Hey alls-- The media output stalled out on account of a successful Harpswell Hoot '13 but we're back and broadcasting. The hope was to lay off the covers a while and get some new original RKBS goods posted (and we in fact have two batches in the can) but black-hearted technology went and bit us in the ass. So it's back to the boards for the hit records that never made it back from our Baltimore mixing session earlier this year and it's up on the site with some classic numbers from the Stackpole- Keating session of last summer.
These numbers both ring a similar turn-of-the-'70s "live at the Fillmore", raggle-taggle rock-meets-R&B bell for me. They key is the involvement of the musical giants maybe "best known" as Clapton's backing band in Derek and the Dominos: Bobby Whitlock on keys, Carl
Radle on bass and Jim Gordon on drums, who carry, respectively, near-tragic, tragic and super-tragic rock n' roll biographies.
It all started with the loose roadshow of Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett and Friends, who really gelled in '69 while the tempestuous American rock/ R&B couple were touring with Clapton and Winwood's kinda crappy supergroup Blind Faith. D&Bs' "friends" came to include Dave Mason and the horn section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price and even a bit of George Harrison, but most prominently Eric Clapton and the musicians who happily jumped ship with him to record EC's first solo record, form the Dominos and record "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" (ALL in 1970!). Aaaannyhoo... This is hands-down, no argument, by far the greatest era of Clapton, and his association with the equally flawed Delaney Bramlett was a key part of his evolution at the time, moving generally away from the overdone noodling and pschedelia of the Cream era towards groovier, more interactive ensemble playing and tighter, hookier songs. "Got To Get Better In a Little While", to me, is that sound in a nutshell.
It's hard to believe how busy these guys were while not nearly killing themselves with lifestyle excess. In early 1970, between their last D&B tour and their brief time with EC, Gordon, Radle, Keys, Price and a bunch of other players agreed to help out the red-hot-at-the-time Joe Cocker with a contractually obligated US tour. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" ended up another pillar of this era. "Darling Be Home Soon" was written by John Sebastian. His band the Lovin' Spoonful had a nice version, as did even Brit glam-rockers Slade, but Joe Cocker pretty much owned it, and this version slants towards his.
jk
Got To Get Better In a Little While:
https://www.box.com/s/ox38plbu3ts6o39ow97l
Darling Be Home Soon:
https://www.box.com/s/it0xi54qtxt2qa45hwyt
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