{"id":20230,"date":"2026-02-03T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20230"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:15:20","slug":"eric-claptons-two-greatest-solos-according-to-eddie-van-halen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20230","title":{"rendered":"Eric Clapton\u2019s two greatest solos, according to Eddie Van Halen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The guitar skills of\u00a0Eddie Van Halen\u00a0were so astounding and assured that classic rock heroes quickly became dethroned idols as he burst onto the scene and rose swiftly to the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To him, Jimi Hendrix was \u201ctoo sloppy\u201d, Rick Derringer was a rip-off who he chastised by demanding that he stop playing \u201cmy melody\u201d, and \u201ccontemporary music\u201d was something he quit listening to a long time before even the hair metal explosion rose up around him. But there was one fellow who he did revere: Eric Clapton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, he\u2019s not alone in this regard. Hendrix went so far as to hail Clapton as \u201cjust too much\u201d in the best possible way, BB King listed him among the greats, and half of London called him \u201cGod\u201d for a period in the 1960s. However, of all the plaudits that the Cream guitarist received, those asserted by the fuzzy-haired force behind \u2018Eruption\u2019 were perhaps the most glowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Lou Reed, EVH was more likely to dish out a slap around the chops than a compliment. With his signature sound cut-up and copied by a coterie of incapable cling-ons in the era of tired, second-hand showiness, he was perhaps justified to feel so aggrieved. Although maybe he took things a little too far when he bought a bloody tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, he was all too happy to go all doe-eyed and revisit the halcyon days of his youth when he would jam along to Clapton records. It seemed\u00a0the \u2018Sunshine of Your Love\u2019 strummer\u00a0brought out a rare sentimental side in EVH. After moving over to Pasadena, California, from the Netherlands with his family when he was seven, the sound of Clapton was the first pulse of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll that he heard, and it set his imagination racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, a new life in new lands stretched out ahead, and he had one hero guiding the way. \u201cClapton was it,\u201d he told Guitar World. \u201cI knew every note he played. That\u2019s what I was known for around home. Me, Alex, and another bass player called ourselves Mammoth and we were the junior Cream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This intimacy with Clapton\u2019s work from such a young age makes EVH\u2019s appraisal of it all the more noteworthy. So, when he told Guitar Player<\/em> about the two stand-out moments in Clapton\u2019s discography, it essentially represented the apprentice hailing the master\u2019s finest work at a point in 1978 when they had emerged as the one and two in the whole classic rock cannon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Clapton\u2019s greatest solos, according to Eddie Van Halen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


\u2018I\u2019m So Glad\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Details:<\/strong> Originality written by bluesman Skip James in 1927, Clapton reprised this sparse Delta lick for Goodbye<\/em>, the live Cream album from 1969 (yep, that\u2019s the same one often referred to as Live Cream<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is \u2018I\u2019m So Glad\u2019 so good:<\/strong> While the lick might be a classic, typically it is sparse. However, Clapton, without bastardising the spacious bluesy beauty of the original, embellishes it with a fresh dynamic edge, rolling through a rapid pentatonic. He heavily blends notes so that the E Minor mainstay is gorgeously subverted. And his \u2018double stops\u2019 give it his signature distinctiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did Eddie Van Halen have to say:<\/strong> Aside from naming it one of Clapton\u2019s two greatest moments, he went as far to say that every rock fan worth their salt should<\/em> be a fan of it. \u201dListen to \u2018I\u2019m So Glad\u2019 on Goodbye Cream<\/em>,\u201d he said. \u201dIf that doesn\u2019t blow your f**king mind, I don\u2019t know what will.\u201d On another occasion, he said it epitomised what he loved about Clapton\u2019s \u201cmind-blowing\u201d work, and it\u2019s easy to see how the ecstatic complexity influenced his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9NkaZJrbf0Y<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2018Spoonful\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Details:<\/strong> Another blues classic, but this time it\u2019s one that edges closer to rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. It was originally written by Willie Dixon in 1959 and first recorded by the great Howlin\u2019 Wolf during a Chess Records session, before eventually ending up on two Cream albums: Fresh Cream<\/em> in 1966, and a live version from 1968 on Wheels of Fire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is \u2018I\u2019m So Glad\u2019 so good:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s the live version that EVH reveres the most, and for that thrilling rendition, Clapton stretches things out for 16 minutes. During that time, there isn\u2019t an ounce of sloppiness; he\u2019s just a conduit to pure expression. While the spacing and \u2018build-up\u2019 of the composition are exceptional \u2013 once again flitting around with pentatonics \u2013 what really makes this stand out is the unique amp and tone configuration, showcasing his complete knowledge of all things guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did Eddie Van Halen have to say:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s a solo that he learnt \u201cnote-for-note\u201d, and perhaps more than any other piece of music, you can see how it defined his own playing. The call-and-response phrasing that Clapton deployed is something EVH would make his own. But while this was measurable, what he truly loved about it was the je ne sais quoi you could only define as emotion. \u201cThere\u2019s always a difference between a person who has the feel and those who don\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, he would even remark, \u201cI haven\u2019t heard anyone do a long, interesting guitar solo outside of early Clapton.\u201d Adding, \u201cWith his feel, he\u2019d hit one note where someone else would hit 20.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YkK347-sxg0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The guitar skills of\u00a0Eddie Van Halen\u00a0were so astounding and assured that classic rock heroes quickly became dethroned idols…\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-musician"},"yoast_head":"\nEric Clapton\u2019s two greatest solos, according to Eddie Van Halen - ArtGardenHub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eric Clapton\u2019s two greatest solos, according to Eddie Van Halen - 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