The famous song from his career Eric Clapton thinks is awful

Eric Clapton was part of several legendary bands such as The Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith before starting a highly successful solo career that helped make him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He has sold an estimated 200 million records worldwide and continues to be a major inspiration for musicians.

A very prolific artist, Clapton has released more than 30 albums throughout his career but he did not like every song he recorded. In fact, there is one very famous track loved by his fans that he thinks is awful.

The famous song from his career Eric Clapton thinks is awful

“A lot of the things that people rave about I don’t get at all. I mean, the live version of ‘Crossroads’ (Cream), which is supposed to be the peak of my career, I think is awful. My enjoyment of that experience is in the recollection of the relationship, the events that took place and the live music we made. A lot of that was on dope, you know. So it may have felt better than it sounded and it probably did. It was probably awful to listen to, but it was great to play,” Eric Clapton said in the documentary “Standing at the Crossroads” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

It was not the first time he said he didn’t like that particular version Cream recorded of the influential Robert Johnson song. In the 1980s he told Guitar Player magazine he thinks there’s something wrong in the version. “I haven’t heard (That version) in so long. I really don’t like it, actually. (Because) I think there’s something wrong with it.” A couple of decades later in 2004 when he released the Robert Johnson covers album “Sessions for Robert J” Clapton did not record a new version of ‘Crossroads.’

Speaking with Music Radar at the time he said that it drove him crazy that that version was available and that people thought it was great. “I certainly put that one to bed quickly! I actually have about zero tolerance for most of my old material. Especially Crossroads, the popularity of that song with Cream has always been mystifying to me. I don’t think it’s very good.”

Eric Clapton continued:

“Apart from that, I’m convinced that I get on the wrong beat in the middle of the song. (That) often happened with Cream. It drives me crazy that there’s this performance of me floating around where I’m supposed to be on the ‘one’ where really I’m on the ‘two.’ So, I never really revisit my old stuff. I won’t even go there,” Eric Clapton said.

Although Clapton does not like that particular version it is a song he loves. According to Setlist FM Eric Clapton played it live more than 1,000 times during his solo career. That makes him the most famous artist to have performed the track the most in history.

The meaning of “Crossroads” according to Eric Clapton

The life of Robert Johnson, one of the pioneers of modern Blues, is surrounded by mystery. Over the years many tales have been created around it. The most famous one is that he sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the guitar and write the groundbreaking songs he composed. The lyrics helped strengthen these myths, but to Clapton, songs like ‘Cross Road Blues,’ originally released in 1937, have a deeper meaning.

“When he sang about the crossroads is about choosing which path to go down. It’s about the moral decisions you make every day,” he told Music Radar in 2004. It is quite interesting to note his connection with that song and word. Over the years he named many important projects in his life after it. In 1998, he founded the Crossroads Centre, a rehabilitation center on the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda.

One year later, he started the Crossroads Guitar Festival, which has supported the center with the profits ever since. Over the past decades, the festival has brought together Clapton and some of the greatest blues musicians of all time. Artists such as B.B. King, Jimmy Vaughan, ZZ Top, Eric Johnson, J.J. Cale, Robert Cray, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, and Joe Walsh have taken part.

Why Clapton thinks a great guitar player is like a samurai

Since the 1960s, when the term ‘guitar hero’ began to be used to describe extraordinary guitarists such as Eric Clapton, music has evolved. Many fast players have emerged, ‘shredding’ their way into stardom. Although he admires artists like the late Eddie Van Halen, he has always preferred to be more of a ‘samurai’ when it comes to guitar playing.

“It’s almost like a samurai thing, it’s very interesting that I was always interested in samurai movies. The great ones are the ones who kind of play a defensive role. The great samurais are the ones that don’t go charging in, they wait, they wait, they wait and they wait. They usually give their opponent the fist shot at it, you know what I mean?”

“It’s much the same way in my knowledge of our culture, the guitar players, is that the great ones never appear to go into combat. They always like give up the stage, to whoever’s coming on and take a back seat. (Still) in a way, they win by default,” Eric Clapton said in the documentary “Standing at the Crossroads”.