Top Ten Of The Week: In Defense Of Derek & The Dominoes

With the new Deluxe Edition of Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs I have bought this album five times in my lifetime.  Long time ago, I got the 2 record set, then traded that for the 2 CD Polydor set, then traded that in for the 20th Anniversary Edition, then found the remaster of Layla for a dollar and now went to Best Buy for the 2 CD 40th Anniversary one.  What does that make of me?

Derek And The Dominoes was actually Eric Clapton and part of the Delaney & Bonnie touring band which broke away to do a album on their own and it might be the top 5 all time albums ever made.  However Duane Allman then came on board to add his great slide guitar work and the title track became a song for the ages.  For years I played that song and try to figure how did Duane do that, was he playing violin? steel guitar or a slide up around the highest level of the guitar?  And then leading off to Jim Gordon's beautiful piano beginning of the second part of the song, Gordon being the ill fated drummer of said band making his biggest contribution.  Originally Atco put it out in edited form (and it even made its way to a K Tel Comp album 22 Explosive Hits I think it was) and then in 1972 reissued it in its 7 minute glory.  Originally there was work on the second album but it was aborted and most of it didn't see the light of day till the 4 CD Crossroads came out.  By 1972, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident and didn't figure on the 2nd album.

In some ways I think it was best there wasn't a followup.  When you take into account of all the songs that made up Layla, even the cover versions talked about failed love or lust (Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Key To The Highway) and Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out takes on fairweather friends (or women for that matter).  Perhaps it was a concept album so to speak.  Nevertheless, Layla the album, is just about perfect, even down to Bobby Whitlock's Thorn Tree In The Garden, a throwaway but still when Whitlock moans at the end of the song, even he is feeling the blues of love and loss.

The original mix of Layla was always bland to my ears (although music purists praised the Phil Spector like sound courtesy of Tom Dowd) so they remixed it on the 20th Anniversary Version and there's a bit better separation of sound and there's a few extras that are in this recording that's missing from the original, the intro of Whitlock going "Whooo" on Keep On Growing and bit more brighter sound that I kinda prefer over the original mix.  Disc 2, featured some long form jams that are for the fanatics only.  I think I played that disc about three times in the past twenty years and the third disc featured some more extended jams and alt versions of Mean Old World or Tell The Truth and couple others.  Again I don't play that one much either.  But I bought the 40th Anniversary for the second disc of bonus tracks and the tentative titles that comprised of the aborted Derek & The Dominoes second album.  Perhaps of note and value is the Bobby Whitlock adding vocal counterpoint to Go To Get Better In A Little While, which the unfinished version made Crossroads.  Whitlock added his vocals and keyboard work last year in Austin for inclusion on this recording.  To me, it kinda like colorizing an black n white movie,  kind of pointless and is good for a listen or two.  And the aborted second album is mostly blues covers, a hard rocking Evil, but Mean Old Frisco is messed up by Jim Gordon playing on the offbeat and not exactly keeping up.  That one doesn't work very well. And One More Chance, Clapton does sound like he's ready to move on to other things.  And Got To Get Better was done better in concert then in the studio.  I think overall had it been released it would have been at least a three star album tops but to these ears it sound like the wheels were beginning to fall off.

Which leaves us with the 45 version of Roll It Over/Tell The Truth to which Atco released in late 1970 but it didn't chart or made much headwave.  Part of the problem was Phil Spector's production and a fast version of Tell The Truth sounds too hurried and out of place with the much better and slower version.  Those two songs  made the EC Crossroads boxset as well.  Perhaps the highlight of the whole 2nd disc was a performance on The Johnny Cash Show to which they played four songs, a spirited It's Too Late, shorted 6 minute versions of Tell The Truth and Got To Get Better In A Little While and a jam with Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins on Matchbox to which is worthy of the price.  Whitlock provided a great vocal counterpoint with Clapton on these songs (as well as In Concert album).  Why they didn't continue is probably due to too many drug problems and too much paranoia within the band.  Just an observation from myself, nothing more.

In terms of what to buy, if you have the remaster of the 1996 Layla album I really don't see any need for you to upgrade to the 2011 version, unless you like a much louder bass sound or if you're a completest and want it all, then the 2 CD Deluxe Edition would make a nice coffee table version to play.  But I still remain partial to the 20th Anniversary Layla album version which the sound opens up and is not as compressed but since I'm such a lazy bastard, I usually pull out whatever close by.   But any rock and roll fan who wants the classic best has to have some version of Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs in their collection.  For all the time and effort, Eric Clapton hasn't made anything this outstanding or memorable before or after and that's saying something.  And even in the end when he finally got Patti Harrison, the object of his affections, it was doomed to failure and they would eventually go separate ways.

