10 Best Rock Guitarists Of The 1960s
2. Eric Clapton
Unless you live and breath the blues, watching Eric Clapton play anything from the last 30 years of his career is a somewhat laborious affair, but during the '60s this guy was on the top of his game.
Go back to the winter of 1967 and Clapton had just dropped one of the most explosive hard rock albums in the world. Cream's Disraeli Gears is the album when British rockers pulled all the defining elements of the blues into the realm of heavy distortion, high pitched vocals and pounding drums. This was psychedelic rock incarnate. Although the contributions of Jack Bruce as a frontman, and Ginger Baker's unrivalled approach to drumming, cannot be understated, it was Clapton's axe work that elevated this sound to a sacred status.
If you need more convincing about Clapton's ability other then that album, then check out his performance with The Dirty Mac - the short lived super group fronted by John Lennon and containing Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and Clapton on lead - it will inspired you to delve deep into the archives of '60s Clapton footage.