Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Aug 26, 2016 - 03:10pm PT
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So it is only fitting that after a good thread about Cream, we should be talking about Layla. I believe that Layla is among only a few rock songs which stand as excellent on all counts. Clapton wrote the song, but in Rock the details of how it was recorded and engineered tells a more complete story. Most of us hear Duane Allman's guitar solos and Jim Gordon's playing piano when we hear Layla.
From Wikipedia:
After the breakup of Cream, Clapton tried his hand with several groups, including Blind Faith and the husband-and-wife duo Delaney and Bonnie. In the spring of 1970, he was told that some members of Delaney and Bonnie's backup band, notably bassist Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, were leaving the group. Seizing the opportunity, Clapton formed a new group, which became Derek and the Dominos.
During the recording of the album, Duane Allman joined Clapton's fledgling band as a guest. Clapton and Allman, already mutual fans, were introduced at an Allman Brothers concert by Tom Dowd. The two hit it off well and soon became good friends. Dowd said of their guitar-playing chemistry: "There had to be some sort of telepathy going on because I've never seen spontaneous inspiration happen at that rate and level. One of them would play something, and the other reacted instantaneously. Never once did either of them have to say, 'Could you play that again, please?' It was like two hands in a glove. And they got tremendously off on playing with each other."
Dowd was already famous for a variety of work and had worked with Clapton in his Cream days (Clapton once called him "the ideal recording man"); his work on the album would be another achievement. For the making of his biographical film Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, he remixed the original master tapes of "Layla," saying, "There are my principles, in one form or another."
Clapton originally wrote "Layla" as a ballad, with lyrics describing his unrequited love for Lynda Boyd, but the song became a "rocker" when Allman reportedly composed the song's signature riff. With the band assembled and Dowd producing, "Layla" was recorded in its now-familiar rock form. The recording of the first section consisted of sixteen tracks of which six guitar tracks: a rhythm track by Clapton, three tracks of harmonies played by Clapton (the main power chord riff on both channels and two harmonies against that main riff, one on the left channel and one on the right channel), a track of solos by Allman (fretted solos with bent notes during the verses and a slide solo during the outro), and one track with both Allman and Clapton playing duplicate solos (the 7-note "signature" riff doubled in two octaves and the 12-note "signature" riff doubled in unison). The 7-note "signature" riff was very similar to the vocal melody of the lyric "There is nothing I can do" from "As the Years Go Passing By", as recorded by Albert King from 1967's album Born Under a Bad Sign and the last five notes of the 12-note "signature" riff were written by Allman. According to Clapton, Allman played the first seven notes of the 12-note "signature" riff fretted and the last five notes on slide in standard tuning. Each player used one input of the same two-input Fender Champ amplifier.
Shortly afterward, Clapton returned to the studio, where he heard Jim Gordon playing a piano piece he had composed separately. Clapton, impressed by the piece, convinced Gordon to allow it to be used as part of the song. Though only Gordon has been officially credited with this part, Whitlock claimed, "Jim took that piano melody from his ex-girlfriend Rita Coolidge. I know because in the D&B days I lived in John Garfield's old house in the Hollywood Hills and there was a guest house with an upright piano in it. Rita and Jim were up there in the guest house and invited me to join in on writing this song with them called 'Time.' ... Her sister Priscilla wound up recording it with Booker T. Jones. ... Jim took the melody from Rita's song and didn't give her credit for writing it. Her boyfriend ripped her off." "Time" ended up on the album Chronicles by Booker T. and Priscilla Jones which was released in 1973.
"Layla's" second movement was recorded roughly a week after the first, with Gordon playing his piano part, Clapton playing acoustic guitar and slide guitar, and Allman playing electric and bottleneck slide guitar.[16][19] After Dowd spliced the two movements together, "Layla" was complete.
Due to the circumstances of its composition, "Layla" is defined by two movements, each marked by a riff. The first movement, which was recorded in the key of D minor for choruses and C-sharp minor for verses, is centred around the "signature riff", a guitar piece utilising hammer-ons, pull-offs, and power chords. The first section contains the overdub-heavy slide guitar solo, played by Allman. By placing his slide at points beyond the end of the fretboard, Allman was able to play notes at a higher pitch than could be played with standard technique. Dowd referred to this as "notes that aren't on the instrument!"
The second movement, Jim Gordon's contribution, is commonly referred to as the "piano coda." Originally played in C major, the tape speed of the coda was increased slightly during mixing. The resulting pitch is somewhere between C and C sharp. The piano interlude at the end of the song is augmented by an acoustic guitar, and is also the accompaniment to the outro-solo. The same melody is played on Allman's slide guitar, albeit one octave higher. Gordon does not improvise or deviate from the piano part; Clapton and Allman are the ones who improvise the melody. The song ends with Allman playing his signature high-pitched "bird call" on his slide guitar.
As Clapton commented on his signature song:'Layla' is a difficult one, because it's a difficult song to perform live. You have to have a good complement of musicians to get all of the ingredients going, but when you've got that. ... It's difficult to do as a quartet, for instance, because there are some parts you have to play and sing completely opposing lines, which is almost impossible to do. If you've got a big band, which I will have on the tour, then it will be easy to do something like 'Layla'—and I'm very proud of it. I love to hear it. It's almost like it's not me. It's like I'm listening to someone that I really like. Derek and The Dominos was a band I really liked—and it's almost like I wasn't in that band. It's just a band that I'm a fan of. Sometimes, my own music can be like that. When it's served its purpose to being good music, I don't associate myself with it any more. It's like someone else. It's easy to do those songs then.
Or, as his inspiration, Pattie Boyd, once said, "I think that he was amazingly raw at the time... He's such an incredible musician that he's able to put his emotions into music in such a way that the audience can feel it instinctively. It goes right through you."
Personnel
Eric Clapton – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar
Duane Allman – lead guitar, slide guitar
Bobby Whitlock – Hammond organ, piano, background vocals
Carl Radle – bass
Jim Gordon – drums, percussion, piano
Tom Dowd – producer
I have challenged young classical musicians to replicate the sound palete of the guitar solo parts on their instruments. Clapton found his way out of his drug addications during this time. Layla's classical structure is Clapton's take away from Jack Bruce's classical training. Classic rock.
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