Happy 50th Anniversary to Delaney & Bonnie’s On Tour With Eric Clapton, originally released in March of 1970. (Note: A specific release date is not available)
In the spring of 1968, Rolling Stone ran an interview with Eric Clapton during the press cycle for Cream's Disraeli Gears. Clapton later told music journalist Robert Palmer about the interview: "We were really praising ourselves, and it was followed by a review that said how boring and repetitious our performance had been. And it was true!" (In reality, the review, while calling Cream "superb musicians with the gift of unending virtuosity" also admitted, "Unfortunately the album does not totally hang together, marred by some poor material.") That was apparently enough for Clapton, as he told Palmer, "I immediately decided that was the end of the band." That was the power of music journalism in 1968.
Actually, it was about six months after that fateful review, in November, when Cream finally called it quits. Before that, in the summer, Clapton first heard The Band's debut album Music From Big Pink. He would tell Rolling Stone in 1974, "I got the tapes for Music From Big Pink and I thought well this is what I want to play—not extended solos and maestro bullshit, but just good funky songs." He started jamming with Steve Winwood and those jams caught the attention of the money-hungry record company suits who wanted another supergroup, and in turn, adding Ginger Baker along with Family's Rick Grech, Blind Faith were formed in early 1969. By year's end, they were no more.
Recording one album that hinted at Clapton's interest and direction but still carried a bit of the excessive residue of Cream, Blind Faith hit the road for a tour of the United States in 1969. Opening their shows, at fan George Harrison's suggestion (who had offered them a contract with Apple that fell through since they were at the time signed with Elektra), was a fired-up rock-and-soul group led by Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Having them open those shows would not only change the course of Clapton's career but would have a defining impact on the direction of rock music in the decade to come.
Clapton had achieved legendary status even before he left the Yardbirds for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. While with Mayall, Clapton delved deep into American blues, from Chicago to Mississippi, drawing on influences from Freddie King to Robert Johnson. It wasn't until experiencing Delaney and Bonnie open every night however, that he witnessed firsthand and up close true southern soul direct from the source.
Delaney Bramlett was born in northeastern Mississippi in Pontotoc County, one county over from the birthplace of Elvis Presley in Tupelo in Lee County. Bramlett moved to Los Angeles toward the end of his teens after a stint in the Navy and joined the Shindogs, the house band for the classic '60s TV show Shindig! Also in the Shindogs was Oklahoma pianist/producer/session hound Leon Russell, who would produce Bramlett's debut single, "Guess I Must Be Dreamin'" in 1967.
Meanwhile, Bonnie O'Farrell hailed from Granite City, Illinois and started singing around St. Louis as early as fifteen years old after seeing Ike and Tina Turner perform, eventually becoming the first white Ikette at the age of seventeen. She also provided backup vocals for everyone from Fontella Bass to Little Milton and Albert King. By 1967, she had relocated to LA, met Bramlett while he was performing at a bowling alley, and married him a week later.
Delaney and Bonnie signed with the storied Stax Records and released their first album Home in 1968. Getting lost in all the product Stax was putting out that year, they decided to go with Elektra for 1969's follow-up Accept No Substitute. It was the pre-mixes of this album that impressed George Harrison to the point of wanting them on the Beatles' label, but Elektra wouldn't let them out of the deal (although they were dropped shortly after the album's release, after an intoxicated Delaney Bramlett drunk-dialed Elektra founder Jac Holzman in the UK and threatened to come to England and kill him if the label didn't start stacking the new album in his hometown in Mississippi, so his father could buy one).
Now free agents and on the road with Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie brought down the house every night as the opening act. Clapton noticed what a great time they were having and how joyous the sound. He was being exposed to true southern soul, gospel, blues, country, and rock'n'roll on a nightly basis, from a band that bled that sound while making each show a celebration. He started hanging out with them, traveling on their bus, and sitting in with them on stage, even if it was just banging a tambourine. He wanted to be a part of this nightly jubilation.
“For me," Clapton wrote in his autobiography, Clapton, in 2007, "going on [with Blind Faith] after Delaney and Bonnie was really, really tough, because I thought they were miles better than us.” He also compared this exciting new experience to the band he was a part of at the moment: "I was lost in Blind Faith," he wrote. "I was the man in the hallway who has come out of one door, only to find it has closed behind him while another one is opening. Through that door were Delaney and Bonnie, and I was irresistibly drawn toward it, even though I knew it would destroy the band that we had put so much blind faith into."
