I've seen Hendrix, Page (four times), Clapton (three times, including his show at Alpine Valley, which was SRV's final performance, when those two and Buddy Guy and Robert Cray jammed a couple tunes at the end!), and lots of other blues bands famous and unknown. Clapton's later stuff is regretably middle of the road, very commercial, and completely soulless. Hendrix remains THE figurehead of all electric guitarists, and Clapton's stuff through early 70's is unmatched for sheer innovation within the blues idiom. Any Cream song totally blows away most conventional blues music. I know they were derivative of actual black blues artists, but what they did was interpret the basic music and make it better, and Clapton was at the center of that music. He was truly inspired back then, now he just sounds tired, even contrived. SRV was never much of an innovator, and not even very technicaly adept, but he could boogie. And yes, you should check out Steve Still's first solo effort--the remastering has made it sound like a modern recording, and the music is superb, with Hendrix, Clapton, and Booker T! The top 40 song, Love the One You're With, is the worst on the whole album.
