One of the reasons the Drive-By Truckers have matured into one of America’s finest rock & roll bands is ambition; they’re solid players and write great songs, but just as important, they take storytelling seriously, and when they make an album, they strive to do more than just serve up a bunch of new songs. Most DBT releases aren’t specifically concept albums, but nearly all of them have a thematic consistency in which the individual songs cohere into a larger framework. With this in mind, it makes sense that the band would want to do something more elaborate than the run-of-the-mill live disc, and 2015’s “It’s Great to Be Alive!”, recorded during a three-night stand at the the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California in the fall of 2014, is an oversized (over three hours on three CDs or five LPs) look at the band’s body of work so far, with a set list that reaches back before the beginning (“Runaway Train” was a tune Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley cut for their pre-DBT band Adam’s House Cat) all the way up to “English Oceans”, the album the group released just a few months before these shows.
The Drive-By Truckers have always prided themselves on a butt-kicking live show, so it’s a bit of a surprise that It’s Great to Be Alive! relies so strongly on dynamics, dialing back the tempo and impact of some of the tunes rather than making this set the full-on blowout some fans would expect. It’s Great to Be Alive! focuses less on the sweat and fire of a live gig than on the songs, as Hood and Cooley draw their portraits of folks trying to make the best of life’s situations, which is often a harder and more desperate task than one would imagine. The relatively subdued attack does make more room for Cooley and Hood’s vocals, and both are in strong voice here, and if these performances are often a bit less finely nuanced than the studio originals, nearly everything here sounds more passionate, and the musicianship is excellent, especially Cooley and Hood’s duelling guitar work, Jay Gonzalez’s keyboards, and Brad Morgan’s drumming, which is endlessly implacable and full of lean, thoughtful groove (if this band has a secret weapon, it’s Morgan).
If It’s Great to Be Alive! doesn’t rock with the usual fury of a Drive-By Truckers live set, the band knows when and where to kick out the jams (especially on the three uptempo Southern Rock Opera numbers on disc three), and this 198-minute marathon leaves no doubt that this constantly evolving band is still growing and shifting and putting new perspectives on its music. It’s Great to Be Alive! is a bit less than the definitive document of the live DBT experience, but if you want to know why this is a great band and how good it can be on-stage, this set will tell you just about everything you need to know.
Beginning with John Mayall and his epochal Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton Grapefruit‘s roughly-chronological collection illustrates how the blues and its variants permeated the late 60s British music scene, happily highlighting the key players – often in more obscure settings – while providing examples of the lesser known, and near-forgotten, equally inspired by Mayall’s example.
The Fleetwood Mac clan are here in force; ‘Love That Burns’ from Mr. Wonderful; Peter Green guesting on Brunning Sunflower Blues Band’s ‘Ride With Your Daddy Tonight’; Jeremy Spencer’s ‘Mean Blues’ from his eponymous (and whacky) solo album; and The Christine Perfect Band’s out-take ‘It’s You I Miss’. Likewise Zeppelin; Page in ‘67 on a live Yardbirds ‘I’m A Man’; John Paul Jones guesting on ‘You Shook Me’ from Jeff Beck’s Truth; and RobertPlant in a short-lived trio with Alexis Korner.
Quiet Melon – whose ‘Diamond Joe’ is a revelation – turn out to be Art Wood plus a proto-Faces. The much-refried ‘Bring It On Home’ and ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ are made fresh in versions from Bakerloo and Jasper. Siren’s ‘Gardener Man’, Steamhammer’s ‘Passing Through’, and Edgar Broughton’s ‘Old Gopher’ might have been equally at home on an I’m A Freak Baby collection, but sit happy here; like many of the later selections, of the blues but reaching beyond.
