Layla 40th Anniversary

Yes...

The new mix with the new vocals is what it is. Bobby's vocals don't really cover up the fact that Eric's vocals weren't complete, but IMO they are nice in their own way. People will have to listen and judge for themselves, but I find them enjoyable.

Other than jams or backing tracks with no vocals, I believe this was in fact pretty much what was available. Excepting the remaining Fillmore East recordings. Hopefully those can be released sooner than later. The bootlegs don't do them justice.

 

Thanks! Appreciate the information

I want the deluxe set but am annoyed by the fact that I'll have to sell the LPs (don't have a turntable, don't plan o get one) or just let them sit idle forever. I really want all 4CD's and the DVD though so guess I'll have to suck it up!

 

Frankly, I am happy Eric decided not to "finish" any of the aborted second album tracks. I do not like the trend adopted by The Rolling Stones and Bruce Sprinsteen last year. I prefer the vault items to remain in their natural state.

 

So, when you want to hear "Got To Get Better In A Little While", you enjoy listening to the 'Crossroads' version with no choruses, keyboards, background vocals, or third verse?

IMO, that's like one of those bonus tracks tacked onto the end of (or a second disc of) reissues. The kind you listen to once or twice, and then forget exist. A complete waste...

 

Yep. I'd much, much rather listen to that. At least it's real, & of it's time.

 

Assuming you haven't heard it yet, how can you say that without having heard it?

 

Agreed. I'll listen to the "remake" with Bobby with some initial interest, but I highly doubt that is the one I will revisit. As I said, I prefer archival material to be in its natural, historically accurate state. I do not like the modern-day tweaking by band members 30+ years later.

 

My argument would be that, had Clapton participated in finishing "Got To Get Better In A Little While" (or, to a lesser extent, Bobby's forthcoming "finished" version), there would at least be a chance (depending on how it turned out) that I would play it on a semi-regular basis.

As it stands on 'Crossroads', it is simply not meant to be listened to as any kind of definitive version of the song (and not to be compared with the live versions).

Are you saying you'd prefer hardly ever listening to it at all, in exchange for "keeping things real"?

You're obviously not alone on this board in arguing such a philosophy, but don't you find that logic to be inherently flawed in some ways?

This question goes out to all the people who prefer things this way -

What if the Stones had never released 'Tattoo You', and "Waiting On A Friend" (one of the best things they ever recorded) never advanced beyond the state it was in during the 'Goat's Head Soup' sessions (as available on bootleg)?

Or is that somehow an exception to this rigid ethical stance?

And, if so, then what about if this new overdubbing to GTGBIALW had been done during the preperation of 'Crossroads' 20+ years ago?

Is that "too late" as well?

My point being that everything must be taken on a case by case basis, and things that haven't even been listened to should not be pre-judged as "wrong"/"bad"...

 

Luke,

What songs from the unreleased 2nd studio album are on this 40th anniver set that did not appear on Crossroads. Is it just track 12 "GTGBIALW" from cd2? The other 2nd album tracks appear to be re-mixes of the previously released songs.

 

I am very curious to listen to Bobby's 2010 overdubs and how they fit into the 1970 recording. I wish Eric would've done some sort of reunion with Bobby over the last decade when he reached to the past to perform with John Mayall, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, etc. so that we could have 2010 versions of these songs. I think he did great job of refreshing some of the Cream tracks in 2005 and so lets hope that they announce a couple of Albert Hall shows to celebrate the 40th anniversary and release a nice DVD.

For the definitive version of GTGBILW, you just have to play the first track from Live at Fillmore, one of my fave EC guitar moments of all time!

 

For the exact reasons stated in post #132.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=6176492&postcount=133

 

We are not going to see eye to eye on this, no big deal. You buy the new "Layla" set & I hope you thoroughly enjoy it. I will simply be saving my money for other releases that offer more value for me.

 

I think the missed opportunity here is the Fillmore stuff. I would have liked to have seen a complete show / or shows newly mixed. It would be cool to hear a show in sequence as it happened, unedited, instead of a regurgitated sequencing of live material bent to confirm to Lp era space/flow limitations. Plus those 4 Fillmore bonus tracks tagged on and spread across discs 4 and 5 were digitally mixed (?) in 1993 and sound completely different than those early 70s Fillmore mixes.

