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CLAPTON AT HIS BEST

 

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 9, 2019..FORTY NINE YEARS AGO DEREK AND THE DOMINOS RELEASED THE MONUMENTAL DOUBLE ALBUM ‘LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS.’ THIS ALBUM IS BEST KNOWN FOR ITS TITLE TRACK ‘LAYLA’ AND IS WHAT MANY CONSIDER THIS TO BE CLAPTON’S GREATEST MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENT. THE ACTUAL FORMATION OF DEREK AND THE DOMINOS AND THE MAKING OF THIS RECORD WAS A RESULT OF FATE FALLING IN LINE LIKE DOMINOS. CLAPTON WAS PART OF ANOTHER SUPERGROUP ‘BLIND FAITH’ AND THE GROUP ‘DELANEY BONNIE AND FRIENDS’ WERE THE WARM UP ACT ON ‘BF’S’ TOUR. CLAPTON WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE ANONYMITY BEING A PART OF A COLLABORATIVE GROUP LIKE ‘DB&F’ AS OPPOSED TO THE PRESSURE OF BEING IN ANOTHER “SUPER GROUP.” BLIND FAITH DISBANDED AND CLAPTON HOPPED ON BOARD TOURING WITH ‘DB & FRIENDS. ‘ AS THINGS UNRAVELED WITH DELANEY, BONNIE AND FRIENDS, CLAPTON GOT TOGETHER WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP FOR LONG JAM SESSIONS AND WRITING SESSIONS AT HIS HOME. THIS IMPROMPTU GROUP KIND OF MORPHED INTO ‘DEREK AND THE DOMINOS.’ AT THE SAME TIME, GEORGE HARRISON WAS LOOKING INTO PUTTING TOGETHER A BACKING BAND FOR HIS ‘ALL THINGS MUST PASS’ ALBUM. WITHOUT A DOUBT CLAPTON’S FASCINATION WITH GEORGE’S WIFE SECURED HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT. WITH HIS BEST FRIEND CLAPTON AT THE HELM, HARRISON ENDED UP USING THIS GROUP FOR THE SESSIONS. THE WORK WITH HARRISON HELPED GROOM THE ‘D&D’ GROUP FOR PUTTING OUT AN ALBUM OF THEIR OWN. PLUS CLAPTON’S LONGINGS FOR PATTIE HARRISON INSPIRED MUCH OF THE MUSIC CREATED ON MUCH OF THE RECORD, MOST NOTABLY THE TITLE TRACK. ADD TO ALL OF THIS THE ADDITION OF DUANE ALLMAN TO THE SESSIONS AND YOU HAVE AN INSTANT MASTERPIECE. VH-1 HAS NAMED ‘LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS’ THE 89TH GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME, AND IN 2000 THE RECORD WAS INDUCTED INTO THE GRAMMY HALL OF FAME. HERE’S CLAPTON PERFORMING THE ALBUM’S TITLE TRACK LIVE IN CONCERT (WITH JIMMY PAGE, JEFF BECK, AND CHARLIE WATTS IN THE BAND)