Bell Bottom Blues

As promised in my last post about Derek & the Dominos' Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs here is a more in depth look of the song that is second in command (behind only the epic title track), "Bell Bottom Blues."

"Bell Bottom Blues" is simply Eric Clapton at his best. It is some of his best work on guitar, vocals, songwriting, and the emotion simply flows through his deliverance of all these aspects of the song. A simple descending chord progression, sounding like a descent into the depths of his soul (a little corny I know, but listen to the song and you'll agree) coupled with background double-tracked blues fills that increase in power as the song goes on and sound like he is releasing frustration that keeps building up higher and higher.

All this leads into a fantastic chorus section, with Clapton delivering fantastic vocals that in my opinion he could never duplicate, probably due to his unwillingness to sink so low into himself to be able to grab the emotions he expresses. Bobby Whitlock again comes in at the chorus with his vocal performance that perfectly accents Clapton's singing as he begs not to let him fade away.

The guitar solo is tasteful, beginning with a short ascending intro accompanied with Clapton singing the notes his guitar is playing, and continues with a slow-paced, softly played guitar melody until bringing us right back to the chorus and final verse with Clapton's guitar crying out, finally closing by repeating over and over not to let him fade away.

I was completely blown away by this song the first time I heard it. Its rare to find a song that is this powerful, in terms of its musical craftmanship, mood, and performance. It, like the rest of the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is so accessible that anyone can relate to what he's feeling, a sense of desparation and heartache that every facet of the song adds to.

Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs, Derek & the Dominos

This is the quintessential album about unrequitted love and the emotional distress that comes with being in love with a woman who can't or doesn't love you back. On top of this universally accessible and relatable theme, it also boasts the unbelievable blues guitar of Eric Clapton, the incredibly tasteful slide guitar of Duane Allman, the soulful combination of vocals by Clapton and Bobby Whitlock, and fantastic song selection of originals and completely reworked covers to create one of the most emotionally powerful albums I've ever heard.

I'm guessing that a lot of people know the story of the title track, "Layla," that Clapton was in love with Patti Boyd, the wife of his Beatle best friend, George Harrison. In fact, pretty much the entire album is about his emotional turmoil in living with this situation, but I'll talk about this track first because it will be the one people will know best, and although it is probably my favorite song of all time I want to discuss the other tracks that people don't know as well. "Layla" has an easily recognizable guitar riff leading into Clapton's lyrics about stupidly falling in love with another man's woman. Following this is a slide guitar solo and of course, the juxtaposed instrumental outro coda written by Jim Gordon. Overall this song's power speaks for itself leaving me with not much else to say about it, and if you happen to be the one person in 1000 that doesn't know the song, stop reading and listen to it now and tell me you've never felt was Clapton is feeling at some point in your life.

The album has a very strong opening, specifically the first two tracks, "I Looked Away" and "Bell Bottom Blues," that are musically interesting to keep the listener involved and capture the upcoming mood of the entire album perfectly, although the lonliness and longing expressed in "I Looked Away" is almost disguised in a fast upbeat tempo. I will talk about "Bell Bottom Blues" in a separate post later because it is such a fantastic song that I will have a lot to say about it.

Although the entire album is rooted in blues as most of Clapton's work from this era was, the true straight blues tunes are his covers of James Cox's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," Big Bill Croozy and Charles Segar's "Key to the Highway," and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" by Billy Myles. These songs demonstrate Clapton's skill as a blues guitarist and will remind you of his days with The Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

Duane Allman's slide guitar work on this album is top notch. He joined up with Derek and the Dominos during recording but is present on the majority of the tracks. His slide playing is the perfect complement to Clapton's blazing leads and licks and seems to serve as a catalyst (along with how emotionally distraught Clapton was while recording) to push Clapton's playing to heights that arguably he never got too again. One track where his slide guitar is in the forefront, or at least easily separable for anyone without a real musically critical ear is "I Am Yours."

Another strong point in the album is his cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing." The original version is amazing, as is the G3 (Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai) live performance of the song on their Rockin in the Free World album. Clapton, however, makes this song his own with a intro completely different from any other version of the song, so much so that you won't know its a version of "Little Wing" until later in the song. Also instead of the 2 min and change version from Hendrix, Clapton repeats the lyrics twice, doubling the length of the song. There are guitar leads before the first instance of the lyrics, in between the two sets, and following the second occurance of the lyrics. They are all incredible leads, demonstrating Clapton's versatility and ability to create solos teeming with soul. They grow in intensity going through the song creating a very cool increasing dynamic until Clapton's final fiery solo and repeat of the intro brings the song to a close.

There are of course two other tracks that some people might know, "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad" and "Tell the Truth." These are solid songs as well, but I won't go too far into depth here.

The final song I want to touch on is the closing track, "Thorn Tree in the Garden," an acoustic song written, played, and sung by Bobby Whitlock. This is a song that somehow manages to capture the mood of the album as well as any other song, despite being the one that Clapton has no part on.

Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs is a fantastic album. It reaches the musical highs and emotional lows that Clapton, in my opinion, never duplicated, although it is hard to blame him for not wanting to sink this emotionally low again. If there was ever a set of songs that perfectly captures and expresses human emotions of longing and loneliness, its this album, which I recommend for absolutely anyone regardless of musical taste (although Clapton and blues fans will probably enjoy it more), because I guarantee that you will find something on this album that you like or relate to, even if its the rock classic track, "Layla," itself.