COVER CLASSIC STORY CORNER : BACKTRACK
So what you ’ ve got is a bunch of drug addicts in Miami making a record under contract doing their best to nail the music , thinking little about commercialism . As for the label , it ’ s far away , up in New York City , awaiting results , input is nearly nonexistent , because you ’ ve got to trust experts to do the job , and in this case everybody in the room was experienced , the players , the producer and those moving the faders .
And the end result was ... “ Anyday .”
“ To break the glass and twist the knife into yourself You ’ ve got to be a fool to understand To bring your woman back home after she ’ s left you for another You ’ ve got to be a , you ’ ve got to be a man ”
This is completely different from the modern ethos , wherein braggadocio is king .
We were a couple of years and a couple of changes behind our heroes . They tended to be born during the war , they had experiences we did not , and there ’ s wisdom and direction baked into these numbers , they were our bible , we were in school but I learned much more in Dave McCormick ’ s dorm room than I ever did in class .
And these records still exist . Available for anybody to hear . For free . Anyday .
Jim Gordon is in jail . Carl Radle is dead . Duane Allman , of course , too . Bobby Whitlock is still around , completely uncelebrated , funny how so many are hiding in plain sight , just like the bluesmen who inspired them to begin with .
And Eric Clapton ...
It took a while for the public to catch up . “ Layla ” went nuclear and sustained . Clapton came back and retreated so many times one can no longer count . But everybody was paying attention , he had to live up to his rep , but in the fall of 1970 , he was just doing his job .
Eric ’ s peaked since “ Layla .” But it ’ s been different . Kinda like the Allman Brothers without Duane . Good , but in both cases Skydog put them over the top . He added a special sauce . He didn ’ t sing , he didn ’ t necessarily write , but he sprinkled his fairy dust and took these numbers into the stratosphere .
I ’ m no longer in college , and I don ’ t want to go back .
I ’ ve got an iPhone 7 , I like having the world at my fingertips .
But part of me hankers for darker days . When I was more isolated and had to count on those around me . When there wasn ’ t a brand new hype every week , but the pace of product was more comprehensible , when you could slow down and in a stolen moment be grabbed by something great that you might have missed .
That ’ s right , I would have ultimately come to “ Layla ” even if I ’ d never met Dave McCormick .
But it would have been different . I wouldn ’ t have had “ Little Wing ” and “ Anyday ” hammered into me night after night , to the point where they ’ re part of my DNA ...
“ I ’ d rather go back , I ’ d rather go back home ”
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