It may be natural to believe that instrumental virtuosity is the key to enjoyable and, hence, marketable music. However, as the rock ‘n’ roll revolution and the subsequent punk rock revolution demonstrated, attitude, concept, and aesthetic can be just as effective, if not more so. Before the calculated recession to simplicity during the punk era, popular music brought us some icons who deftly married instrumental command with rock ‘n’ roll spirit. Among them was the storied guitarist Eric Clapton.
As Jimi Hendrix’s counterpart in Cream, Clapton helped establish London’s psychedelic rock scene in the mid-to-late-1960s. The subgenre had evolved from recent musical and lyrical innovations by leading figures like The Beatles and Bob Dylan. As rock moved further from its roots, psych-rock bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream decided to shake the foundations, with Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker ripping up the 4/4 rulebook and putting their respective bassists through their paces.
For his part, Clapton walked in Hendrix’s shadow as an innovative blues guitarist and former mentee of the great John Mayall. As he moved from band to band, eventually winding up in a successful solo career, Clapton also earned merit for his songwriting. However, his greatest strength was always lead guitar contributions, as The Beatles’ ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and Aretha Franklin’s ‘Good to Me as I Am to You’ attest.
Just as Delia Smith enjoys eating at internationally revered restaurants, Clapton usually seeks out the most talented instrumentalists when adding to his record collection. Therefore, he warmed to the likes of JJ Cale and Mark Knopfler in the 1970s and regarded the punks with caution. “I felt threatened because I was frightened,” Clapton told Louder Sound in 2016 regarding the punk wave. “I thought these guys were scary, you know?”
As the antithesis of his own area of virtuosity, punk posed a threat to the eminence of musicians like Clapton. Fortunately, the so-called Slowhand was far from alone as a purveyor of classic rock. As the flash-in-the-pan punk wave subsided into the more stable climes of post-punk at the end of the 1970s, Clapton heard plenty to be excited about in Dire Straits’ debut album, home to classic uptempo blues hits like ‘Sultans of Swing’ and ‘Six Blade Knife’.
Central to Dire Straits’ appeal was frontman Knopfler’s guitar skills, especially where Clapton was concerned. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1991, Clapton singled out Knopfler as one of his favourite contemporary musicians. The former Blind Faith guitarist called the Dire Straits frontman “totally unique” and a “great craftsman” due to his breathtaking ability to play, sing and write complex yet ever-appealing hits. “Dire Straits, if you listen to any of their albums the first time, it sort of goes by you a bit,” Clapton said. “Then gradually, it just gets better and better, and it stands the test of time. They’re fantastic craftsmen.”
Although The Police arrived during the punk era with an adjacent sound in their reggae-tinged debut album, Outlandos d’Amour, their approach was always more befitting of the new wave. In a 2021 interview with Far Out, Will Sergeant of post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen noted how he and other young punks saw through The Police’s facade. “The Police, we thought, were shit because they were too good,” he noted.
For the same reason, Clapton admired The Police as one of the few punk-adjacent groups he could get on board with. Although Sting wrote and played with a bass guitar alongside guitarist Andy Summers, Clapton saw similarities between The Police leader and his Dire Straits counterpart. “Sting has that same quality,” Capton added. “[The] Soul Cages was exactly the same thing for me. I liked it the first time, but it was a bit esoteric. Then it grew and grew.”
What Clapton’s admiration for artists like Knopfler and Sting ultimately reveals is not insecurity, but discernment. While punk may have unsettled him at first, he remained drawn to musicians who balanced accessibility with technical command. Craft still mattered to him, but so did longevity, and the ability to create songs that revealed deeper layers over time. In that sense, his praise was less about genre allegiance and more about enduring musicianship.
Clapton’s cautious response to punk, followed by his embrace of post-punk and new wave acts with serious instrumental chops, mirrors rock’s broader trajectory. The pendulum may swing between raw immediacy and polished proficiency, but the artists who endure are often those who can fuse both. For Clapton, greatness lay not in stripping music back or in showing off, but in achieving a balance that allowed skill to serve the song rather than overshadow it.
