1
By time "Layla" was released I was burned out on Eric Clapton. He was no longer the man I believed in. The one who could set the world ON FIRE!
Yes, that's what Eric did in Cream. He started playing and you were TRANSPORTED! This charismatic dude stood stock still on stage, but his fingers moved and you FORGOT about school, living at home, your life became just about this GIG!
But when Eric broke from Cream...some of the fire went out.
First there was the Blind Faith album. Who were we going to give credit to, Eric or Stevie Winwood? Sure, the playing on "Had To Cry Today" was spectacular, but "Can't Find My Way Home" was such a better SONG! And how to explain the abortion of side two?
And although Eric shined brightly on Delaney and Bonnie's "Comin' Home", suddenly he was a SIDE MAN! He seemed to be COASTING! As if he'd been completely SPENT!
Then it was time for the first SOLO ALBUM!
Oh, how I played "Easy Now" and "Let It Rain". Favorite tracks to this day. But the rest of the record...somehow the Eric I'd known, grown up on, he was absent. This new Eric didn't want to be the FOCUS! He didn't want to be a guitar hero. He didn't want to be GOD!
So I didn't buy "Layla".
Yes, I'd invested enough. There were other records to buy. Like the Moody Blues catalog.
Then I heard "Anyday"...
"You were talking and I thought I heard you say... 'Please leave me alone'"
I'm an old man. It takes a lot to make my dick hard.
But when you're younger, when you're in college, everything is still NEW! Life is an endless series of passages, open doors. You're LOOKING for excitement. And when you FIND IT! You explode in a way an adult can't.
It's the opening FLOURISH that hooks you. But thereafter...when it all breaks down, when Eric starts to sing. It's like the hottest woman in the world is SEDUCING YOU!
Oh, you've been looking for this your WHOLE LIFE! Going through door after door. Endlessly searching. And you think you know what it's going to look like when you find it. Something like Cream. Something that's IN YOUR FACE!
But it's the SUBTLETY in "Anyday" that grabs you.
It's kind of like that woman on the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home"...she's cultured, she's exotic, she's SEDUCING YOU!
But the seduction doesn't last long. Coitus comes QUICKLY. And when it's interrupted, it's not a disconnection...it's more subtle moments, now looking in each other's face, feeling the connection as you thrust.
So often sex is routine. But what makes it TRANSCENDENT in this case is not Clapton, but DUANE ALLMAN!
Usually dying ensures immortality. But sadly, Duane Allman has been forgotten. Whereas one can argue Skydog was more talented than Jim Morrison and Nick Drake. Maybe, just maybe, the kids will resurrect his rep. But for now, it's only us oldsters, who were THERE, who testify to Duane's greatness.
The Allman Brothers Band is everything music today is not. They wore no stage outfits. They didn't worry about hit material. They didn't dumb their sound down for the masses. They just PLAYED!
Now there's an amalgamation of Brothers on the road today. Still, it's not quite the same. Because a disciple is not as good as GOD!
When the remaining Allman Brothers start to testify in this movie, you get GOOSE BUMPS! Suddenly, you're thrown back. To that bygone era. 1971. When the Allman Brothers Band went from unknown Southerners to BIGGEST BAND IN THE LAND!
Yes, after "Layla" got traction in the first few months of the year, "Idlewild South" started showing up on turntables all across the land.
"People can you feel it Love is everywhere"
"Revival" SNUCK UP ON YOU! It was something someone could put on at a COCKTAIL PARTY! It began with an acoustic. You'd be sitting there, puffing on a joint, passing it to your bud, and then you'd slowly start nodding your head, your whole UPPER BODY, in time to the music.
Suddenly there were TWIN lead guitars. They dropped out to let the two drummers pound, they descended the scale, and the main groove of the song began.
This is not music for Top Forty radio. This is music for HOME! For DRIVING! For a GOOD TIME!
It didn't sound quite like anything else. There were certainly blues influences, but other elements that were so WHITE!
Then, of course, there was "Midnight Rider". But really, what cemented the band's reputation was the long "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed". You've got to know...the dope of yesteryear was NOTHING like today's marijuana. Today's marijuana will PUT YOU OUT! Whereas the grass of yore was equivalent to a drink or two. And with this buzz, the twin leads of Duane and Dickie provided an excursion only...music can.
But then came the apotheosis. The Allman Brothers Band's shining moment. "Live At Fillmore East". With the inimitable "Whipping Post".
