Both Ginger and Jack were esoteric and eclectic in their musical careers - in most cases a choice dooming you to non-commerciality. Eric, OTOH, is arch-middle of the road and has stuck to his guns ever since he left Cream: He does bluesy songwriter-rock-pop for an audience that likes its music more pleasant than groundbreaking. That is why you never heard an Axis Bold As Love or a Blow By Blow/Wired from him. That is not knocking him, I think his music is sincere, just not raw or Gung-ho. It's not in him.
Eric is the only one of the three whose post-Cream-split career has totally eclipsed what he did before: Sure, he used his Cream fame and guitarslinger reputation initially to gain a new audience, but at his concerts today (and for the last 45 years or so) there is a vast amount of people who come to hear Layla, Wonderful Tonight and - in more recent times - Tears in Heaven as opposed to a 20 minute version of, say, White Room. He uses his Cream legacy like some faded old photographs you show to the bemused guests at an anniversary birthday party: "
Oh, and yes, I also did this at one point ...". That is again not knocking him, the man has progressed, not in the sense of doing something more ambitious or complicated, but in the sense of doing something completely different (and perhaps less musically demanding and groundbreaking). I believe the people that continue to revere him only for his Cream accomplishments (at the expense of most everything later) largely populate dinosaur forums like ours!
