(Credits: Far Out / Showtime Documentary Films)
Fri 7 November 2025 16:30, UK
For an entire generation of rock guitar players, Eric Clapton is still the gold standard of what everyone should strive to be as a musician.
While he has countless moments where he has stuck his foot in his mouth or made terrible career decisions, Clapton has always been able to maintain the reputation of a journeyman constantly trying to challenge himself on every record. But even an artist who’s considered a musical god will always have those few artists who give them a run for their money.
If your name wasn’t Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s, though, there was hardly anyone taking Clapton’s spot in terms of popularity. While Jeff Beck was definitely a close second in terms of English guitar players around that time, there was always going to be a limit on where he could go since he didn’t sing nearly as often as Clapton did. But even after leaving Cream, every other group that Clapton formed afterwards would have been enough to be anyone else’s finest hour.
Even if he was always going back to the blues, Clapton could still switch things up now and again. He was ready to join John Lennon and bring everything back to basics with The Plastic Ono Band, but by the time he got to working with Derek and the Dominos, he was slowly turning into one of the biggest guitar heroes in the world and cranking out classics faster than most people could digest them.
Given the era that he came from, though, Clapton wasn’t exactly indebted to the Summer of Love the same way everyone else was. He knew how to make acid-rock sound fantastic, but the Woodstock generation was all Hendrix’s territory half the time. But in between The Who smashing their equipment at Woodstock and Hendrix’s iconic performance of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, Santana was showing everyone a much different side of what rock and roll could be.
It was still blues, but whenever Carlos Santana plugged in, everyone got an education in what music could sound like from other cultures. Most people simply weren’t exposed to songs that sounded like ‘Oye Como Va’ back in the day, and even if Santana was admittedly high on acid throughout his entire performance, Clapton knew that he had to be on his game if he was going to perform with him.
Although Clapton never wanted to make guitar playing a competition, he knew that Santana was bringing something new to rock and roll when he first started playing with him, saying, “From playing with him on this tour, I know that Carlos Santana is a very, very strong player. He really kept me on my toes. Basically, though, I don’t like to give a specific opinion on someone else’s playing.”
A very noble gesture, no doubt, but given how many artists Clapton has influenced, you can also hear a fair bit of Santana’s influence in the modern age of guitar playing as well. Beyond playing some roaring lead work, you can hear his atmospheric tone every time Prince took a solo, and while every millennial is still sick to death of a song like ‘Smooth’ with Rob Thomas, you can’t deny the amount of taste he put into every single one of those bends on the record.
Santana was never in the business for the accolades by any stretch, but the fact that his music resonated with Clapton enough for him to brush up on his technique is saying a lot. Most people would have been proud to share the stage with a fellow guitar god, but when your solo is enough to make a fellow guitar hero a little self-conscious, you have ascended to a whole different level of player.
Related Topics