Saturday, June 01, 2002 10:17:23 AM
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Derek and the Dominos
http://www.eric-clapton.co.uk/
http://www.sixtiesrock.com/eric-clapton/derek.html
It is difficult not to have a pre-conceived opinion about Derek and the Dominos before actually hearing their music. It is even more difficult to forget that the name Derek rhymes with the name of one the world's most renown guitarists. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to forget his past laurels and resist the temptation to say, "He was better when . . . " or "He will lose his title as the best guitarist in the world if he doesn't play 'Sunshine'. " He would prefer it that way, though.
The unseen crown that rests grandly upon Derek's head is one which he neither sought nor wishes to wear. He is, he persistently maintains, "Just a guitarist ... just an English kid playing the blues".
The name, Derek and the Dominos, was selected as a spur of the moment joke as they walked on stage at recent Dr. Spock Civil Liberties Defense Fund charity concert. It is a joke which has stuck, and now even friends of long standing often slip into calling him Derek.
The request for a fresh start and anonymity is no joke, though. If one person goes to hear Derek and the Dominos, listens without using past glories as a yardstick and hears, instead, four friends playing for pleasure; then Derek will be happier. And it will be one step, no matter how tiny, towards destroying comparisons which so often detract from the enjoyment of much of contemporary music.
Derek and the Dominos are a four piece group playing rock music as best they know how, and that is pretty damn well.
Derek is, of course, Eric Clapton, sometime of the nickname "Slowhand" because of the speed of his fingers on the guitar frets, hailed far and wide as the ultimate blues guitarist, the cult hero of the guitar generation is desperately ducking and weaving to avoid being borne down by the weight of his reputation.
The Dominos are not separate; they are each an equal with Derek. They are Bobby Whitlock, principally on organ, occasionally guitar, and all the time vocally supporting the lead singing of Eric Clapton; bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, together one of the tightest rhythm sections around.
The links between the four were formed when Blind Faith toured America, with the yet-to-blossom Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. They were welded tight when that band came to Europe in last year's sensational trip with Eric, George Harrison and Dave Mason.
They were finally sealed when Eric invited them over to play at the Dr. Spock concert. Since then they have been recording, rehearsing and writing the material which will be the mainstay of their stage and club appearances.
ERIC CLAPTON
They say that Eric Clapton never played a wrong note in the 25 years of his life. Certainly those who know him best cannot remember a time when he did not have a guitar in his hands.
Born the son of a Ripley, Surrey, bricklayer, he set out to be a stained glass window designer, and discovered instead that the guitar was his life.
John Peel, the B.B.C.'s only concession to music, called him , "The most venerated musician in popular music". Every award worth winning has already been given to him, except perhaps what he would most wish for -- anonymity.
Universal recognition came to him with the 10,000,000 records sold by Cream, but it was built with the Yardbirds, and later John Mayall, when the fans chalked up the legendary phrase, "Clapton is God". His later stints with Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and a hatful of guest appearances on albums, only served to confirm what we already knew.
Typically his own view is, "I don't understand why anyone should claim anything for me. I am just a guitar player.
"Daily, I hear things by other guitarists that surprise the hell out of me. And in the United States the re are dozens of guys down in the South that have pure genius. I have my own heroes, and I try to think when I am playing, 'how would so and so have done this'.
"It's ridiculous to claim that I am the best guitarist in the world".
BOBBY WHITLOCK
If Eric Clapton says the be st musicians are in the South of the U. S. A. then their focus must be on Memphis, Tennessee. It was from this home of country music that 22 year-old Bobby Whitlock came to prominence with Delaney and Bonnie. He met them while one of the few white rnusicians working with the Stax record label.
Bobby is at home mainly on the organ, but shares with Eric the front line on some of the group's acoustic numbers. His singing modestly supports and compliments the lead singing of Eric Clapton.
