Friday, October 23, 1970 (2nd show) I WAS THERE

With all the reviews of these historic dates, it has always bothered me that all the information has never been fully or accurately been put in print. I had been a Clapton fan since the Cream. I always preferred calling them 'The Cream', which I felt was more of a specified description of their sound, if not their music. I saw 'The Cream' twice; once at Union Catholic High School in New Jersey and the last time was during their farewell tour at Madison Square Garden. 'The Cream' was the only band of its kind that created a fusion of rock and blues whose improvisation was the only thing that resembled progressive jazz, other than the Nice, which was a keyboard oriented band fronted by Keith Emerson. The Nice and The Cream were my two favorite bands circa. 1968 and 1969.

The third time I saw Clapton was actually with two groups onstage, although I didn't know about the opening band until after the concert. This shows you just how much I paid attention. This was the fateful Blind Faith concert at Madison Square Garden in 1969 (can't remember the actual date) where Delaney and Bonnie and Free opened for Blind Faith. Clapton of course was playing with Delaney and Bonnie in the background during the show and I really don't think a lot of people realized it at the time. A lot of people were talking during the performance, probably including me. I'll go into a full review of this concert at a future date.

I wanted to basically show a pattern of how I had experienced Clapton in three different live performances before I started on the review of the Dominos.

I think I should give a brief background on the Fillmore East. This is extremely important because there has not been such a magical venue as this place other than possibly, the Fillmore West. Basically, the Fillmore East was a large to mid-size theater with wonderful acoustics and beautiful architecture. It was located almost in the heart of Greenwich Village, New York on 2nd Ave. I was attending Millburn High School in New Jersey and was one of five people who were chosen to skip school and with the moneys of twenty to thirty students would go into Manhattan via the Erie Lackawanna railroad to Hoboken and transfer to "the tubes" as we called them, into the Village and get in line as early as possible to buy tickets to two, possibly three shows for all of these twenty to thirty fellow students. The concerts would happen about a month to a month and a half from that time, so we all had to plan our time and finances very carefully. The average price for a show of usually two to three acts a night at the Fillmore East was $3.50-$5.50 each. This was not real cheap at the time, although by todays standards it seems almost impossible. Because there was no Bass or Ticketron yet, we physically had to stand in line from early in the morning until mid afternoon sometimes. And since this was New York, in the winter it was sometimes brutal. But it was worth it!

I cannot remember what other shows if any were bought besides the Dominos.

I do know that I bought them because I was not going to take the chance of someone screwing up on me not getting to see this show. I don't think I had a notion of what the Dominos even sounded like. I was buying these tickets because of Clapton and strictly on blind faith, to coin a phrase.

Since it was the late show, we had to stand outside and wait for the 2nd show, which started that night and normally at 11PM. That was part of the magic of New York; all the great shows of any concerts, jazz or rock started at 11 or later. This point is a little unclear, but I believe that WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM, the two biggest progressive rock stations in New York at the time had been airing at least three cuts from the upcoming album, Layla. And when I heard them, I was blown away. They didn't sound like 'The Cream' and they didn't sound like 'Blind Faith'. The songs were beautiful. The voices were almost ungodly. And most of all, they cooked and grooved.

I remember immediately standing outside the theater waiting to get in the theater and about every two or three minutes someone would be opening up the side exit door and this incredible sound with Clapton in the forefront would be blazing out. I was so excited because this was something beyond Clapton's two or three previous bands. This was something special!

We went in and got our seats which were about 2/3 toward the back of the place.They weren't the greatest seats in terms of being close, but sound wise, we were in the center and the sound was great and loud. We all got programs and I still have mine. The first group to play was Ballinjack and they were OK. It's hard to think about or sit through any opening act when all you want to here is your favorite band. The next band was an exception. I probably heard Humble Pie a few times on the radio, but never really got off on them like a lot of people did. Even years afterward I never got off on them on record. But this night in live performance, they were great. And the audience loved them too.

Now it came time for Eric and his new band. Hardly anyone knew what they were about and no one probably had a clue what was going on with Clapton's personal life at that time. I had snuck in (successfully) a cassette recorder to document the entire set. The only problem was that my friend who lent me the recorder gave me dead batteries. The machine started to slow down right after the first song, which after the individual introductions was 'Got To Get Better'. This song was as hard driving a song as any I had ever heard. The only group that could have played a similar groove then and today was/is Tower of Power. Everyone including me were on our seats boogieing hard to this song. It was like nothing like Clapton had ever done before although you could tell the Delaney and Bonnie influence, except that it was more refined and defined. And it was just four guys working their asses off.

