MetaChat - Yes, Eric Clapton today, is an over-the-hill yuppie hack

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08 March 2006

Yes, Eric Clapton today, is an over-the-hill yuppie hack →[More:] But back in 1970 he hooked up with four other musicians, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon and Duane Allman. Allman & Radle are dead. Gordon is in an institution. Whitlock was a junkie and got clean, like Clapton himself. But at the time of the recordings they made they were all addicted to smack, and Clapton was in unrequited love with Patti Boyd, wife of his best friend George Harrison. Out of all that anguish came the classic album Layla, the title track of which we've all heard everyday of our lives, but it's far from the only classic on the record. These two songs even surpass it in my opinion.

Anyday
I Looked Away

post by: jonmc at: 13:02 | 6 comments

Yeah, I heard one of them made a huge score of killer smack, and as an excuse to get together and get wasted, they all decided to record an album.

From what I heard, they didn't even show up with amps, had to go to a local music shop and buy little tweed Fender Champs to play through (which is the other part of why that album sounds so fuckin' good -- dimed Champs are all over the best records ever).

The whole album sounds like sweet brown honey, particularly the luscious dope nod of "I Am Yours."

As always, great stuff, jonmc.

posted by Hugh Janus 08 March | 13:14

The whole album sounds like sweet brown honey, particularly the luscious dope nod of "I Am Yours."

and what's truly amazing is that throughout all that doping, they still kept their chops (especially Clapton's vocals, he's never sung better in my opinion). There's been plenty of 'heroin music' made since, but most of it is Velvet Underground imitations lacking Lou Reed's humor and rock and roll heart, and the band's vigor. I wish white rockers would realize that it's permissible to do something besides drone and whine.

posted by jonmc 08 March | 13:18

Crossroads

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 08 March | 14:47

Sorry to back track. Let's call it context. :-)

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 08 March | 14:48

The Fender Champ: Single ended, with only two triodes for voltage gain, no bypass cap on the cathodes, cap-coupled from the plate to a 6V6 run without too much negative feedback... output transformer run at the upper edge of it's range, all driving an alnico-magnet, paper-cone full-range speaker.

Of course it sounds great! How could it not? :-)

posted by Triode 08 March | 16:42

I have a kit for making a Champ (the circuit, not the cabinet/cone) sitting in my parent's basement in MD. Maybe I'll break out the soldering iron next time I'm down.

Ever spend time looking at Weber's forums or the Ampage? I have a homebrew cab I made out of a Peavey bass chassis that I threw a custom Weber 12" speaker (IIRC a ceramic Chicago but with a smoother (but not smooth) cone for earlier breakup) into. I run a Sovtek Mig-50H (somewhere between Bassman and Plexi, it was something like $120 US) through it and it weeps, baby. So for around $200 I have a rig that'll fill any room with molten rock.

Of course, it's all in the fingers. But a nice amp helps.

posted by Hugh Janus 08 March | 16:56

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