Layla the album itself remains a A plus album  anything else is an A-

The Top Ten Of The Week is as follows.

1.  The Bitch Is Back-Elton John 1974  Did you see EJ on Saturday Night Live?  For the first 30 minutes and his monologue Elton and company made SNL the most funniest I have seen since the days of Eddie Murphy and that's saying something.  Of course it helped when Tom Hanks made a cameo but Elton was funny, playing the diva guy in some of the sketches although toward the end, the gay jokes and man to man kissing got to be awkward about the 5th time.  If his music career finally dries up, he can always try for standup comedy.  Plus he even got Brother Leon Russell to do his patented high scream on the 2nd song Monkey Suit.  But I wished they left the screaming soul chick singer home on Hey Ahab. She sucked.

2.  Carol-Tommy Roe 1964  I'm fifty years old and can't remember last week from last year but when it comes to forty fives I used to have I got a photogenic memory and this long lost classic was from my first collection of 45s back then I was 3 years old.  Seems like Momma always knew what would shut me up would be plenty of cheap 7 inchers and I think I got this one from Woolworth's cheap bins since it was her name.  But for a Chuck Berry cover, Roe sure nails this down and I always got a kick out of the dude doing a guitar imitation along with the doo dooing chick singers.  Like The Animals' Going Send You Back To Walker, this was my first exposure to rock and roll and it hasn't let go since.  Somehow the old 45 got broken but it would take me over 45 years to find a replacement copy, thank you Mad City Music X for having it.

3.  Ball Crusher-Steppenwolf 1970 Steppenwolf 7, one of my all time favorite albums and of course Robert Christgau bashed it big time but he missed the mark on this.  This song is so heavy sounding, I have to play this in the basement otherwise the top floor would have collapsed. (Thank God for Spell checker, I cannot type for shit tonight).

4.  Spanish Moon-Arc Angels 1992  Drew mentioned this one on his best albums of the 1990s and this is my way of saying that I do read his blogs but sometimes don't comment.  I figured between blogging all the time and commenting over on some of my followers on Blogspot that perhaps I overdo things.  Anyhow, this has Charlie (Beat So Lonely) Sexton, hooking with Doyle Bramhall II with Double Trouble and having Little Steven produce the album.  Tonio K (Life In The Foodchain) helped on the lyrics so this is actually a mini supergroup if you think about it. Unfortunately, this band didn't last, Sexton went solo and helped Bob Dylan, Bramhall moved on the play in Eric Clapton band and Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughn's rhythm section would formed another mini supergroup with David Grissom called Storyville and made a couple of so so albums for Atlantic's Code Blue Label.

5. 25 Or 6 To 4-Chicago 1970  If you were a listener of AM radio back in the early 70s you got to hear plenty of Chicago and this was the first song that I ever brought from them in the 29 cent bins at the old Arlan's down the road in Cedar Rapids.  I used to remember that they have a much bigger record selection than K Mart to which at that time both places were where I went to buy music.  Prior to 1975, I didn't take care of my records, most of them you threw away the sleeve and stick it on these wire storage units and then the dust bunnies would take over.  Or they all got thrown in the box and ended up getting many scratches and some even got broken.  When I was over at my folks I was sorting through the ones that I could salvage and still play and this one is in better shape than the majority of them. From 1970 to 1978 Chicago managed to have least one hit in the top ten charts and of course most of them still get regular play on classic oldies stations.  Then the hits dried up and then with the help of David Foster got them back on the charts in the mid 80s with more of a keyboard sound than horns which made me less of a fan.  Basically after Terry Kath's ill fated date with a gun, Chicago was never quite the same either.  The guy could play a mean lead guitar.

6.  White Lies, Blue Eyes-Bullet 1971  I know my friend Tad, enjoys this one hit wonder as much as I do. Imagine my surprise of finding the 45 up at the Half Priced Books In Madison last week but can be found on Rhino's now out of print Have A Nice Day Series Volume 7.  Actually I thought about doing a top ten of the week of 45 singles but since I started adding album cuts decided to forgo that for a while.  Last time I did that, a tribute to the 45 singles, the ratings took a dive.  Perhaps I should do a top ten downloaded song blog? Maybe that will stir up ratings.  This just in, Keanu Reeves says there's going be a new Bill & Ted 3 is forthcoming.  Fuck me running.

7.  Let It Roll-Mel McDaniel 1986  Another country star off the great Grand Ole Opry in the skies, Mel had his big moments in the mid 80s for Capitol and my GF says Old Man River is her favorite song.  Mine might be Stand Up, or Louisiana Saturday Night but he does a credible Chuck Berry cover of this song.