While there have been many British blues anthologies, the vast majority tend to be single-label projects rather than scene-wide curatorial efforts. This three-disc, 56-track box is the first attempt at a comprehensive overview. On disc one, the Bluesbreakers are represented by Willie Dixon’s and Otis Rush’s steamy, raw, “All Your Love.” The previously unissued title track is offered by with sass and verve by then-new and always unheralded Zany Woodruff Organization (who later hosted guitarist Allan Holdsworth). Tracks by Bond, Jeff Beck, Love Sculpture, and early Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, and the Deviants round it out. But there are surprises: Duster Bennett’s demo for “Jumping at Shadows,” made immortal by Fleetwood Mac, and the Bonzo Dog Doo DahBand delivering a scorching, humorous, barroom strutter called “Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?” There is a smouldering Korner jam here too, titled “Operator,” with a very young Robert Plant on vocals.
Disc two contains a smoking acoustic version of “Death Letter Blues” by Mike Cooper, as well as “It’s You I Miss,” by the Christine Perfect Band (aka Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie), the swampy, modal blues-rock of Levee Camp Moan on “I Just Can’t Keep from Crying,” Taste’s “Blister on the Moon,” revealing Rory Gallagher’s early guitar genius, and tracks by Blodwyn Pig and Chicken Shack, as well as a host of obscurities including Quiet Melon’s rarity “Diamond Joe,” featuring the pre-Faces Ronnie Wood, Kenny Jones, Rod Stewart, Ian McLagan, and Ronnie Lane. The final disc includes a scorching, live, “A Hard Way to Go” by Savoy Brown (with Chris Youlden), Stone the Crows’ “Raining in Your Heart,” the Edgar Broughton Band’s “Old Gopher,”Skid Row’s “The Man Who Never Was,” an early example of dual-lead proto-metal blues with guitarist Gary Moore (Phil Lynott was their original vocalist, but not here), and Status Quo’s early boogie exercise “Railroad,” with obscure numbers by Linda Hoyle (a rousing “Mr. Backlash”), a ragged “Road Runner” by Stack Waddy, and a rare live take of “I’m a Man,” by the pre-pop Yardbirds.
The set is adorned with copious, authoritative liner notes by compilation producer David Wells, and contains wonderful photos and brilliant sound. Crawling Up a Hill is essentially the definitive British blues compilation. Its amazing cross-licensing and skillful presentation leave very little out, yet covers all major and most minor artists on the scene with careful attention paid to stylistic variation.
“Go-Go Boots” is the ninth studio album by American rock band Drive-By Truckers, first released February 14, 2011, on Play It Again Sam Records. It was produced by record producer David Barbe and recorded during 2009 to 2010, concurrently with sessions for the band’s previous album The Big To-Do (2010). The Drive-By Truckers are a band that likes to do things the old-fashioned way. They proudly proclaim that they record their music “on glorious two-inch analogue tape,” they still think in terms of albums with two (or four) sides, and their sound is firmly rooted in the traditions of Southern rock and the blues. They also hark back to a time when rock bands made an album every year followed by a tour, and if the DBTs haven’t quite held firm to that schedule, since they broke through with Southern Rock Opera in 2001, they’ve managed to release six studio albums, a live CD/DVD, another DVD-only live set, and a collection of rarities and unreleased tracks, all while keeping up a demanding touring schedule.
Any band that busy is likely to believe it deserves a rest every once in a while, and in a sense, 2011’s “Go-Go Boots” feels a little bit like a working vacation. The album is notably short on full-blown rockers and sounds scaled back from the three-guitar attack that’s been their hallmark, often dominated by acoustic guitars and the muffled but determined report of Brad Morgan’s drums. The songs also find the band going back to the well on themes it has visited before — the man of the Lord with a broad but carefully hidden streak of corruption in The Big To-Do’s“The Wig He Made Her Wear” foreshadowed not one but two songs here, “The Fireplace Poker” and the title track, and the damaged ex-cop of “Used to Be a Cop” feels like a cousin to the haunted war veteran of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark’s “That Man I Shot.” But none of this adds up to an album that’s at all lazy. The craft of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley’s song writing is as strong as ever, drawing believable characters and giving them lives that make dramatic sense, and Shonna Tucker just keeps getting better with the graceful and hard-edged “Dancin’ Ricky.” And if the music on Go-Go Boots is less physical than what the Drive-By Truckers typically deliver, it’s emphatic and passionate, with an impressive sense of dynamics and as much soul as these folks have ever summoned in the studio — they’ve rocked a lot harder, but they’ve never cut a more natural and telling groove.
