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In Rolling Stone’s new issue, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton sit down for the first time to discuss old rivalries, blues heroes and the secrets of their craft. Here’s more from David Fricke’s conversation with Clapton: the guitarist on revisiting the Layla album, his sober years and documenting his life.
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What did you get out of returning to all of those Derek and the Dominos songs on your 2007-2008 tour? Was it a matter of revisiting more unfinished business?
It was the lineup that suggested it, the guitarists. Doyle [Bramhall II] and Derek [Trucks] both expressed so much interest in this stuff that I thought was dead and buried. I had never run into many people who were that enthusiastic about it — other than music fans.
Did the Layla songs represent a period of your life that you wanted to leave behind?
No. But it was raw music — to a certain extent, pretty primitive. Derek and the Dominos was a quartet. The Layla album had Duane Allman on it, but the life of the Dominos didn’t have Duane in it. It was two bands. I did try and entice Duane. He strayed for a little while. But then we were back to me being the only guitar player.
It’s a difficult thing to revisit the Dominos thing. It isn’t an emotional thing. It’s how do you make that work with a bigger band — two keyboards, girl singers. It doesn’t quite sound right. But it was infectious from Doyle and Derek: “They really want to do this stuff.” So I thought, “This is the perfect opportunity. Because they can do it.”
It was a great thing for me to do that tour with them. It was a little like the Crossroads festivals — I could play a little bit, then sit back a...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily