Carl Perkins 1985 on Sky Arts. EC 🙄

[oldslapper 1,497]

Watching this on Sky Arts, 1985 tv special of the great man himself and a number of guests. Now I love me a bit o Rockabilly and Western swing, etc and all is going well, sympathetic guitar settings (clean slapback reverb) from band until mr Clapton does a turn. Distorted blues licks, bends and stuff (basically what he does), sounded completely out of place to me. Mr Perkins seemed to like it, so what do I know. But to me it was the equivalent of Mark king doing a slap solo all the way through The Deer Hunter theme choon. Just because you can and all that?!

Maybe EC can only do one thing (albeit very well).

I’ll get back in my box now, but anyone else think of musically inappropriate guest appearances? 
Bye! 

 

[casapete 1,485]

I watched this too, and remember watching it not long after it came out in 1986. Despite being a massive EC fan, I have to agree with you about his appearance on this - his playing and sound didn’t suit the material much at all. Coupled with the fact that the late great Mickey Gee was at the back doing some very tasty stuff on his Telecaster, and Dave Edmunds and George Harrison both played more appropriate solos too. Eric has done a few things where his style didn’t really fit in - when I saw him with Hawkwind last year he just did his trademark EC thing with them too! Incidentally, did you notice on the Carl Perkins gig there was both an electric bass player (his son) and Lee Rocker playing upright pretty much on every song- unusual!

Regarding other players, I remember EC and Jeff Beck playing at a charity gig, The Secret Policeman’s Ball many years ago. They performed ‘Further on up the road’, a blues standard. The drummer was Simon Philips, who apparently is a brilliant jazz/rock player, but proceeded to decimate a simple blues shuffle with loads of clever fills etc. I’ll see if I can find a clip and post later.

[oldslapper 1,497]

Thought it was just me. 

George Harrison’s playing was fabulous too, you could tell he loves the genre and CP was a hero. 

[Doctor J 2,143]

27 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

I’ll get back in my box now, but anyone else think of musically inappropriate guest appearances? 

Almost every rap interlude in an otherwise melodically based song. There are a few, just a few, occasions where it works but usually it's some jarring ramble through, these days, bland sentimentality and drive-thru aspirational fluff and destroys what could otherwise be a decent song.

[casapete 1,485]

Here's the clip I mentioned earlier (with the unsympathetic drummer!)

 

[Dad3353 7,420]

18 minutes ago, casapete said:

... (with the unsympathetic drummer!) ...

Can't hear any problems, myself. It looks and sounds as if everyone is enjoying themselves. S'all good, for me. 

[casapete 1,485]

12 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Can't hear any problems, myself. It looks and sounds as if everyone is enjoying themselves. S'all good, for me. 

It's just the manic fills on each stop, and the general rushed feel with no swing. No problems with folks enjoying themselves of course. Not really 'this drummer's at the wrong gig' scenario, just not great for the job IMHO. 

Clapton has used some great drummers over the years, and I've been lucky to see most of them. Jim Keltner, Steve Ferrone and Steve Gadd stick out as being the most memorable. This clip shows Steve Gadd - song is obviously a lot slower than the previous clip, but nevertheless just sits right. IMHO of course 😊

 

[Kirky 60]

When I watched this I though EC was dreadful.   Harrison and Edmunds in particular were very impessive