As fate would have it, the very month Blind Faith, the album, was released, Blind Faith, the band, split up. This freed up Clapton to follow his muse, and his muse was leading him to join Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, which included the rhythm section of Carl Radle and Jim Gordon along with Dave Mason on guitar, Jim Price and Bobby Keys on horns, Bobby Whitlock on keys and vocals, Rita Coolidge on vocals, and Tex Johnson on percussion. George Harrison also sat in on guitar (as L'Angelo Misterioso) for much of the UK leg of the tour. The December 1969 shows were recorded and eight songs from those performances were released as Delaney & Bonnie & Friends On Tour With Eric Clapton in March of 1970.
Although a composite of their setlists over the short tour, On Tour gets its strength from its brevity. Clapton is very much a sideman here, and although his name may have helped sell albums, this is a case where the result is equal to the sum of its parts. In trying to get away from "supergroups" as determined by record executives, Clapton fell into a true supergroup in every sense of the term. Without a doubt, however, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett are running the show, and their vocals scratch that genuine soul country itch that no Brit could ever hope to match.
Also during this time is when Clapton switched to Fender Stratocasters and amps, giving him a decidedly sharper tone and method of attack, developing the guitar sound that would define him for decades to come. You can hear it most notably on a searing version of "I Don't Want To Discuss It" (which includes the band vamping on a lick during the solo that would show up again, and again with Bobby Keys in tow, a year later on The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971) track "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" which, like On Tour, was produced by Jimmy Miller).
The band also fires on all cylinders on the joyous, "Comin' Home," written by Bonnie Bramlett and Clapton (the studio version of which was recorded and released as a single after the tour in December of '69 backed with "Groupie (Superstar)," a track written by Bonnie and Leon Russell that would become a highlight of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour the following year sung by Rita Coolidge and the year after that by The Carpenters) as well as the Dave Mason contribution, the buoyant, affirming "Only You Know and I Know."
Bonnie Bramlett lets loose on the achingly soulful "That's What My Man Is For," reaching the rafters with her peerless, powerful, blues-drenched vocal chords. Delaney Bramlett is at his Mississippi best on "Poor Elijah / Tribute to Robert Johnson," testifying to the true power of country blues with the zeal and skill of a southern Baptist preacher. In fact, throughout On Tour’s forty-two-minute runtime, the band rocks, rolls, and plows through each number like they’re saving souls at a Sunday afternoon tent revival in the deep south.
On Tour is probably more well known for what came after it than for what it actually was at the time. The “Friends” assembled by Delaney and Bonnie would go on to be Clapton’s band for his self-titled solo album the following year, join Joe Cocker and Leon Russell on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, play on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (as well as support him at the Concert for Bangladesh), and become Derek and the Dominos with Clapton and record Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs.
Delaney Bramlett would also encourage Clapton to sing more, leading to his solo debut. Clapton told Robert Palmer, “Delaney looked straight into my eyes (on the night we met) and told me I had a gift to sing and that if I didn’t sing, God would take it away...That night we started talking about me doing a solo album with his band.” Delaney would produce the album, his band played on it, and Bonnie would co-write ”Let It Rain” with Clapton. (Also on the album was a version of “After Midnight,” written by JJ Cale, whom Delaney introduced to Clapton, leading him on a career-long obsession with the Oklahoma groove master.)
George Harrison also has Delaney to thank for teaching him how to play slide, the fruits of which were immediately apparent on the All Things Must Pass’ number one hit “My Sweet Lord.” Harrison would master the slide to the point where it became one of his signature sounds throughout the rest of his career.
Although On Tour was released in a glorious expanded box set in 2010 with the full concerts available for the first time, nothing can replace the power and excitement of the original eight-song, forty-two minute single album with a cover that featured a Rolls Royce Silver Dawn with Bob Dylan's boots hanging out the passenger window (a photo taken by manager Barry Feinstein during Dylan's legendary 1966 tour).
Fifty years on, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends On Tour With Eric Clapton's place in rock & roll history is secure, taking part in bridging country and soul into the birth of what became known as southern rock. Its influence can even be felt today in the music of The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Trigger Hippy, The Magpie Salute, and many others; in fact, anywhere musicians join together to bring joy to others through a little jam-based country-gospel-rock...and a whole lotta soul.
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