Who's your guitar daddy now?

When I saw Clapton seemingly on auto pilot, it was at Staples Center in Los Angeles. I would think he'd have been on his "A" game for this show (and perhaps he was). The performance was extremely professional. I just thought it lacked spontaneity and soul.

My best guitar daddy experience live recently was seeing Dick Dale live in a very intimate venue and being right up front.

Despite his age qualifying as a guitar great grandaddy even, he was energized, spontaneous and seemed geneuinely happy to be there, even staying to chat with fans afterwards while sitting on stage. Needless to say , he smoked throughout the night on guitar, even breaking out into other genres besides his trademark "surf guitar" style. The best guitar concert ever for me. Worth 10X the $18 cost of admission.

Tvad, Clapton's commercial success is a two edged sword. The positives are obvious, but the downside has him trapped as a mid-60 year old man having to play what he played when he was in his 20s. Forty years of playing "Crossroads" and "Badge" has got to take it's toll. And if he tries something different, then his fans will probably abandon him. Think Miles Davis. Some purist never forgave him from going beyond the Shorter/Hancock quintet. He said he just couldn't play "My Funny Valentine" anymore. It was too emotional for him. You grow old and you evolve, but your fans always want something from and idealized past.

Eddie Van Halen once confessed that he couldn't currently play many of the guitar parts from the first few Van Halen albums. At the time he had a family and other interests and just wasn't playing guitar 10 to 12 hours everyday. It doesn't matter who you are, but nobody stays at their peak.

Onhwy61, I agree. When I played in bands for a short time, I became aware of the grind of playing the same set lists, and I wasn't even playing that often.

As I said, Clapton's show was very professional, but a bit staid.

On the other hand, when I saw The Rolling Stones in the late 90s, they had been performing their songs for thirty years, yet they still maintained some spontaneity throughout the show, due in no small measure to Mick. They were old men, but they put on a show that's still the best rock concert I've ever seen.

Mine is not a criticism really. Just an observation.

My guitar Daddy has always been Frank Zappa. But my step Daddy is John Abercrombie.