To hear Tom Dowd talk about the making of that album is akin to listening to an archaeologist talk about the finding of Tut's tomb. How after the first night, he and the band went up to Atlantic to listen to the tapes...and decided what they still had to nail, and what could be dropped from the set list.
And it's after this moment that we get the story of "Layla". Whilst in the studio, Duane learned that Tom was going to cut with Eric Clapton. And proceeded to whip off all of Eric's riffs.
And then, when Eric finally arrived a few weeks later, Duane heard about it and sent a message that his band was playing in Miami soon, and he wanted to drop by the studio.
And when told this by Tom, Eric said..."You mean the guy who cut the solo at the end of Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude"? And proceeded to play DUANE'S licks!
Eric wasn't going to wait around for Duane to show up, he had to go to the GIG!
And when Duane looked down and saw Eric at the foot of the stage, he took it up a notch, he played his guitar on a level that only Clapton could DREAM OF!
Oh, the point is made in the movie that they both had different styles. Still, Eric's done nothing close to "Layla" since. Because on "Layla", Duane Allman was a member of the band. Dancing in and out of the tunes, writing the classic riff of the title number, spreading FAIRY DUST all over the tracks.
Really. When you see the Allmans on stage, and Dowd dissects their playing, you feel you're witnessing something as important as the Beatles.
2
The sixties were the era of the big box discount store.
Oh, this was BEFORE the mall. You see these giant supermarkets of discount merchandise were in STRIP CENTERS!
You had Topps. And Bradlees. And Arlans. And Barkers.
Although Topps was a bike ride away, Barkers was in the next town over, on the Post Road, just over the line, in Westport.
We only went to Barkers when my father saw an ad in the paper. Not usually for something he NEEDED, but for something that was TOO CHEAP TO PASS UP!
On this particular Sunday I was awoken to my father asking if I wanted a new transistor radio. They had a model on sale at Barkers for $9.99.
My father, little sister and I got in the station wagon, lowered the windows and took the back roads from Fairfield to Westport. My father had special routes that he LOVED to employ. That showed he was an INSIDER! A local on STEROIDS!
The transistor was white plastic in a black leather case. And it sounded pretty good.
But just before we checked out, my dad insisted I take the one we were buying out of the box and check it out. We couldn't get a single station. So my father strode back to the display and lifted the DEMONSTRATOR, the unit with the great reception, and put it in the box of the new unit.
Meanwhile, my sister had been casing the store. And she showed up at the check-out line with an ARETHA single. Might have been "Chain Of Fools".
I laughed. Because in explaining her purchase, she mispronounced the Motor City queen's name in a manner I could never write down, but could only TELL YOU! She added vowels where none belonged. She became indignant. I felt superior. Maybe because at this point, I wasn't in love with soul music.
You see soul music crowded rock off the charts. It wasn't until Top Forty was DEAD, in the SEVENTIES, that I began to acknowledge how great that music was.
And certainly the Four Tops, the Temps, the Supremes, all of Berry Gordy's acts were great. But there was something about Aretha... Maybe because it was about HER! You felt like she hadn't been completely massaged, that SHE was truly responsible for this music.
Now I've seen old footage of Aretha. The SKINNY Aretha. She's actually beautiful in her own way. And she exudes a confidence and an awkwardness at the same time. But, I'd never seen footage of her in the studio. Taking control, PLAYING THE PIANO!
Watching Aretha in this movie you feel like you're viewing a NATIONAL TREASURE! You can't believe someone this talented walked the earth...and is STILL HERE!
3
This is not a good film. It takes a LONG TIME to build. And the editing is sub par. You hear the same points more than once.
But as the flick wears on, you fall in love with Dowd. He's suddenly in the pocket, in the groove. His excitement is so CONTAGIOUS!
When he tells the story of instructing Cream how to change "Sunshine Of Your Love" so it became a classic, you smile.
And when you see Booker T. and the MG's on stage while Dowd is telling Stax stories you're reminded the Memphis sound was not a sideshow, and it no longer gets its due.
But as good as the stories are, when you see Otis on stage, KILLING 'EM, you're reminded of the POWER of music, the place it once held in society.
Oh, Dowd was not one to be mired in the past. He's down with all the new technology. But since his heyday, music has ceased to be a calling, and is now a stepping stone. A way to become rich and famous, a vehicle to become an ACTOR!
Duane Allman never could have acted.
Aretha was a natural actor, but no screen could contain her.
They were just about the music. The music was enough.
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