Hey, folks! I was offline for a couple days. What'd I miss?
Well, now! Will you look at that? Thanks for taking the time to look that up. So now we know, instead of guessing and assuming what might have been the truth. You see, unlike most people, I don't care that much
who is right, but
what is right - what is the truth. And now we know. Oh, I heard a similarity, all right, but I had no reason to assume there was a connection, without hearing so from the man himself. People on the sidelines can say whatever they want, and sometime it resembles the truth, but it isn't. Would have been nice to have seen that some time ago. Could have avoided some
sturm und drang.
I can't say I'm
completely surprised Clapton was trying to emulate The Byrds, but I thought it quite unlikely, him being such an ardent blues fan. I'd never heard him say much about his contemporary rock guitarists, other than the ones I've mentioned, and George Harrison (how'd I overlook him?
). He's mostly talked about black blues guitarists, from Robert Johnson up to contemporaries, as being his main influences and idols. So this is from pretty far afield. The guitar is also played differently from McGuinn - these solos are trilled all the way through, while McGuinn tended to let his notes ring. (The biggest exception being the ends of solos in "Eight Miles High," which are accents.) Also, the tone here is more trebly, more mandolinny. Yes, Clapton was pushing the boundaries of rock guitar, but most of the time it was still blues-based. I imagine Jack Bruce pushed him toward other areas. After all, this was one of his songs.
That's all I was saying to begin with - Clapton's guitar sound on "Dance The Night Away" was the first thing I heard that sounded to me like what an electric mandolin could sound like. I'd heard mandolin on rock songs before, but it was always acoustic. And I've heard little else of this sort as great since.
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