CARL RADLE
From somewhere at the back of the stage Carl Radle stoops slightly over his bass guitar and drives the group along with his loping rhythms. Nothing further removed from flamboyance could be imagined than the 28 year-old, quietly spoken, bespectacled guitarist from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Though Gene Pitney once got within 24 hours of the place, the only other contemporary to make it out of Tulsa is the brilliant pianist and composer, Leon Russell. It was through Leon that Carl came to meet Delaney Brarnlett and later to join the Friends.
Since leaving, Carl toured the U.S. with Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" show, continuing the journey to arrive in time for one day's rehearsal before the Dr. Spock concert.
JIM GORDON
Jim Gordon is 6 feet 3 inches tall, and if his drumming didn't mark him as unique, his stamina and physique probably would. Delaney Bramlett once observed, "Tf we all dropped dead from exhaustion, Jim probably wouldn't notice. Just keep driving along".
This is his first time in a band on a cooperative basis, having played on a session rate with Delaney and Bonnie . But his experience as one of the two busiest session drummers on America's West Coast has seen him playing across the whole pop spectrum from the Everly Brothers and Joe Cocker at one end, to Andy Williams and Glen Campbell at the other.
Jim stepped into the Delaney and Bonnie spot at the last minute after regular drummer, Jim Keltner, decided to leave a few days before their European tour. He, too, played with "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" after quitting D&B.
Derek and the Dominos (1970 - late 1971)
Eric Clapton - guitar/vocals - b. Eric Clapp on March 30, 1945, Ripley, England; formerly with The Roosters, Casey Jones and the Engineers, The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith.
Bobby Whitlock - keyboards/vocals
Carl Radle - bass/percussion - d. 1981 (alcohol poisoning).
Jim Gordon - drums/percussion
Albums:
"Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" (1970) (with Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band)
"Derek and the Dominos in Concert" (1973)
"The Layla Sessions - 20th Anniversary Edition" (box set) (1990)
"Live at the Fillmore" (1994)
Eric Clapton goes solo. Jim Gordon joins The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band; he later became ill with paranoid schizophrenia and, in 1984, was imprisoned for murdering his mother.
In Concert
http://www.sixtiesrock.com/eric-clapton/in-concert.html
]
Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
http://www.eric-clapton.co.uk/
http://www.sixtiesrock.com/eric-clapton/derek.html
It is difficult not to have a pre-conceived opinion about Derek and the Dominos before actually hearing their music. It is even more difficult to forget that the name Derek rhymes with the name of one the world's most renown guitarists. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to forget his past laurels and resist the temptation to say, "He was better when . . . " or "He will lose his title as the best guitarist in the world if he doesn't play 'Sunshine'. " He would prefer it that way, though.
The unseen crown that rests grandly upon Derek's head is one which he neither sought nor wishes to wear. He is, he persistently maintains, "Just a guitarist ... just an English kid playing the blues".
The name, Derek and the Dominos, was selected as a spur of the moment joke as they walked on stage at recent Dr. Spock Civil Liberties Defense Fund charity concert. It is a joke which has stuck, and now even friends of long standing often slip into calling him Derek.
The request for a fresh start and anonymity is no joke, though. If one person goes to hear Derek and the Dominos, listens without using past glories as a yardstick and hears, instead, four friends playing for pleasure; then Derek will be happier. And it will be one step, no matter how tiny, towards destroying comparisons which so often detract from the enjoyment of much of contemporary music.
Derek and the Dominos are a four piece group playing rock music as best they know how, and that is pretty damn well.
Derek is, of course, Eric Clapton, sometime of the nickname "Slowhand" because of the speed of his fingers on the guitar frets, hailed far and wide as the ultimate blues guitarist, the cult hero of the guitar generation is desperately ducking and weaving to avoid being borne down by the weight of his reputation.
The Dominos are not separate; they are each an equal with Derek. They are Bobby Whitlock, principally on organ, occasionally guitar, and all the time vocally supporting the lead singing of Eric Clapton; bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, together one of the tightest rhythm sections around.
The links between the four were formed when Blind Faith toured America, with the yet-to-blossom Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. They were welded tight when that band came to Europe in last year's sensational trip with Eric, George Harrison and Dave Mason.
