Best blues guitarist, Clapton or Green

I have a little different take on this whole subject..

I do play guitar myself (25 years)so i have MAJOR appreciation for all the artist mentioned here. The point i will make is if it wasnt for the blues (old school) Robert Johnson, Albert King Ect.. There wouldent be rock and roll as we know it. Now Eric Clapton is a very good guitar player
but he plays a "watered down" and "mutated" version of the REAL thing when he decides he's gonna play the blues. Dont
get me wrong i think EC is great but he's not a blues guy.
Its my opinion SRV did the best job of "preserving" the
blues while modernizing and speeding it up... i also have
seen both EC and SRV live and think SRV would beat EC playing behind his back. That boy could play... Hendrix
was more of a innovator. The only rock and roll guitar player i can think of that doesnt sound like he's playing
blues scales even when he is Eddie VH. Another innovator...

Robert Johnson, Albert king, BB king ect those guys were
blues artists EVERY SONG they play is the real thing.

Just my two cents...

Voodoochile, the people you lump together as old school cover a huge range. I would argue that the leap from Robert Johnson to Albert King is far greater than that from Albert/B.B. to Eric Clapton. For the vast majority of his long career EC is clearly a rocker, but in his youth with John Mayall and later the Immediate All-Stars (Jimmy Page et. al.) showed him to be an accomplished and significant blues artist. The fact that Clapton currently doesn't play with the intensity he had when he was 19 shouldn't be held against him.

What about Duane Allman? True he is classed as a great rock & roll guitar player, but he could make that Les Paul of his cry "wit da blues" in a lot of his live performances; especially just before his untimely passing. IMHO, his licks were far sweeter and poignant that anything Clapton was doing in those days. The first time I went to see Eric Clapton in 1975 or so as a headliner, he had Ben E. King as a sideman playing with him. When Clapton hit the stage he was so intoxicated all he could do was keep roaring: "I'm so f***ing drunk". Thank God Ben E. was there to handle the guitar chores. It wasn't until 6 or 7 years later when I caved, and went to see him playing lead guitar for Roger Waters on his Pros and Cons of Hitchiking tour did I get to see what he is capable of. All in all, while I dont't believe Duane Allman to be the "best" blues player, he could dust Eric Clapton any old day.

Onhwy61,

Im talking more about music itself more so than age..
I really think those people i mentioned are the blues.

Im also a big Jimmy Page fan... He was heavily influenced
from blues also... But is he a blues man? Not in my book..
Just like EC.

Bottom line personally Im glad that there are MANY
different styles and variations.. I just think some are
more truthful to the roots.

For me SRV is probably the hardest too play he played the
guitar with so much emotion... Its really the funnest to
play also..

Happy holidays to everyone!

Voodoochile, who said anything about age? I was referring to their individual guitar styles. To call Clapton "watered down" is an extreme statement. "Have You Heard" the Mayall/Clapton Beano album?