Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetSamBlues
Eric Clapton is credited with re-popularizing the blues. He was highly influenced by Robert johnson who played acoustic.
So isnt acoustic more influential?
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Robert Johnson was only one of several blues guitarists who were a key influence on Clapton, and Clapton didn't repopularize squat.
Just as influential with Clapton were ELECTRIC blues guitarists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King etc. All three of whom were playing electric exclusively by the time Clapton was born in 1945.
By the 1950's, acoustic guitar blues was passe. As a kid growing up in the 50's and early 60's, virtually all the blues guitar Clapton would've heard on the radio, on records and in live performances was electric.
Clapton never recorded a tribute album to Johnson until about three years ago. If Johnson really was his greatest early influence, why didn't Clapton record a tribute album in the early to mid-60's, when he was still considered a blues guitar purist, rather than a rock guitarist?
It was guys like B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry who repopularized the blues. Clapton was a wannabe who swiped the main riff for "Layla" from an ELECTRIC blues guitarist who had originated it years earlier.
