Derek & Dominos - Layla
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Free Music Notes for Layla
Free Music Review: An anthological compilation!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is a must-have for all those who are really interested to know about the second stage of this legendary guitarist after Cream' s dissolution. After a brief withdrawal when recorded that fabulous album with Blind Faith, Clapton decided to join forces with the Dominos, and the results are shown here spanning from 1969 to 1970. One of the main highlights of this album was the radiant supporting team, conformed by Duane Allman, Carl Radle in bass and percussion and Jim Gordon in the drums.
You may appreciate the gradual evolution and the expansiveness of his musical thinking along every track. He knew to blend the best of his feeling, and craft with commercial taste. Bell bottom blues, for instance was a piece that was completely ignored in commercial circuits. Keep on growing is a solid theme. Filled of vigor and full rhythm, please beware about the fabulous rhythmical section. "Nobody knows you when you're down and out" is a classical blues composed by Jimmie Cox, played with incisive rapture "Tell the truth" is another formidable classic blues, played with flaming passion and filled of expression.
Of course you will listen the evanescent version of Wings and the most commercial success of this ensemble: Layla
But when you listen Have you ever loved a woman? , you will have come to one the most distinguished and extraordinary blues of anytime. A sidereal blues that still captives and engages every emerging generation of new listeners. This is without discussion, the jewel of the crown.
In sum, a wise choice that will help you to know still more the invaluable contribution that Clapton has conferred the rock, country, blues and the music in general.
Free Music Review: Eric's Liebestod
Hit: 5 Stars
This is easily Eric Clapton's finest hour, and the most passionate ode to unbounded love since Wagner's Tristan & Isolde. There is nothing even conceivably wrong with this album. Clapton & Allman were an explosive guitar team, and Duane delivers in a huge way all the way through. Bobby Whitlock provides crucial support, and the Gordon/Radle rhythm section is elastic, yet as steady as a brick wall. Everybody knows the story behind this, so I won't bother rehashing it. This is the aural diary of an utterly damaged man; and that diary is permeated by his love for his best friend's wife, and the pain that obviously entails. It's fair to say that Pattie Boyd was married to two of the most consequential giants in rock, and they both produced some staggering work around this time. Whereas All Things Must Pass is preoccupied almost exclusively with transcendental concerns, Layla is almost painfully carnal. There was some cross-pollination occurring, though. The Dominoes were the backing band for the ATMP "Apple Jam" disc, and George reportedly appeared on "Tell The Truth."
It's difficult to point out the "highlights" of the album, since all of the songs are incredible. From the panicked vocals and powerful riffing of "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad," the massive angst of "Anyday," the fluid soloing of "Nobody Knows You...," the overwhelming beauty and sense of loss of "Bellbottom Blues."
The only work that can approach this masterpiece of loss is Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. Eric Clapton bared his soul to us on this, and emerged a broken man. Thankfully, he eventually restored himself, but he never again achieved the grandeur of Layla.
Free Music Review: Heartbreak Leads To Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS, Eric Clapton's best album ever, was born from a love triangle between Clapton, his best friend (George Harrison), and the best friend's wife (Patti Boyd Harrison). The heartbreak and hurt Clapton felt when Patti chose to return to her husband led to a mix of hurt-charged originals and appropriate cover tunes, and when Duane Allman joined in on slide guitar, the result was the finest work of Clapton's career. It is not unconstitutional for towns to require community service from people who see this album as a mere emotional statement of love denied before letting them buy land. Instead, it is proper to view this CD as Clapton taking the forms of the blues and making them his own, with Delta, Memphis, Texas, Great Plains, British, and Chicago blues influences being mixed into an original vision that transcends most other white blues records ever made (the only equals being Robin Trower, the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, early Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, and John Mayall). In other words, this CD is about more than just unrequited love; it's about a transcendence of a whole musical form. Bobby Whitlock's equally soulful vocals rival Clapton's for pure soul and emotion. This album shows why I feel that if a person claims that Englishmen can't play the blues, his/her kids should have to complete hundreds of community service hours before graduation from high school as payment for their parents' provincial attitudes. LAYLA, especially its title song, in which Clapton digs so deep that it's the aural equivalent of witnessing a suicide or an exorcism, shows that British blues is just as valid musically as anything by B.B. King or the Allman Brothers.Free Music Review: Not Every Album Tells A Story - But This One Does
Hit: 5 Stars
One of the 10 best albums in rock history, built on the foundation of Eric Clapton's personal life and a group of astounding musicians brought together only for a brief period in time. This album simultaneously leaves me wanting much more from Derek and the Dominoes, while wondering how in the world they could have produced anything better anyway. The combination of Clapton and Allman on guitar, plus Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock and Carl Radle is simply awesome. While the pieces come together to create great music, they all retain their own identity and visibility throughout, whether Duane's slide work, Eric's lead, or Jim Gordon's piano work on Layla.An album like this comes along too infrequently, and because of the brevity of the existence of Derek and the Dominoes (as opposed to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, or others who have released such gems), Layla is frequently overlooked, and almost on the fringe of being forgotten. From the opening notes of "I Looked Away" to the closing piano solo of "Layla", this record weaves together the great story that virtually everyone knows (if you don't, see any of the other reviews) in awesome fashion.
Although opinions will differ, in my opinion Derek and the Dominoes ranks as one of the greatest assemblies of complimentary musicians of all time. The music on this record is the evidence. This is one of few records of which I always keep two copies - one to play, and one in inventory for when my current one wears out.
Finally, if I could have sat in on the recording sessions for a select few of the great records in history, this would have been one of them, along with Abbey Road and Dark Side of the Moon. Rating: 5-stars - easily.
Free Music Review: Best White Blues-Rock Album Ever?
Hit: 5 Stars
This is probably the 20th century's finest outpouring of blues-influenced, electric guitar rock. Post Cream and Blind Faith, and following a stint in Delaney & Bonnie's touring band, Eric Clapton adjourned to Criteria Studios in Miami with legendary Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd and three former Delaney & Bonnie & Friends bandmates - Carl Radle, (bass), Jim Gordon, (drums), and Bobby Whitlock, (keyboards, guitar, vocals). Rising guitar legend, Duane Allman, (visiting the studio at Dowd's invitation), was asked to join the sessions, covering the sudden departure of second guitarist, Traffic's Dave Mason.
The interplay between Clapton and Allman is nothing short of sensational - often it's impossible to tell the two apart. The songs are essentially an extended love letter to his best friend's wife, and Clapton, clearly a man in pain, gives it his all - "Layla, you've got me on my knees, Layla, I'm begging, darling, pleaseĽ" George Harrison's wife, Patti, was the object of his affections, and given his friendship with the former Beatle, he's completely honest with his feelings: "Have you ever loved a woman so much it's a shame and a sin? And all the time you know she belongs to your very best friendĽ" And the twin guitars keep on a-wailing!
Forget the god-awful pap of `Tears In Heaven', (regardless of the truly awful circumstances of its inspiration), Clapton never again played anything this good or this emotional - listen to `Layla', `Bell Bottom Blues', `Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad' or `Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out' and experience true greatness.
Kim Porter, Forté Magazine, Australia