This is my first post. I think I have read and followed all the rules so here goes.
When Cream broke up Eric Clapton emerged as a rich young man and one of the most famous guitarists in the world. He was quoted as being fed up with all the demands to play the role of "greatest guitarist" or "maestro bull****" as he put it. He just wanted to get back to playing some "funky music". Asked what his plans were he even hinted that he might go back to playing with John Mayall. He started playing on other peoples projects as a sideman, something he would continue to do even now. Blind Faith was his first stab at getting back to playing in a group. This yielded a rather uneven album which contained the beautiful and moving "Presence of the Lord" and an American tour with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. This is important because some of these Friends would later play on his next record, the self titled "Eric Clapton" solo album. On this album Clapton found his singing voice, the songs were actually songs as opposed to excuses for guitar solos, and gone was the trippy acid rock heavy-metal sound of Gibsons played though Marshalls,(not that I don't like that stuff, I do!). He was using Fenders now and it was more of a lighter sheet-metal sound.
His next record;"Layla and other assorted love songs" continued this evolution. Derek and the Dominoes was his group and it was a real group but there was no doubt who the leader was. In a Rolling Stone interview he said that he wanted to take his music back to the purity of the 1950's. He admitted that he had no idea how he was going to do that but that was his objective. Helping him in this were former D and B Friends: Jim Gordon-drums, Carl Radle-bass, Bobby Whitlock-keyboards and acoustic guitar, and Duane Allman who was on loan from the Allman Bros.
From the opening cut you know are in for an out and out guitar album but one which no-one had ever heard before and in some ways never again. "I Looked Away" is the first song and it sets the stage for the rest of the record with its multi-tracked guitar harmonies and major scale melodicism. Like a lot of this album there is a certain density to its sound and arrangement, almost like listening to a symphony orchestra. At the same time you can listen to it on many different levels. If you wanted you could zero in and just listen to one instrument like the drums or the bass and still enjoy it. Or you can listen to just the melody of the song, or listen to everything going on at once.
"Bell Bottom Blues", "Tell the Truth", "Any Day", and "Little Wing" continue this almost classical music approach to rock'n'roll with their multiple guitars and motif like signature riffs and strong melodies. Most of the songs were written by Clapton with Whitlock and there seems to be a strong Beatles Rubber Soul influence there but not in a blatant way. I also hear a bit of Crosby, Stills, and Nash there.
I must give credit to the rest of the players here. This band can play! Jim Gordon is a great drummer. He may not have the precision of a Ginger Baker but I think he is better suited to the music on this record. He is much more of a rock drummer and is much more funky than Baker. Like Baker he can turn his drums into a lead instrument and add flourishes that really add to a song and help to move it along all while keeping time. Carl Radle's playing is funky and warm but if you listen he is also melodic at times in a McCartney like way. Bobby Whitlock may not be Keith Emerson but he can play a pretty good 12 bar shuffle on the piano and his broad chords on the Hammond lay down a solid backing for the guitar especially when there is no rhythm guitar. As for Allman, what can I say that hasn't been said. In way Duane Allman was the only guitarist that could play on this album. He seemed to know just what Clapton was trying to achieve and did all he could to help him in his goal whether it was playing rhythm or pushing Eric to play the best he could by playing hot leads.
The blues songs are a revelation especially "Key to the Highway". This is a song that goes back to the days of Big Bill Broonzy and Jazz Gillum. This song has been done to death by every blues band in the world and the only versions I can listen to are Little Walter's and the Dominoes these days. If only Little Walter could have heard this. When I listen to this version I hear the ghosts of all the ancient southern jug bands all the way to the great bands that recorded on Chess Records in the '50s. No longer the uncanny Freddie/BB/Albert King imitator; Clapton seems to have found his own voice on the guitar. Duane Allman's playing is just as awesome and it really is true; Clapton is always at his best when someone else is kicking his ***. This is true all over this album. As usual when Eric plays with another guitarist he seems to emulate the other player and at times it becomes difficult to tell who is playing what. At the same time such questions become unimportant when you are enjoying such a great jam or great song.
"Nobody Knows you When Your Down and Out" seems like a daunting choice. One wonders if Eric can pull this famous song off. The playing is great of couse but can this rich white kid really make you believe the words he is singing? Somehow he does. This is not just some wind-up blues cover that is tossed off mechanically. You really do listen to Eric as he sings and feel his melancholy sadness.
"Tell The Truth" is a funky rock song with Eric playing rhythm in open E or D without a slide. The slide solo by Allman is great of course. The lyrics are simple but very much to the point. They might mean different things to different people but to me this is Eric telling us become involved with life.
"There you sit there looking so cool while the whole show is passing you by,
"Better come to terms with your fellow man soon .cos.
"The whole world is shaking now, can't you feel it?"
"Layla" is the core of this album and the whole album is centered around it. Even little licks and riffs from this song are scattered around on other tracks. There is not much to say that hasn't been already said about it and after all; everyone has heard it so I am not going to add anything apart from the fact that it's "got me on my knees".
Taken as a whole, this album is great. In a strange unintentional way this is almost art-rock or progressive rock. There is so much going on that I never get tired of listening to it and get something new from it each time and sometimes that is just from listening to the drums. Clapton never reached these heights again and the Dominoes broke up soon afterward. Who knows what they could have achieved if they stayed together? Maybe we would have been listening to a live jam between them and the Allman Brothers Band. Can you imagine that?
I'd like to give it 5 stars but I know that this is a funny album and most people I play it for don't really get it. So I am going to give 4 stars.
Again: 4 stars
