Wang Dang Doodle

Yesterday after work on the L, I finished reading Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and The Dominos by Jan Reid. Once I got home, I listened to the album, since I've been itching to do so since I started reading the book, and it will probably be another week or two before I get to it at work in the A-Z CD Extravaganza. As you may or may not know, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is my favorite album of all-time. Thus, I was interested to learn about how Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle, and Duane Allman came together. I liked the book, but I wanted more about each song. There was a decent amount about "Layla," as well as a good back story about "Thorn Tree in the Garden," which it turns out Whitlock wrote years earlier after a roommate "had taken [Whitlock's] dog and done away with it." There was also a decent amount about "Tell the Truth," and its various versions, as well as a short back story about "Bell Bottom Blues." In addition, I had no idea that Duane Allman came up with (and played) the now-transcendent first seven notes of "Layla." I had always assumed it was Clapton. Nonetheless, I wanted to know more about the other original songs on the album: "Anyday" (my favorite song on the album), "I Looked Away," "Keep On Growing," and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" Those songs were kind of glossed over.

I have now begun to read Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman. For those of you who don't know who Howlin' Wolf is, he was a Delta/Chicago bluesman, who had one of the most unique singing voices ever. His voice sounded like ate gravel and nails, and smoked a carton a day. Good shit.