There are moments where Go-Go Boots recalls Exile on Main St., another album that makes much out of feel and the way musicians play off one another, and if this isn’t as likely to be regarded as a masterpiece, it’s also less self-obsessive, and reveals some sides of the Drive-By Truckers the band hasn’t captured in the studio before. After ten years of hard work, the DBTs are still learning, still growing, and still feeling out new ideas, and on Go-Go Boots they show that even when they’re relaxed, they’re still one of America’s best bands.
The Reverberation Appreciation Society is proud to launch a brand new live series, “Live at Levitation”. Recorded over the history of the world renowned event, professionally mixed and mastered, this series captures key moments in modern rock and roll history, and live music in Austin, Texas. The artists and sets showcased here are the apex of modern psychedelia, performing for a crowd of their peers and fans who gather at Levitation Festival annually from all over the world.
The first LP in this series features Japanese psych heavyweights Kikagaku Moyo. This particular record is as strong as it is meaningful in the band’s story. It showcases one of the bands very first US show in 2014 on the A-side and their triumphant return in 2019 on the B-side with them firing on all cylinders amid a sold out US tour.
Kikagaku Moyo have come a long way –both literally and metaphorically– since their humble beginnings busking on the streets of Tokyo back in 2012. A tight-knit group of five friends who bonded over the desire to play freely, and explore music associated with space and psychedelica, their initial ambitions were modest semi-regular slots in the cramped clubs of the city’s insular music scene. Yet the band’s progressive, folk-influenced take on psychedelica marked them out from their peers and re-started Japan’s psych rock scene, and soon brought them international acclaim. Fast forward a few years, and you find the band crushing headline sets at festivals, embarking on sprawling international tours, and a dedicated fanbase for their music and record label Guruguru Brain – all while steadfastly maintaining their creative freedom and DIY allure.
Kikagaku Moyo are the real deal: masterful musicians, a powerful creative force, and one of key bands in the psychedelic rock movement and we are thrilled to have them kick off the LIve at Levitation series with this incredible record.
Formed in Japan in 2013 with Tomo Katsurada and Go Kurosawa at the helm, Kikagaku Moyo quickly and confidently hurtled to the forefront of the psychedelic scene upon the arrival of their debut full-length. Riding high on a broad spectrum of influences, Kikagaku Moyo were naturals at integrating these many elements into their own voice, from Indian traditionals to krautrock to jazz to chamber folk to riff-heavy acid freak-outs. It’s all in there, but it’s 100% a singular sound they’ve finessed with every new record and every tour.
Their live show is not to be missed and an essential experience for any psych fan or active listener. If you’ve indeed never witnessed a happening of this calibre, The ‘buy’ link takes you to LEVITATION where two gorgeous variants await you, the ‘Dripping Sun’ version and ‘Exploding Star’ colorway limited to 500 copies each.
The Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies has revealed some details about a 50th Anniversary reissue of the band’s 1970 album “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One” that’s being prepared for release later this year. Dave tells ABC Audio that his brother, Kinks frontman Ray Davies, finished mixing the collection, which will feature various unreleased bonus tracks, including demos, odd mixes and more. The package includes a matt laminated rigid slipcase featuring the original LP cover reproduced with foil and metallic silver finishes. Three CDs contain: The original album new remaster from original HD master tapes, singles (stereo and mono mixes), B-sides, alternate original mixes, new medleys with Ray and Dave Davies conversations, new RayDavies remixes and original session out-takes, previously unreleased session and live tape audio, instrumental & acoustic versions, previously unreleased demos and BBC material.
