The time Robert Fripp claimed Jimi Hendrix “wasn’t a guitarist” and that Eric Clapton was “mostly quite banal”
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp certainly has a way with words, and while these days his lack of filter often gives himself and wife Toyah Willcox the giggles, it seems back in the day he wasn’t one to hold back on his musical opinions either.
Among the era of the band’s Red album, as well as Starless And Bible Black, Fripp sat down for a chat with Guitar Player. In the 1974 interview, which has been newly shared on the publication’s website, Fripp had some incredibly bold opinions on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and guitar in general.
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“I’ve never really listened to guitarists, because they’ve never really interested me,” he told the magazine. “I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument. Virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.”
He went on to add, “I haven’t been influenced by Hendrix and Clapton in the way that most people would say it. I don’t think Hendrix was a guitarist. I very much doubt if he was interested in guitar playing as such. He was just a person who had something to say and got on and said it.
“Clapton I think is mostly quite banal, although he did some exciting things earlier in his life with Mayall. I saw Cream live once and I thought they were quite awful. Clapton’s work since, I think, has been excessively tedious.”
As scathing as some of these hot takes are, there was one guitarist who Fripp let off the hook – Jeff Beck, whose playing he said he could “appreciate as good fun”.
Despite Fripp’s old and bold remarks, he’s since had a lot of fun covering both Hendrix and Cream classics for his Sunday Lunch covers series on YouTube alongside Willcox, which you can watch below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
