Aug. 26, 2009 - Issue #723: Small Town Meth Heads

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Delaney & Bonnie & Friends {recordings_bands_mg} Delaney & Bonnie & Friends {/recordings_bands_mg}
, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
On Tour With Eric Clapton
(Atco)

Originally released: 1970 

The year 1970 marked the end of an era in popular music. For an entire generation of idealists, artists, folkies and hippies, the '60s had ended short on its promises. Woodstock's utopia came to an abrupt end in the violence at Altamont; the Beatles had self-destructed; Dylan had been MIA, lost to rumours of basement recordings and unpredictability. Fresh faces like Eric Clapton were hesitant to step into the celebrity spotlight, skeptical of psychedelic music. The '60s honeymoon was over; replaced by a hangover, the collective masses were left asking, "What happened? What now?"

For these artists, the question was sobering, if not liberating. George Harrison was eager to find his footing after the Beatles broke up, and impressed everyone with his first solo effort, All Things Must Pass. Clapton had quit Cream and Blind Faith, and released his first solo record, Eric Clapton. Meanwhile, Dylan and the Band had been hiding out in West Saugerties, NY, quietly working on what would eventually become The Basement Tapes.

These legendary recordings all share a common thread: arguably, they serve as departures for each artist. But somewhere in the exhaustive liner notes commemorating All Things Must Pass's personal triumph for Harrison, or Eric Clapton's liberating expression for Clapton, is mention of the band Delaney & Bonnie, which in 1970 released a relatively unknown live album, On Tour With Eric Clapton. Though it barely made a dent in Billboard, it remains a striking footnote to these first iconic records of the post-Woodstock soundscape.

Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, the husband-wife duo, were a genuine rock/soul revue who first caught Clapton's attention when opening for Blind Faith's 1969 tour. By the tour's end, Clapton was spending more time with D&B than Blind Faith, preferring the simple camaraderie and musicianship of D&B's laid-back ensemble. By the following summer Clapton was playing guitar in D&B, happy to be a sideman and out of the spotlight. The resulting live document from that tour is D&B's best-selling record.

The album opens with "Things Get Better" and you can immediately hear Delaney's influence on Clapton's vocal style. Clapton's guitar is tastefully subdued throughout the recordings, played like a true supporting member. "Comin' Home" sets the southern country-rock mould for bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band—who would join D&B a year later—and Bonnie's "That's What My Man Is For" reveals the band's reverence and connection to traditional blues and soul. The searing R&B energy of "I Don't Want to Discuss It" translates clearly across the recording.

Clapton was also able to convince long-time friend George Harrison to join D&B, and Delaney is credited with introducing and teaching Harrison to play slide guitar. The obvious benefit for Clapton and Harrison is that they could hang in the background as sidemen, honing their chops and preparing for their own solo outings, to be released later that year.

What is most striking about this recording is how it captures the period—a temporary window for Clapton and Harrison to recover from the erosion of their former bands, and re-discover their own musical paths mid-stream. Similar to what the Band offered Dylan with The Basement Tapes sessions, Delaney & Bonnie provided a musical friendship that gave each a liberation from the excessive weight of expectation and the demands of super-celebrity. V

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