Originally recorded 9th May 1970 at Morgan Studio 1, Willesden, UK for The Kinks classic ‘Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One’ original album sessions. This fresh, new 2020 remaster was done from the original HD master tapes by expert Kinks engineer Andrew Sandoval, overseen by Kinks frontman Ray Davies. ‘Lola’, which reached the #9 in the US, #2 in the UK and Germany, was theKinks‘ biggest single success since ‘Sunny Afternoon’ in 1966 and marked the start of big comeback Stateside. The track, written by Ray Davies, allegedly details a romantic encounter between a young man and a possible trans-gender person whom he meets in a club in Soho, London.
The Kinks continuing the 50th anniversary celebration of their studio albums with various new editions of 1970’s “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt 1”. The December 18th release via Sanctuary Records is produced in association with The Kinks, with audio and visual content curated by Ray Davies. The original album, released on November. 27th, 1970, included the worldwide hit single, “Lola,” as well as “Apeman,” a top 5 record in many markets.
On November 25th, the band premiered an animated video of “Lola,” telling the story of a romantic encounter between a young man and a possible trans-gender person whom he meets in a club in Soho, London.
From the new collection’s announcement: The concept album, their eighth studio release, is a satirical appraisal of the music industry, including song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. This classic album appeared during a transitional period for the Kinks, and was a critical and commercial success.
Dave also reveals that one interesting highlight of the deluxe reissue is a section dubbed “The Kitchen Sink Tapes” that features recently recorded conversations between Ray and him discussing various songs from the album. “It’s stuff we recorded before this weird pandemic thing,” he explains. “We met up at Ray’s house, and we just [had an] impromptu kind of conversation, [talking] about ‘Ape Man’ and what ‘Lola’ meant to us and how it came about, and how the ideas for ‘Strangers’ were born.”
Davies also reports that the Lola Versus Powerman reissue will include some demos of the song “Lola” that Ray recorded at his house, and an unreleased demo of the Dave-penned gem “Strangers.”
“Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One” was released in November 1970. The record featured the enduring hit “Lola,” which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the U.K. singles chart. A second single, “Apeman,” only reached #45 on the Hot 100, but was a #5 hit in the U.K. The concept album, their eighth studio release, is a satirical appraisal of the music industry, including song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. This classic album appeared during a transitional period for the Kinks, and was a critical and commercial success.
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, commonly abbreviated to Lola Versus Powerman, or just Lola, is the eighth studio album by The Kinks, recorded and released in 1970. A concept album ahead of its time, it’s a satirical appraisal of the music industry, including song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. One of the all-time classic Kinks albums. Although it appeared during a transitional period for The Kinks, Lola Versus Powerman was a success both critically and commercially for the group, charting in the Top 40 in America and helping restore them in the public eye, making it a “comeback” album. It contained two hit singles: ‘Lola’, which reached the #9 US, #2 UK and Germany – becoming the Kinks’ biggest success since ‘Sunny Afternoon’ in 1966 – and ‘Apeman’, which peaked at #5 in the UK and Germany.
Meanwhile, Dave says that he and Ray still haven’t got any concrete plans to release the new music that they’ve worked on together during the past few years. n m,.,m,.mnn m,jhgfduyfdsp-0“We’ve been talking about it,” he reports. “And we’re getting together [soon] with a view to maybe peruse stuff that we got and see if maybe we can and maybe we can’t. And we’ll see.”
The limited deluxe edition is lavishly packaged, with a 50th anniversary deluxe 10” book-pack of that album, containing many previously unreleased tracks and versions.