They were finally sealed when Eric invited them over to play at the Dr. Spock concert. Since then they have been recording, rehearsing and writing the material which will be the mainstay of their stage and club appearances.
ERIC CLAPTON
They say that Eric Clapton never played a wrong note in the 25 years of his life. Certainly those who know him best cannot remember a time when he did not have a guitar in his hands.
Born the son of a Ripley, Surrey, bricklayer, he set out to be a stained glass window designer, and discovered instead that the guitar was his life.
John Peel, the B.B.C.'s only concession to music, called him , "The most venerated musician in popular music". Every award worth winning has already been given to him, except perhaps what he would most wish for -- anonymity.
Universal recognition came to him with the 10,000,000 records sold by Cream, but it was built with the Yardbirds, and later John Mayall, when the fans chalked up the legendary phrase, "Clapton is God". His later stints with Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and a hatful of guest appearances on albums, only served to confirm what we already knew.
Typically his own view is, "I don't understand why anyone should claim anything for me. I am just a guitar player.
"Daily, I hear things by other guitarists that surprise the hell out of me. And in the United States the re are dozens of guys down in the South that have pure genius. I have my own heroes, and I try to think when I am playing, 'how would so and so have done this'.
"It's ridiculous to claim that I am the best guitarist in the world".
BOBBY WHITLOCK
If Eric Clapton says the be st musicians are in the South of the U. S. A. then their focus must be on Memphis, Tennessee. It was from this home of country music that 22 year-old Bobby Whitlock came to prominence with Delaney and Bonnie. He met them while one of the few white rnusicians working with the Stax record label.
Bobby is at home mainly on the organ, but shares with Eric the front line on some of the group's acoustic numbers. His singing modestly supports and compliments the lead singing of Eric Clapton.
CARL RADLE
From somewhere at the back of the stage Carl Radle stoops slightly over his bass guitar and drives the group along with his loping rhythms. Nothing further removed from flamboyance could be imagined than the 28 year-old, quietly spoken, bespectacled guitarist from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Though Gene Pitney once got within 24 hours of the place, the only other contemporary to make it out of Tulsa is the brilliant pianist and composer, Leon Russell. It was through Leon that Carl came to meet Delaney Brarnlett and later to join the Friends.
Since leaving, Carl toured the U.S. with Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" show, continuing the journey to arrive in time for one day's rehearsal before the Dr. Spock concert.
JIM GORDON
Jim Gordon is 6 feet 3 inches tall, and if his drumming didn't mark him as unique, his stamina and physique probably would. Delaney Bramlett once observed, "Tf we all dropped dead from exhaustion, Jim probably wouldn't notice. Just keep driving along".
This is his first time in a band on a cooperative basis, having played on a session rate with Delaney and Bonnie . But his experience as one of the two busiest session drummers on America's West Coast has seen him playing across the whole pop spectrum from the Everly Brothers and Joe Cocker at one end, to Andy Williams and Glen Campbell at the other.
Jim stepped into the Delaney and Bonnie spot at the last minute after regular drummer, Jim Keltner, decided to leave a few days before their European tour. He, too, played with "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" after quitting D&B.
Derek and the Dominos (1970 - late 1971)
Eric Clapton - guitar/vocals - b. Eric Clapp on March 30, 1945, Ripley, England; formerly with The Roosters, Casey Jones and the Engineers, The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith.
Bobby Whitlock - keyboards/vocals
Carl Radle - bass/percussion - d. 1981 (alcohol poisoning).
Jim Gordon - drums/percussion
Albums:
"Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" (1970) (with Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band)
"Derek and the Dominos in Concert" (1973)
"The Layla Sessions - 20th Anniversary Edition" (box set) (1990)
"Live at the Fillmore" (1994)
Eric Clapton goes solo. Jim Gordon joins The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band; he later became ill with paranoid schizophrenia and, in 1984, was imprisoned for murdering his mother.
In Concert
http://www.sixtiesrock.com/eric-clapton/in-concert.html
] Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
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