I'm listening this afternoon to Layla & Other Assorted Love Song. You've heard the title track, although as is so often the case, it isn't the best part of the album. Although I couldn't possibly say which is the best part.
This album was made when I was four years old. I bought my first copy in 1990, when I was 24 and it was re-released in a special 20th anniversary edition. I bought it mostly because I was a Duane Allman fan. As often happens with my favorite albums, I didn't care for it when I first heard it. By the fifth listening it was starting to sink in.
I don't know how many times I've listened to it in the last 13 years. Many hundreds of times. Maybe thousands. I've heard an awful lot of music; I used to review CDs for a magazine, and my personal collection of CDs is well in excess of 1500. Yet there's this tiny handful of discs I can pull out almost any time, under almost any circumstance, and fall in love again. Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs is in that tiny handful.
Was there ever a more solid proof of the artistic potential of the electric guitar? Was there ever a more perfect marriage between two guitar players, or a rock'n'roll fivesome? Was there ever a musical work, save perhaps Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin, that was more emotionally raw, powerful, and genuine?
Thirteen years of listening to this album, and I'm still blown away by it every time I hear it. Constantly on the edge of losing control, its reach always exceeding its grasp--and yet, from start to end, there's not a wasted note, an unnecessary excess, or a missed opportunity.
I am yours.Yeah.
However distant you may be,
There blows no wind but wafts your scent to me,
There sings no bird but calls your name to me.
Each memory that has left its trace with me
Lingers forever as a part of me.
Dean:
Hey look! There's Layla, but who's that standing next to her?
Layla has always been among my top-five favorite albums of all time, even 33 years after first buying it (I bought the album as a freshman in college).
I played it so much that the guys who lived next door in the dorm would immediately crank up their copy of Mississippi Queen every time they heard the opening of Keep on Growing, perhaps my favorite cut on the album.
All I have to say is, "Does anyone remember Nantucket Sleighride today?"
Seriously, every cut on that album is a gem. My favorites included:
- Key to the Highway
- Keep on Growing
- Thorntree in the Garden
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?...
...and, shoot, if I go on a few moments longer, I'll end up naming every cut.What a wonderful piece of work that album is.
And, god help me after all these years, I still crank it up when I hear the open chords of the title song.
Speaking of the title song, do you know what is especially beautiful about it? The Jim Gordon piano interlude in the second half.
Legend has it that Gordon, the drummer for D& the D, had written that riff completely separate from Clapton's effort. Clapton heard him playing it one night after everyone went home and was knocked out by it. He convinced him to include it as the second half of the song he, Clapton, writing. Hence the co-writing credit.
Also explains why the second half of the song is so different from the first.
Epilogue: Gordon flipped out some years later and killed his own mother with an axe (or a hammer, depends on the story). He is spending the rest of his life in prison (or an asylum, depends on the story).
Have a nice day!
Further, legend has it that Jim Gordon didn't write that piano tune - it was something the Delaney & Bonnie band liked to jam on when Gordon was in the band.
-K
Ah, on the title track, another bit you may not have known: the opening 7-note string that's so identifiable was a lick that Duane Allman came up with. Although since it was only a lick, he didn't get writing credit.
So let's see, take out those duh-duh-DUDEE-duhduhduh licks, and the piano part, and what of the song do you have left? Why, what Eric recorded a few years ago on the acoustic version. :-)
My favorite song on Layla is Key to the Highway. But I'm a sucker for long, well-performed, high-energy jams. Have you ever wondered why that song fades in at the beginning? Because Sam Samudio (of Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs) was doing the tune in th studio next door. The band heard it, started jamming on it, and all of a sudden Tom Dowd, the producer, realized that the boys were really getting into it, and yelled to the engineer to start recording!
That whole tune was cut in one take from a spontaneous jam. Unbelievable.
How can you guys discuss that album without mentioning Bell Bottom Blues? And I remember Nantucket Sleighride really well...Theme from an Imaginary Western is still one of their best tunes. And, Mountain had a member with a strange demise, too: Felix Pappalardi, who produced and played on most of their songs, was shot to death by his co-songwriter wife, Gail Collins. There's also a Clapton tie-in: Pappalardi produced some of the classic Cream albums, including Wheels of Fire.
Nantucket Sleigh-Ride? I don't know the reference ... can someone clue me in?
I might as well bring up two of my favorites, which I think are the only ones not mentioned. I Looked Away is a lost classic; but Little Wing? How many times has that been re-done? I confess I liked both Hendrix' original and Sting's -- but Clapton's has a haunting quality.
Too bad I only have this thing on album ... in college, I played it until half my dorm floor was depressed and the other half got really into the blue ... hell, I'm going to Tower records right now and go buy the CD.
See you later. Thanks for the reminder!
If it's not too late, Bill, you should look for the 20th Anniversary Remaster if it's still available. It's better than the later re-issues, believe it or not.
Someone wrote:
"Was there ever a more solid proof of the artistic potential of the electric guitar? Was there ever a more perfect marriage between two guitar players, or a rock'n'roll fivesome? Was there ever a musical work, save perhaps Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin, that was more emotionally raw, powerful, and genuine?"
And I answer: the backup band for Sam & Dave (aka the Blues Brothers band), and the group featured by "Standing in the Shadow of Motown."
Or Jethro Tull. Or Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Or Chet Atkins (AKA the man who created the sound of Rock'n'Roll) all by himself... Heh.
Or Jimi Hendrix with his backup (Mitch Mitchell rocks!). Or Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
Or the (original!) Allman Brothers. Or Traffic. Or Big Brother and the Holding Co. Or Yes...
I'll shutup now... Heh.
Thanks for the suggestion, Dean. You're not too late -- Tower Records only had the live album.
Well I'll tell you what, Bill, if you're really a serious fan, get the 20th Anniversary Boxed Set. The booklet that comes with it is awesome, you get the special remix which is fantastic, and you also get two bonus CDs of jams, alternate takes, and even a couple of unreleased songs that are very good (especially Mean Old World).
It's pricey -- $40 or so -- but I never regretted buying it!
You are so right about how awesome that album is (yeah, I'm old, they're all albums to me). The power, the emotion, the beautiful guitar playing and piano throughout, the intensity of the singing. Literally spine-chilling.
The planets must have been aligned just right or something, they definitely caught a genie in a bottle in those sessions. And I don't think it was just an accident that the two greatest 5 piece rock bands both included Duane Allman. For me, Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East comes very close to the level of D & D, those boys could jam.
Thanks for posting on this Dean, I need to do more posting about music.
"[T]he two greatest 5-piece rock bands..."? Well, I guess Ian Stewart really was the Sixth Stone, so okay.
Layla is one of my favorite albums in terms of passion... Ten by pearl jam comes close, eddie vedder has an amazing voice
Jeff you are absolutely correct - Allman Brothers and D&D are 2 groups never to be matched again - and to think they were both producing music in the same era - where are those artist today - ahhhh for those late 60's and early 70's again music has never been as good - although early springsteen is still some of the best - what was it about that time that produced such fantastic music
My, My, MY.
How these people have moved us all.
It has been so nice to read all of your thoughts and experiences with them from each of your perspectives.
Peace, Jem