Along with 1400 other people, I saw Derek and the Dominos live at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington DC on Wednesday 21 October 1970, when I lived in the USA for a few years with my parents. I saw lots of great concerts around that time, including Hendrix, Stones, Ten Years After etc, but this was the loudest of any of those concerts. One of the tracks which made an impression on me was Eric's version of 'Little Wing', only a month after Jimi had died. He introduced it by saying 'for one of our brothers may he rest in peace'.
This live version of Little Wing was recorded on 23 October 1970 in New York, two days after I saw them. It is a soundboard recording, with the two vocals in separate channels, rather than the official live at the Fillmore which has both vocals mixed in the centre of both channels.
Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends.
The band released only one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which featured prominent contributions from guest guitarist Duane Allman from the Allman Brothers Band. The album went on to receive critical acclaim, but initially faltered in sales and in radio airplay. Although released in 1970 it was not until March 1972 that the album's single "Layla" (a tale of unrequited love inspired by Clapton's relationship with his friend George Harrison's then wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison) would make the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Allman died in a motorbike accident on 29 October 1971. Radle died in 1980 of complications from a kidney infection associated with alcohol and drug use. Jim Gordon, who was an undiagnosed schizophrenic, killed his mother in 1983 during a psychotic episode. He was sentenced to jail in 1984, where he remained until he died in March 2023. (Much of the above was sourced from Wikipedia).
There is no film of this version of the song, nor much at all of the band. I have therefore tried to put together the best slideshow I can of the band doing this song. Comments are welcome. But please no 'my guitarist is better than your guitarist'.
4 ноя 2009
