is it really about technical ability though? the blues I mean... the blues was never intended to be about who could blues lawyer up a pentatonic scale the best. i think focusing on that is missing the point of the blues completely. but to each their own

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No, you are missing the point. You think that entire list of white guys plays without emotion? Of course they do! That's the point of this ridiculous conversation. Someone always has to make the "white guys fricked up the blues argument" and I was responding to that. No, the white guys didnt frick up the blues. They elevated. They made it more technical while still keeping true to what it's derivatives are; emotion, passion, heart and soul. It's an outpouring of emotion. Literally trying to tell the listener that "The Sky Is Crying". The only difference between the white guys and the original black guys is that the white guys play it harder, faster, louder, more precise and with more outpouring of heart. If anything, they took the blues back to what it was intended to be. Howlin' Wolf and Muddy were more about flare alot of times than substance, especially in their live performances.

Exhibit A -
Larry Davis - Texas Flood
The original, and I love it. It makes me want to smoke cigs and drink in a shitty little pool hall all night. I think that's what people that say "white boys fricked up the blues" get caught up. The nostalgia that is apparent in the old records.

And this is what "Texas Flood" could be...in the hands of a more technically skilled and passionate player that is dedicated to his craft. It lacks no emotion, if anything it blows the original away with the raw emotion on display. When he rolls the volume up and digs into the fretboard at 1:12, you can fricking feel it in your soul. He's telling you a story of sorrow from that point on.

It's the same tune, only elevated and taken to the next level, the same way Bonamassa, Moore, KWS, etc have done. Im not trying to down the old blues, I love it. I live it. Hell, it's responsible for Led Zeppelin ever existing, but let's not get carried away on nostalgia and let's start calling a spade a spade. The modern era white players are better in every way, especially at personifying what the blues is really about, raw emotion.

Yeah, he doesn't make a very good argument.