 

From Eric Clapton's Website

"One of Eric Clapton’s Defining Albums Marks its 40th Anniversary in March With Deluxe Multi-format Edition Featuring New and Long-Unavailable Music, Never-Released Video and Never-Seen Photos

In the world of rock there are recordings that truly resonate in historical importance and continue to cast an enduring shadow of influence. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of the most steadfastly revered musical treasures of its era. Its famous title track is still hailed as an essential rock guitar anthem, a signature tune of rock’s leading guitar hero, Eric Clapton.

Recorded in 1970 by Derek and the Dominos, the group was comprised of Clapton and top American session musicians. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs music offers a timeless blend of rock, electric blues and Southern gospel influences that has shaped generations of roots-oriented musicians.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER

Derek and the Dominos came together at a very special time and place – riding a late ‘60s wave of interest in roots music and blues-based rock and roll. In 1969, Clapton found inspiration playing in the loose, family-like structure of Delaney and Bonnie and Friends – an American, R&B-influenced entourage whose 1969 U.K. tour hit the British music scene with seismic proportion.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek, spontaneously chosen name, Derek and the Dominos represented a sincere effort to recreate the friendly, leaderless vibe and easy, groove-driven sound Clapton had enjoyed in ’69. The foursome originally featured Delaney and Bonnie’s rhythm section – keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon – plus Clapton on voice and guitars. They first came together in late spring of 1970, developing their sound while performing on George Harrison’s breakthrough solo album, All Things Must Pass (their studio jams pushed the album to a three-disc package.) That June, Derek and the Dominos premiered publicly in London. By August they began recording their debut album at Criteria Studios in Miami, with legendary producer Tom Dowd in the control room.

Layla and Other Love Songs – the double-album that Derek and the Dominos recorded over the next 6 weeks showcased the creative singing and songwriting axis formed by Clapton and the Memphis-born Bobby Whitlock, who had grown up around the city’s legendary Stax Studios. The confluence of their respective experiences – British blues-rock and Southern American R&B – generated a number of gospel-inflected tunes that featured their intertwined voices harmonizing much in the fashion of a rock-world Sam & Dave, and are among the most representative and covered tunes of that era: “Anyday,” “Keep On Growing,” “Tell the Truth,” “I Looked Away” and “Why Does Love Got To Be So Bad.”

The sessions also saw the rare coming together of Clapton and Duane Allman: two blues-rock specialists from different sides of the Atlantic. That happened when the Allman Brothers Band – then just breaking into mainstream popularity – performed in Miami on the second night of the recording sessions. The musical encounter resulted in a night full of studio jams, followed by the inclusion of Allman’s guitar on most of the album, including standout duels on such blues numbers as “Key To The Highway” and “Have You Ever Loved a Woman?” and the double slide-guitar workout that defines the famous piano coda section of “Layla.” Allman died only a few months later in a motorcycle accident.

Clapton’s profound adoration of the American blues tradition – in all of its forms and styles – is one of the most prominent threads in the musical tapestry that is Layla and Other Love Songs. His choice of blues-based tunes to cover on the album stretches from “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (made famous by Bessie Smith in 1923) and “Key to the Highway” (associated with Big Bill Broonzy, from 1940) to Chuck Willis’s plaintive R&B ballad “It’s Too Late” (1956), Freddie King’s “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” (1960), and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” (1967).

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs achieved gold-album status within months of its release in late 1970, was entered into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 2000, and today remains a ubiquitous entry in various “Top 100” and “All-Time Greatest” polls, and “Must Hear” lists. To be released in March 2011, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is a multi-format collection offering an appropriately comprehensive salute to this iconic album and the band that created it. The set will feature the original double-disc album in both digital and vinyl formats, expanded to include newly remastered tracks, and a treasure trove of music and video performances.

THE DELUXE EDITION features:

• Six exciting performances from what was to be Derek and the Dominos’ second album, all remixed by the original session engineer, Andy Johns. The highlight of the six tracks is “Got To Get Better In A Little While” – the group’s last recording – presented in this collection both as a mesmerizing jam version and as the first-ever release of the fully produced studio version, finally completed by founding member Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals.

• All four audio performances from Derek and the Domino’s sole, historic television appearance on The Johnny Cash Show, November 9, 1970 – including Clapton’s famous jam on “Matchbox Blues” with Cash and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins.