The December 18th release via Sanctuary Records is produced in association with The Kinks, with audio and visual content curated by Ray Davies. The original album, released on November 27th, 1970,
Lola Versus Powerman’ 50th Anniversary Box Set Available as a Deluxe 10” slipcased book pack (containing 60 page book, 3 x cds, 2 x 7” singles, 4 x colour prints) and on black heavyweight gatefold vinyl, 2CD and 1CD formats.
Most of this footage was taken by my grandfather around the 70s and part of the footage is of me as a child, me at the age I am now. Lakes explores identity and feelings of being lost. We are all bodies that feed into each other to make our own individual lakes. I found a great deal of identity through community and through isolation that sense of self was lost. Through the music video I wanted to find identity through family and heritage. I never really developed a relationship with my grandfather and I found a large sense of self through making the video. Many tears were shed.
Francis of Delirium’s EP Wading consists of three previously released singles and one new track in “I Think I’m Losing.” Taken as a whole, the collection of releases by Vancouver teen Jana Bahrich and Seattle drummer/producer Chris Hewett brings as much heart as it does edge. Bahrich’s range of vocal stylings are on full display, from more mild-mannered indie melodies to half-spoken poetic verses to powerful, emo-infused belts. Paired with grungy, fuzzy guitar, drums and choral harmonies, the duo pack a serious punch. The EP’s new song “I Think I’m Losing” is a stunning, dynamic ballad that pulls all these elements together and finishes the Wading EP with a bang.
Fans of Nirvana, Nilufer Yanya, Julien Baker, The Beths and garage rock of any proportion, we’d like to introduce you to your new favourite band. 90s grunge collides with indie folk and millenial DIY, the Luxembourg-based duo Francis of Delirium release one of the most astute debut bodies of work we’ve ever heard.
After four years out of the spotlight, AC/DC returned to headlines within the rock community last month with confirmation of a reunion album with their Back In Back era lineup of Brian Johnson, Angus Young,Phil Rudd, and Cliff Williams, along with Stevie Young replacing the late Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson hailed Stevie Young for carrying on the rhythm guitar tradition set by his uncle Malcolm Young on the band’s new album, Power Up.
“You don’t want to step backwards, and I think Stevie’s contribution is the fact that he’s kept up that level,” Johnson tells us. “And Stevie, his part in it is to keep that level exactly where Angus [Young] and Malcolm always wanted it – you know, the best it could be. I think that’s it, really.”
Stevie previously filled in for Malcolm, who died in 2017, on 1988’s Blow Up Your Video tour and joined the group for 2014’s Rock or Bust album and tour when his uncle retired. On Power Up, which comes out Friday, Stevie can be heard playing guitar parts written by Malcolm as he and Angus began crafting the material that became 2008’s Black Ice.
“We had a massive pile of stuff that the two of us had worked on,” Angus says. “Before we had done that album, we had quite a while together writing a lot of stuff together. … At the time, you can only present so much. So, that’s Malcolm’s big contribution. He’s part of all of the songwriting on the album. … I still go away humming a lot of ideas that the two of us worked on through the years.”
On Wednesday, the band debuted “Realize” as the second single to appear on their forthcoming Power Up studio album. The album’s lead single, “Shot In The Dark”, was shared with the album’s overall announcement in early October.
“Realize” hears the hard rock veterans deliver a gut-punch of rock and roll adrenaline, opening with the big sounds of rung-out power chords from Angus and Stevie before Phil Rudd’s trademark 4/4 power rhythm pattern comes in to take the reins.
The second installment in the posthumous David Bowie live series, Brilliant Live Adventures, will capture a 1995 show in Birmingham, England, and arrive November 20th via Parlophone Records.
“No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95)” was recorded at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre on December 13th, 1995 as part of the Big Twix Mix Show Festival. While this marks the first full commercial release of the show, excerpts from it were filmed and aired by the BBC, while Bowie’s performances of “Moonage Daydream” and “Under Pressure” were included on the “Hallo Spaceboy” CD single.
