Hear Eric Clapton and Duane Allman's Isolated Guitar Tracks from "Layla"

This, of course, reminded us of the equally fascinating lead guitar and vocal track from Derek and the Dominos' classic 1970 track, "Layla.
What you're actually hearing (in the YouTube player below) is a combination of tracks; there's a rhythm guitar track from the chorus, the lead in the verses and choruses, Duane Allman's manic slide solos, crystal-clear acoustic guitar at the end of the song—and another guitar that's filtered through a revolving Leslie speaker, a la "Badge."
You also get to hear Clapton's lead vocal, which is doubled on the choruses.
“The song and the whole album is definitely equal parts Eric and Duane,” says producer Tom Dowd, who introduced the two guitar titans, then sat back and watched them soar together.
“There had to be some sort of telepathy going on because I’ve never seen spontaneous inspiration happen at that rate and level. One of them would play something, and the other reacted instantaneously. Never once did either of them have to say, ‘Could you play that again, please?’ It was like two hands in a glove. And they got tremendously off on playing with each other.”
Nowhere was the interplay between Clapton and Allman more sublime than on “Layla,” which, says Dowd, features six tracks of overlapping guitar: “There’s an Eric rhythm part; three tracks of Eric playing harmony with himself on the main riff; one of Duane playing that beautiful bottleneck; and one of Duane and Eric locked up, playing countermelodies.”
Take note of the Leslie guitar, which kicks in at 5:25. Criteria Studios in Miami had one of the first guitar input devices for the Leslie that could vary the speed with a foot switch, and legend has it that Clapton was pretty fond of it. Enjoy!

 

Awesome stuff. Duane was only 24 when he was taken from us, and look at the greatness he put out, just a kid really. Can you even imagine what he would have put out if he had lived 30-40 more years to hone his craft? My goodness, the things he could have done.

 

"Its a guy called Skydog Allman". When Eric Clapton says you're a BAMF'er, you've made it.

 

I know the song is a cliche, but the guitar picking in it is epic, especially live. Steve Gaines, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington playing a triple lead were tearing it up live. No matter how lame you think the song is because you've heard it so many times, the live performance back in the day was amazing, this was a football stadium full of people that came to hear the guy. Watch the whole thing and tell me you aren't impressed if you're a guitar guy. They were smoking hot!

Not to mention Ronnie. He was very tight with the band, but the guitars played so loud he often couldn't hear everything that was going on. So if you notice in a lot of their concert vids, Ronnie would perform barefoot. He could feel the vibration of the drums and bass in the floor on his feet and it helped him keep time to the songs to know where he was when all he could hear was the guitars when he wasn't looking right at them.

 

If you listen to Layla and don't know which parts are Duane and which parts are Eric, you aren't a music connoisseur. Nothing wrong with that, but the parts they play and the style they use and the guitar sounds are so distinct that anyone that loves music should be able to pick out every note by each one. They are so different that they normally wouldn't even have been paired together.

 

Best love song of all time. Good God I love Otis. Can't get enough of that 60's soul music. The brass section in that soul music is just epic.

 

......

 

 

Lee, I think you'll like this.

 

I have to disagree with you Lee I think Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers may be the greatest love song ever.

 

Best love song ever is Lick it Up by Kiss

 

 

Absolutely awesome. Loved it. Hate to admit it, but I cried a little bit, I've been through a lot this year and that moved me.

 

Too late . . .

 

Listen . . .

 

Are you sure . . .

 

Remember these guys Evil Capri? (Sorry, can't remember your name, even though you've told me a thousand times, my memory is shot Funny that I lost my memory in the 80's and 90's when this music was hot. No idea how that happened, LOL. )

 

I absolutely love this song, specifically this version from the Five Man Acoustical Jam album. Its hard to find a good version of it online (most are modified studio versions), but this whole live album was amazing back in the day to me, loved it, every song on it.