• The two tracks produced by Phil Spector in early summer 1970 that amounted to the first release by Derek and the Dominos: “Tell the Truth” and “Roll It Over,” the A- and B-side of a single that was quickly pulled from circulation by the group and has long been unavailable.

• High-fidelity, 180-gram reproduction of the original vinyl double album, remastered directly from the original master session reels, featuring slightly alternate mixes of some songs.

The SUPER DELUXE EDITION additionally includes:

• Newly remastered and expanded 2-CD set of Derek and the Dominos: In Concert, recorded at the Fillmore East and remastered from the original master tapes.

• DTS 5.1 and Dolby Surround 5.1 versions of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, mixed by legendary engineer Elliot Scheiner.

• A hardcover book, artfully designed with rare and never-seen photographs, and featuring four meticulously researched essays by noted music historian and author Ashley Kahn fashioned from new interviews with Bobby Whitlock, Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, engineer Andy Johns, producer Albhy Galuten, guitarist Derek Trucks; plus historic interviews with Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, and producer Tom Dowd.

• Facsimiles of Derek and the Dominos concert tickets and various promotional items, including the famous “Derek is Eric” button created to assure fans of the identity of the group’s lead singer and guitarist.

• Pop-up 3-D artwork and a high quality Layla art print based on the oil painting that graced the original album cover – “La Fille Au Bouquet” by Emile Theodore Frandsen de Schomberg – which has achieved cultural significance in its own right.

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition stands as the centerpiece of a series of releases paying tribute to the historic album. Many of the elements within the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions will be available separately, and in various formats – including a single-disc edition of the remastered Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs; a 2-LP remastered vinyl edition of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs; a 2-CD edition of Derek and the Dominos: In Concert; and downloadable editions of all configurations on iTunes. A full list of each configuration with respective release numbers follows:

1. Single-Disc Version/Digital Equivalent
2. 2-CD Deluxe/Digital Equivalent
3. Super Deluxe Edition
4. 2-LP Vinyl Reissue
5. Digital exclusive
6. iTunes LP
7. 7-inch vinyl single/Digital equivalent “Got To Get Better In A Little While” b/w “Layla”

TRACK LISTINGS OF ALL FORMATS

DISC ONE: LAYLA and other assorted love songs (ALL NEWLY REMASTERED)
1. I LOOKED AWAY (3:06)
2. BELL BOTTOM BLUES (5:05)
3. KEEP ON GROWING (6:23)
4. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT (4:58)
5. I AM YOURS (3:35)
6. ANYDAY (6:36)
7. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (9:38)
8. TELL THE TRUTH (6:40)
9. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (4:43)
10. HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN (6:54)
11. LITTLE WING (5:33)
12. IT’S TOO LATE (3:51)
13. LAYLA (7:05)
14. THORN TREE IN THE GARDEN (2:51)

DISC TWO: LAYLA and other assorted love songs (bonus CD)
1. MEAN OLD WORLD (3:52) Layla session out-take
2. ROLL IT OVER (4.31) Phil Spector produced single b-side
3. TELL THE TRUTH (3.23) Phil Spector produced single a-side
4. IT’S TOO LATE (4.11) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
5. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE (6.34) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
6. MATCHBOX (with Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins) (3:56) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
7. BLUES POWER (6.31) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
8. SNAKE LAKE BLUES (3.34) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
9. EVIL (4.34) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
10. MEAN OLD FRISCO (4.04) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
11. ONE MORE CHANCE (3.15) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
12. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE JAM (3.45) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE (6:05) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
* previously unreleased recording ** newly remixed recording

DISC THREE (DVD): LAYLA and other assorted love songs
5.1 SURROUND SOUND DVD (DTS 5.1 and DOLBY SURROUND 5.1) by Elliot Scheiner (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 5.1 MIXES)
1. I LOOKED AWAY (3:06)
2. BELL BOTTOM BLUES (5:05)
3. KEEP ON GROWING (6:23)
4. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT (4:58)
5. I AM YOURS (3:35)
6. ANYDAY (6:36)
7. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (9:38)
8. TELL THE TRUTH (6:40)
9. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (4:43)
10. HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN (6:54)
11. LITTLE WING (5:33)
12. IT’S TOO LATE (3:51)
13. LAYLA (7:05)
14. THORN TREE IN THE GARDEN (2:51)
bonus track:
15. MEAN OLD WORLD (3.50)

