Vintage Clapton

DEREK AND THE DOMINOES ON JOHNNY CASH SHOW


Normally I’m not much of a fan of Country Music, but if you throw Eric Clapton into the mix, well, that’s a different story. I’m a huge aficionado.

Another Youtube video on a blog… I know, I know… But I thought that this particular one was a real gem. I was kicking around looking for old videos of Eric Clapton and I ran across this one of his star-crossed and ultimately tragic band Derek and the Dominos performing on the Johnny Cash Show in January of 1971.

The video runs about seven and a half minutes, covering two songs. The first song is just Clapton and his band playing It’s Too Late, followed by Johnny Cash and guitar-great Carl Perkins joining Clapton on stage for a cover of Matchbox. Great stuff. I’m thinking that Eric is looking and sounding very well here, just before the guilty and lovelorn guy (in torment over Patty Boyd, the wife of his best friend George Harrison) got completely caught up in smack and fell off of the world for a few years. I hate what the scourge of drugs did to that whole generation. How Clapton has been able to survive and keep all of his marbles with all of the things he’s abused himself with over the years is a complete mystery to me.

A couple of other old videos of Clapton worth mentioning, if you’re into this sort of thing…

This video shows the ad-hoc group ‘Dirty Mac’, comprised of Eric Clapton (Cream), John Lennon (Beatles), Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) and Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience) playing Lennon’s song Yer Blues on the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, which was filmed in 1968. If you can get past the droll intro by John Lennon and Mick Jagger (a jealous Jagger is just loathing Lennon here), and the dark despairing lyrics of the song itself, the second half is just a terrific jam. There is a second part to that jam, but Yoko Ono got up on stage and started caterwauling and screaming, which just ruined it.

This video shows shows the sixties supergroup Cream (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker) playing Crossroads in concert in 1968. Poor quality footage, but it sounds very good. That’s a lot of music coming out of three guys.