The No Trendy Réchauffé setlist boasts rare live performances of “Jump They Say” and “Strangers When We Meet.” The live album will also include two versions of “Hallo Spaceboy,” the second of which was tied to a music video Bowie was set to release for the song at the time, but never did. The track was eventually remixed by the Pet Shop Boys for a single release and an alternative promotional video was made.
Last month, Parlophone Records announced Brilliant Live Adventures, a new series of releases from the late David Bowie collecting six rare and previously unreleased live albums from the 1990s to be released in limited-edition, one-time pressings on both CD and vinyl. The first three albums have all been promised for release before Christmas, with the remaining trio due early in 2021. Ouvrez Le Chien (Live Dallas ’95) was the first volume; today, the second has been announced.
“No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham ’95)” was filmed and recorded almost two months to the day after the Dallas show on Ouvrez Le Chien. The title phrase translates to No Trendy Rehash, and indeed, Bowie was in spirited, original form that evening in Birmingham. It was the final night in 1995 of the Outside Tour, and the opening night of the Big Twix Mix Show festival. Bowie marked the occasions with rare performances of Black Tie White Noise‘s “Jump They Say” and Outside‘s “Strangers When We Meet,” and took the audience on an electrifying trip from past (“Moonage Daydream,” “Under Pressure,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)”) to present (“I Have Not Been to Oxford Town,” “The Motel,” “We Prick You,” “Hallo Spaceboy”).
Portions of the show were aired on the BBC, versions as heard here are previously unreleased, presented as exactly as they were performed in Birmingham. The disc also features a second version of “Hallo Spaceboy,” filmed as “Spaceboy” for a potential music video.
The concert features Bowie accompanied by Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar, Reeves Gabrels on lead guitar and vocals, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, Zachary Alford on drums, musical director Peter Schwartz on keyboards and synthesizers, George Simms on vocals, and Mike Garson on piano and keyboards.
No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham ’95) is exclusively available for pre-order now from David Bowie’s official webstore on both CD and vinyl. The expected ship date is November 18th.
David Bowie, “No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham ’95)” (Parlophone, 2020)
The Brilliant Live Adventure series was announced back in October and will comprise six live albums recorded during the Nineties. The first, Ouvrez Le Chien, featured a Dallas, Texas, show from 1995 and was released at the end of October. One more album is expected to arrive before Christmas 2020, while the remaining three records will be released in early 2021.
Joni Mitchell and her band performed at Holland’s Congresgebouw venue, in the Hague, a show which was generally considered to be among the finest of the tour. The entire set they played that evening is now featured on this vinyl for the first time!. From Joni Mitchell‘s 1983 Tour. In early 1983, Joni Mitchell began a world tour, visiting Japan, Australia, UK, mainland Europe and the United States and Canada. Promoting her first Geffen album, “Wild Things Run Free”, released in October the previous year, the Refuge World Tour, as it was known, was Joni’s most extensive jaunt to date taking up the complete first half of the year. On 27th April, Joni Mitchell and her band – which included Russell Ferrante on keyboards Michael Landau on guitar, Larry Klein on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums – performed at Holland s Congresgebouw venue, in the Hague, The entire set they played that evening is now featured on this album for the first time, providing a chance for fans to finally hear this previously unreleased radio broadcast recording.
At 51 minutes it isn’t the longest, but it’s everything transmitted on Dutch radio. Any long term fan of Joni will not be disappointed seeing release because of relaxed EU laws allowing publication of concerts transmitted on TV or radio by independent labels this is a well put-together package. Joni had developed the rock theme at the encouragement of then husband Larry Klein, a superb bass player and featured here to great effect with the bass mixed high on tracks where Joni is accompanied by the band. That band includes Vinnie Colaiuta, one of the world’s great drummers who provides fabulous backing; Michael Landau, often adding beautiful washes of colouring on lead guitar; and keyboardist Russell Ferrante. This was a five-star band, shown off to terrific effect on this album with many familiar songs given entirely new arrangements as a result and is worth obtaining for fans of Joni on that basis alone.