8.  Heartbreaker-Joe Bonamassa 2011  Imagine my surprise on his new album Dust Bowl that he covered this song from Free and he does sound a bit like Paul Rodgers and was just about floored.  Imagine my disappointment when he bought in over the top screamer Glenn Hughes to ruin this.  Does it sound like I'm anti Hughes?  Not exactly, in fact I liked some of his stuff in Deep Purple when David Coverdale couldn't hit those high notes, at that time Coverdale was a more smokier singer, Hughes has always been a screamer in Trapeze (You Are The Music, We're Just The Band) which managed to record for the Moody Blues' Threshold label.  Hughes tends to grate on my nerves when he overdoes his screaming for the high notes. Anyway, the new Bonamassa Dust Bowl album is worth getting, it's a bit more rock and roll than the blues that he's known for.  Guess being in Black Country Communion has gotten him to rock out.  Look for the 2nd BCC album later in the year.  BTW, I did like Hughes' remake of Medusa on the first album.

9.  Alligater_Aulator_Autopilot_Antimatter-REM 2011 GD Mike Stripe makes these song titles easy don't he?  That's how it spells out on the latest from REM with a cameo from the usually annoying Peaches who actually blends into the song.  And doesn't use the F bomb for a change.  Has she been born again?  While some people think this album is a throwback to Out Of Time or Automatic For The People, I don't hear that.  There's too many harder rocking songs such as AAAA (don't ask me to type that out again).  It's more of an extension of the sound they has on Accelerate (how come this song didn't make that album since AAAA is more in tune with   Accelerate.  Collapse Into Now is a worthy followup and the more I listen to it the more it sounds better.  Maybe it is the answer record to Out Of Time.  But knowing REM and how they operate, I doubt it.

10.  Bad To The Bone-George Thorogood & The Destroyers 1982  This song didn't take off till Stephen King used it on the horror movie Christine, about a possessed car that enslaves their owner.  Possessed car that would kill anybody who did it damage or ones who flicked their cigar ashes in it.  Seen it originally at a drive in here in the early 80s and it scared the hell out of me till I got used to seeing it on TV.  Back in the early daze of MTV (when they were showing music videos rather than being another shit reality channel) this was one of the early videos to which big bad Bo Diddley played himself and ole George wows him in a big game of pool.  In terms of theory, classic rock radio plays the hell out this song but it is the highlight of that album.  Back then, George was heavily into Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker got a minor hit of a remake of Nobody But Me, the old Isley Brothers song later covered by The Human Beinz.  But each album, Thorogood would moved a bit further from the Elmore James/Chuck Berry/John Lee Hooker tribute album to more of a updated sound and music from others.  In fact, he would make a good DJ in terms of what he plays.  Maybe some day XM Sirius will let him have his own hour long short.  Betcha it would be ba ba ba baddd.

That's this week's top ten. What I'm working on in the common blogs are the continuation of Music Of My Years, more album reviews and what else comes to mind.  I have kinda been taking it easy the past week but rest assured that I have been keeping up to date to reading all of your blogs out in Blogspot and making a comment or two.  Thanks everybody for your comments and keeping my blog career going for at least another week or two.  It's always a work in progress.

Finally, 17 years ago this date: Kurt Cobain blasted himself into oblivion.  Everybody knew this was going to happen.  The first thing that came into my mind when In Utero came out was this dude is going to off himself.  That album always seemed to me to be his suicide note, especially after the feedback laden All Apologies.  I'm sure you the listener probably didn't think that way but I think it was the only album I have listened to and said afterward, this is the final statement.  On April 5th, Cobain blew his face off and you can make a good argument that the music truly died on that day.  Even though Nirvana broke up on that shotgun blast, Dave Grohl has a new Foo Fighters album out to which he reunites with Butch Vig as Producer and the bass player on a couple songs and Pat Smear too.  Probably as close to a Nirvana meeting as it will ever get unless Courtney Love gets involved which won't be the case.    But it was also 30 years go this date that Bob Hite, the big harmonica player and singer of Canned Heat passed away from a heart attack at age 36.  Hite was rumoured to have one of the largest record collection of blues 78s from the past and Canned Heat was taken from a old Tommy Johnson blues song.  In their heyday, Canned Heat was one of the better blues rock bands lead by Al Wilson's great guitar work but sadly he had an sad fate too.

Hite was a giant of a man, weighing over 350 pounds but the man was a walking and talking blues historian and would talk blues till the light of day. The best Canned Heat record to me remains 1970's Future Blues which has the stomping cover of Let's Work Together.  Highly recommended.