October 28, 2015


Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
  --- show 37 ---   10-28-2015

Eric Clapton                                         1969-70
Savoy Brown                                        1970-72
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Tell Mama
Let 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 Elijah
Only 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 Alright
If I Could See an End
It’ll Make You Happy
Hellbound Train
   Savoy Brown   (Hellbound Train)

Rockin’ Daddy
I Ain’t Superstitious
Worried 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 Try
I Can’t Find You
Howling for My Darling
So Tired
Denim Demon
Hate to See You Go
   Savoy Brown (Lion’s Share)

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