DISC FOUR: IN CONCERT (CD 1) - ALL NEWLY REMASTERED
1. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (9:30)
2. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE (13:50)
3. LET IT RAIN (17.47)
4. PRESENCE OF THE LORD (6:10)
bonus material:
5. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (6:26)
6. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT (5:51)

DISC FIVE: IN CONCERT (CD 2) - ALL NEWLY REMASTERED
1. TELL THE TRUTH (11:21)
2. BOTTLE OF RED WINE (5:35)
3. ROLL IT OVER (6:44)
4. BLUES POWER (10:30)
5. HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN (8:14)
bonus material:
6. LITTLE WING (6:11)
7. CROSSROADS (8:17)

2-LP SET (ALL NEWLY REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL ANALOGUE 1970 U.K. MASTERS)
SIDE 1
1. I LOOKED AWAY (3:06)
2. BELL BOTTOM BLUES (5:05)
3. KEEP ON GROWING (6:23)
4. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT (4:58)
SIDE 2
1. I AM YOURS (3:35)
2. ANYDAY (6:36)
3. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (9:38)
SIDE 3
1. TELL THE TRUTH (6:40)
2. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (4:43)
3. HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN (6:54)
SIDE 4
1. LITTLE WING (5:33)
2. IT’S TOO LATE (3.51)
3. LAYLA (7:05)
4. THORN TREE IN THE GARDEN (2.51)"

http://www.ericclapton.com/eric-cla...-layla-and-other-assorted-love-songs-turns-40

 

Never-released Video? None of the releases seem to have any video content.

1) Why DTS 5.1 and not lossless high resolution? Seems like someone dropped the ball here after taking the trouble of having Elliot Scheiner remix the album in surround.

2) Nice collectibles including the 'DEREK is ERIC' button!

3) Also, nice to have a high quality Layla art print - neat!

Whats #5 - digital exclusive? Is this the never-released video? It would suck to buy the Super Deluxe Version plus buy an iTunes version to get exclusive content

 

It seems like a good time for Eagle Rock Entertainment to produce a Classic Albums episode of Layla and use the publicity created by the 40th anniversary edition to sell it. But they would definitely need Eric's involvement for that unlike this where he doesn't seem to have participated much if at all.

 

The only entirely unreleased 2nd album track is the "jam" (really an early/alternate backing track) of Got To Get Better In A Little While. The final take obviously has the new overdubs, while the remaining tracks are merely remixed.

Hopefully a Fillmore East set can happen down the line. Other than Let It Rain from 10/23, vintage mixes (made for In Concert) exist of all of the songs from both late shows.

As far as the newly overdubbed Got To Get Better goes, I question why people are already deciding they won't like it. If you hear it and don't like it, well, that's fine, but it seems as if folks *want* to not like it. It isn't what it would have been if it had been finished in 1971, but I think it's still worthwhile.

As for the LPs, I'm curious what people think about the mixes. Tell The Truth does have the session chatter at the start, but I haven't (yet, anyway) noticed any mix differences.

 

Any idea why they didn't use the vintage mixes for the Fillmore bonus tracks on discs 4 and 5 instead of the 1993 digital outtake mixes?

 

I'll let Bill field that one if he so chooses.

Hopefully the vintage mixes can be used on a future release.

 

I have the Mofi 2 CD set. The vintage mixes aren't that special. I'd prefer to see a box set with complete shows, newly mixed and in proper sequence. Those vintage Fillmore mixes have a bit too much reverb, IMO.

 

I don't think the mastering is great on the MFSL. The original mixes can sound better than that, IMO.

 

So were the early shows recorded on multitrack? Or just the late shows? Were there 4 shows fully recorded?

 

As far as I know, all 4 shows were recorded. Unfortunately, all I'm aware of that has survived from the early shows are mixes of 4+ (4 complete and 1 partial) songs from the 10/23 early show. Not sure why more wasn't mixed, nor what happened to the multis. Trying to find out.

 

If any of the early show multitracks disappeared in recent years, did they at least exist back in 1993 when they produced the Live At The Fillmore set? If they did, perhaps they transfered all 4 shows to digital media and archived them? IIRC, wasn't that 93 set digitally mixed, suggesting an early 90s a transfer to digital multitrack tape?