I was fortunate to catch this tour at Birmingham, and whilst that was an experience I shall long remember this album, together with “A Woman In The East” recorded in March 1983 (but featuring quite a different song selection) . A relaxed Joni rings the changes, playing electric guitar, acoustic guitar, grand piano and dulcimer – although memory recalls on some songs she was simply happy to act as lead singer to the well-integrated, tight backing band. At the time of release “Wild Things Run Fast” was a bit of a curio, with previous album “Mingus” so deeply grounded in jazz this was a shock, completely out of left field. Hindsight reveals that whilst Joni didn’t stay with the rock theme for long it was certainly not a cul-de-sac. Tracks like “Refuge Of The Roads”, originally from “Hejira” stand out, with Klein a very different bassist than Jaco Pastorius and no drums featured on much of that album. Indeed, the set opens up with a simply superb rendition of “Coyote” from that same album, setting a high benchmark for what was to come.
Joni pleases older fans by delving into her back catalogue, and there are satisfying versions of “Real Good, For Free”, “Big Yellow Taxi”, A Case Of You”, “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio”, and “Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow” which are all very enjoyable renditions. The concert does feature a good quantity of “Wild Things Run Fast” amongst it’s 12 tracks and these sit comfortably amongst the classics. For anyone who can’t get enough of Joni and wishes her health would improve enough to release new music there’s potentially a long wait.
Setlist: 1. Coyote 2. For Free 3. Big Yellow Taxi 4. A Case Of You 5. You Turn Me On I’m A Radio 6. You’re So Square 7. Solid Love 8. Love 9. Ladies’ Man 10. Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow 11. Refuge Of The Roads 12. You Dream Flat Tyres
Derek and The Dominos‘ 1970 album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is being reissued for its 50th Anniversary as a deluxe 4LP vinyl set and across two CDs.
The original album has been half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios and, being a double, is pressed on two LPs. Two further records of bonus material (not half-speed mastered) make up this 4LP deluxe box set.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was celebrated back in 2011 with a deluxe, cross-format box set that featured the remastered original album (on CD, vinyl and in a 5.1 surround mix on DVD), 1973’s In Concert, and a disc of 13 bonus tracks, including new mixes of outtakes from the supergroup’s unfinished second album and a live set from The Johnny Cash Show. This new box strips things back somewhat, offering the half-speed mastered album and the 13 bonus cuts across four LPs along with the 12″ x 12″ book from the 40th anniversary set and a certificate of authenticity. (The 2CD 40th anniversary edition will also go back into print as well, ostensibly for the 50th anniversary.) Alongside this is a further 2LPs of bonus material some of which has previously been unreleased on vinyl. All the bonus material across all of LP3 & LP4 is mastered normally (so is not half-speed mastered).
Layla was the end result of four members of Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett’s touring group – guitarist Eric Clapton (already well-known for work with Blind Faith, The Beatles and many more), singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon – coming together for a brief but fruitful series of sessions. (Their earliest session produced the briefly issued single “Tell the Truth,” produced by Phil Spector and featuring guitar work from Dave Mason and George Harrison.) The Layla sessions also featured scintillating guitar contributions from Duane Allman. Despite the album’s pedigree, the album never performed to expectations, and tragedy followed the group: Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971, Radle died in 1980 after years of drug abuse, and Gordon remains institutionalized after killing his mother during a schizophrenic episode in 1983.
But gradually, Layla‘s title track took hold as one of Clapton’s crowning achievements: written about his insatiable infatuation with Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd (who indeed had a decade-long marriage with the guitarist after divorcing the Beatle), “Layla” became a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1972; in 1990, its Gordon-led piano outro scored a pivotal scene in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas – and three years later, a striking acoustic performance for MTV’s Unplugged won a Grammy Award.
