What Is Eric Clapton's Best Album?
From Surrey to the Mississippi Delta, via The Yardbirds, Cream and as solo guitar godhead; tell us how best to negotiate the canon.
THIS MONTH WE'RE reflecting on the discography of Eric Clapton, the influential and unmistakable guitar virtuoso who’s been feeling and playing the blues since debuting on wax with the Five Live Yardbirds LP in late 1964. So where do you start? 1966’s Blues Breakers album with John Mayall, or the Cream LPs, from back when he was writing the book on blues rock guitar? Derek And The Dominos’ Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs? How about 1974’s 461 Ocean Boulevard or Slowhand from ’77? And which selections from the ’80s and ’90s, the decades of Journeyman, Unplugged and From The Cradle? More recently, albums including 2000’s BB King hook-up Riding With The King, 2006’s collaboration with JJ Cale, The Road to Escondido and 2010's Clapton showed that those richly-toned, sculpted solos were still flowing from deep within.
So where do you go first? Tell us your choices and reasoning via the comments below. As ever, the best suggestions will appear in the How To Buy section of the next issue of MOJO magazine. Cheers!
