Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
--- show 37 --- 10-28-2015
Eric
Clapton 1969-70
Savoy
Brown 1970-72
*************************
Since the breakup of Blind Faith early in 1969, Eric Clapton was seeking a lower
profile and appeared as a guest artist rather than as a headliner, with the
earliest recording taken on September 13th, 1969 with John Lennon’s
Plastic Ono Band. The resulting Live in
Toronto LP (I believe it was the first non-Beatles album by John Lennon, but
don’t quote me) was easy to avoid replacing on CD since one entire side of the
album was the screeching voice of John’s wife, Yoko Ono, but the other half
contained some good renditions of Rock ‘n’ Roll standards. The album was followed on the 25th
of that month by Eric joining John in the studio to cut one of the album’s tracks,
Cold Turkey. None of that will appear in
this series so, moving on …
Late in November of 1969, Eric joined up with Delaney
and Bonnie Bramlett on their four-date tour of Germany and seven December gigs
in the U.K. including the December 7th show at the Fairfield Halls
in Croydon which we will hear today from the album (in its entirety) Delaney
and Bonnie and Friends On Tour. Eric had
become friends with the Bramletts as they opened for Blind Faith on their
American tour. Before they married,
Delaney had been a member of the Shindogs (from the U.S. TV show Shindig) and
Bonnie had appeared with Albert King and as one of Ike and Tina Turner’s backup
singers. The tour followed the release
of 1968’s Home and 1969’s Accept No Substitute.
Players on the tour besides Clapton and the Bramletts
were guest guitarist Dave Mason and drummer Jim Gordon, bassist Carl Radle,
Bobby Whitlock on organ and some vocals, trumpeter Jim Price and saxist Bobby
Keys, vocalist Rita Coolidge and percussionist Tex Johnson. Much of this band appeared on Eric’s eponymous
first solo album, co-produced by Delaney in January 1970 in California. I had initially intended on including this in
today’s show but there was just too much quality music so it will likely show
up elsewhere, hopefully before we get to Derek and the Dominoes in a month or
two, since this is also the ensemble that evolved into the Dominoes.
In May 1970 Chess Records sent Howlin’ Wolf, along
with his guitarist Hubert Sumlin and piano player Lafayette Leake for the
purpose of, to the best of my knowledge, the first major label commingling of a
bona fide American Blues star with the best known of the genre’s British exponents. As a result of this project’s success, Chess
followed up with sessions by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley (I think;
I believe B.B. King also did a similar release for a different label), but
since Wolf was the first he had the choice of the top British artists. Backing up Wolf and Clapton were three
members of the Rolling Stones, drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman
along with pianist Ian Stewart who, although not officially a Stone, had been
with the band almost since its inception and was often referred to as the sixth
Stone. Traffic and Blind Faith
multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood provided further piano and organ and
Jefferey M. Carp played harmonica on the bulk of the LP, titled The London
Howlin’ Wolf Sessions.
One
song of particular note is the Little Red Rooster, where Wolf interrupts the
start to show Clapton how it should be done, only to be coaxed into playing
acoustic guitar along with the band.
Otherwise, with the exception of harmonica on Worried about my Baby and
Who’s Been Talking?, Wolf is relegated solely to providing the vocals.
*************************
Today’s
show also features selections from three of the Savoy Brown albums (Street
Corner Talking, Hellbound Train and Lion’s Share) recorded by what I refer to
the Chicken Shack version of the band because drummer Dave Bidwell, bassist
Andy Silvester and keyboardist Paul Raymond had until recently been three
quarters of Stan Webb’s band.
*************************
Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d
mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a
developing stage, we have been putting out the word. I’m not all of that good with high-tech
stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.
If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a
strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to
the last option being LISTEN ONLINE. By
clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile. I can only speak for the desktop but after
maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed. As already mentioned, this is still a work in
progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any
one time. I mention this so you will be
aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening. (I put the player in my favorites bar for the
easiest of access.) Now we can reach our
listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada. Let your friends elsewhere know they can now
listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they
can check out our schedule.
*************************
Tell MamaLet It Rock
Time Does Tell
I Can’t Get Next to You
Street Corner Talking
Wang Dang Doodle
Savoy Brown (Street Corner Talking)
Things Get Better
Poor ElijahOnly You Know and I Know
I Don’t Want to Discuss It
That’s What My Man Is For
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
Comin’ Home
Little Richard Medley
Delaney and Bonnie and Friends On Tour
Doin’ Fine
I’ll Make Everything AlrightIf I Could See an End
It’ll Make You Happy
Hellbound Train
Savoy Brown (Hellbound Train)
Rockin’ Daddy
I Ain’t SuperstitiousWorried About My Baby
Who’s Been Talking?
Little Red Rooster (with intro)
Built for Comfort
Do the Do
Highway 49
Wang Dang Doodle
The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions
Shot in the Head
Second TryI Can’t Find You
Howling for My Darling
So Tired
Denim Demon
Hate to See You Go
Savoy Brown (Lion’s Share)