“That thing was like lightning in a bottle,” begins Bobby Whitlock talking about his short-lived band time with Eric Clapton, Derek and the Dominos. “We did one club tour, we did one photo session, then we did a tour of a bit larger venues. Then we did one studio album in Miami. We did one American tour. Then we did one failed attempt at a second album.” And all within about a year’s time in 1970.
So in this case, the oft-overused flash of lightning description is right on the money. And Whitlock was a key part of the kinetic energy behind what’s considered a genuine landmark in not just Clapton’s career but the entire classic rock genre: the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, co-writing six of the double album’s 10 original songs, and bringing his soul-soaked Deep South keyboard skills to the musical mix, taking the vocal lead on two tracks and doubling/trading off with Clapton throughout the rest of the album.
Now, five decades later, he is the keeper of the Dominos legacy. And the dedicated survivor of a star-crossed band if there ever was one. After the band’s short flash as a working act, he descended into some three years of heroin adduction and seclusion. Duane Allman, who played on most of Layla, was killed in a motorcycle crash on October 29th, 1971. Bassist Carl Radle recorded and played with Clapton later in the ’70s and died of a kidney infection, exacerbated by his alcohol and drug abuse, in 1980. Drummer Jim Gordon as well continued to engage in substance abuse, damaging his career with behavioural issues. In 1983, he murdered his mother, claiming a voice in his head had told him to do so. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and has remained incarcerated ever since.
Whitlock stresses “We were better than anybody.” One of the key elements that made them what he feels were the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band for that all-too-brief time was Whitlock’s deep Southern musical soul. Growing up a preacher’s kid in a family poor as a church mouse, he was weaned on spiritual music (and did some cotton picking in his youth). Coming of age in Memphis, Whitlock was steeped in R&B in the city where white rock ‘n’ roll was born at Sun Studio.
Although Whitlock, only 22 years old at the time, helped Clapton all but define anguished unrequited love in the most profound rock ‘n’ roll terms and tunes on songs like “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad,” “Tell the Truth” and “I Looked Away,” his own ultimate love story is something quite different, and a rather delightful one at that. Though his post-Domino years were not without their struggles, today he’s blissfully married and in musical partnership with singer, bassist, guitarist, sax player, songwriter, recording engineer and producer CoCo Carmel.
Whitlock, Clapton, Radle and Gordon became part of the core crew on the sessions for Harrison’s post-Beatles debut, All Things Must Pass. When Harrison had business elsewhere for a few days, he told the four to use the studio time with producer Phil Spector to cut some tracks, which yielded the debut Dominos 45, “Tell the Truth” b/w “Roll It Over.”
Whitlock says of Clapton, “He wanted to be Derek not Eric. He wasn’t ready to step into his role of as a solo artist at that time.” The four musicians did a show at London’s Lyceum Theatre, and then set off on a tour of small English venues as Derek & the Dominos where the admission was £1, and Clapton’s name was forbidden to be used in any advertising. In late August of ’70, the Dominos arrived at Criteria Studios in Miami to record with producer Tom Dowd. He took them to see the Allman Brothers Band, Clapton and Duane Allman bonded, and the latter joined the Layla sessions to help create some of the most incendiary dual guitar rock ever recorded. The album was suffused with Clapton’s passionate longing for his best friend Harrison’s wife PattiBoyd – interestingly, while in England Whitlock dated her sister Paula – and even though it was only a middling hit on its release, over time its stature grew to become considered a rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece.
The vinyl box comes with a 12×12″ book of sleeve notes taken from the 40th-anniversary edition. A 2CD edition will also be made available which is effectively identical to the double-CD edition issued in 2011.
The big 40th anniversary box set (which was 4CD+DVD+2LP) featured a surround sound mix on the DVD. Since that is now very hard to get hold of, it’s disappointing that the DVD hasn’t been included as with the two CDs to make a triple disc package.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs will be reissued on 13th November 2020.
The Fat Angel Sings 