The two things that really bother make about all the reviews and recordings issued from these shows is that the recordings are inaccurate in their listings and all photos related to these shows were taken months after these shows. The original 'In Concert' album and later CD of the same has 'Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad' as the opening track. This is inaccurate in that this was used as an opener during the second half of the tour when things really started falling apart for the band. While this is a great opener, it was not done at the Fillmore East as such. The Dominos opened both shows with 'Got To Get Better In A Little While'. The new re-mastered version of this retitled 'Live At The Fillmore' is inaccurate first in the title. It should be titled 'Live At The Fillmore East'. Only the main one in San Francisco could accurately be called just, 'the Fillmore'. And on that new CD they put 'Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad' right after 'Got To Get Better', which is really ridiculous. They really couldn't physically do it after a 13 plus minute jam like the opener and secondly, it wouldn't sound good for the show. 'Key To The Highway' was next followed by 'Tell The Truth'. Then they did 'Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad'; the version on the Live From the Fillmore disc/s. After that they did 'Blues Power' into 'Have You Ever Loved A Woman', versions which had not seen the light of day, legitimately that is. More on that later.Then they did 'Bottle Of Red Wine' which was just amazing. This was followed by Presence of the Lord, which I saw Blind Faith do at Madison Square Garden with Steve Winwood do the lead vocal on. Here was Clapton doing his own vocal on his song for the first time. Then what was a real surprise since the album hadn't come out yet (although I think the radio was playing it), was Hendrix's 'Little Wing'. Unfortunately, this was the version where Whitlock's organ broke down midway through and Gordon and Radle played almost double time to fill in the slack. It almost sounded like 'The Cream', except it lacked greatly in that regard. Then they finished with 'Let It Rain'. Jim Gordon had been my favorite studio drummer and the stuff he did after up to '78 was just incredible, especially the Steely Dan and Freddie King sessions. His drum solo that night was just a solid groove by an obvious studio drummer. It was the second best solo I ever saw. But no one could look or sound like Ginger. Especially in the last part of Toad, Ginger looked and sounded like fire. I have yet to see anything close to it. They closed the night with the funky version of 'Crossroads'. This concert was and is up to this date the best concert I have ever seen. I was soaked from head to toe. I had been to church.

In terms of the album/CD releases, what became 'Live At The Fillmore' was admirable, but still inaccurate and incomplete. The pictures all show Clapton wearing what almost looks like a prisoner tee shirt and he is bearded. On the actual nights of the Fillmore East shows, Clapton not only was beardless, but he came out almost looking like a white B.B. King wearing a beautiful off white sports jacket and suit. He looked like a class act, and he played the same. I would love to find or know somebody who has any shots of the group from those nights. In regards to the sound and songs of those nights, I only recently picked up a copy of the double CD (bootleg) called 'Domino Theory', which is the most accurate of those shows to date. I knew about this set for more than two years, but held back because I thought the 'Live At The Fillmore' set would fill in the gaps, which to a great degree, it did. But in regards to that disc, Polygram or whoever put it out could have put the songs in a more accurate and better order and substituted at least the other show's version of 'Little Wing', where not only the organ is maintained all the way through, but the performance and singing is better. This version that I'm referring to can be found on a boot entitled 'Layla and Other Unreleased Songs'. The 'Domino Theory' set has 5 unreleased versions from these nights. They are 'Key To The Highway', 'Tell The Truth', 'Blues Power', 'Have You Ever Loved A Woman' and 'Presence Of The Lord'. I personally feel having played all the previous versions to death that all of these versions are superior to the stuff already released, with the exception of 'Little Wing' which sounds best on that boot I mentioned earlier.

I went and saw Clapton's comeback concert at the Boston Garden in 74 and I couldn't believe what a dismal performance he gave after the strength and effect that the Dominos left on my soul. I realize that this is very unfair for someone who has been such a huge influence on my music and for that matter, on my life. I gave up on the guy for many years. Just about anything I heard by him on the air sounded like what Al Kooper calls, 'a milk shake' instead of soul food. It wasn't until I heard a broadcast of a show he did at the Albert Hall in 90 where he's playing in a quartet where I felt like he had found an incredible band again. He was playing some of his milkshakes(stuff/hits from the mid to late eighties) that I didn't like at all on record. But this band gave the music and man soul. I became a fan again. It was the closest thing to the Dominos that I've heard. I even got a video of some of that same performance.

In closing, if anyone has any idea where I can get pictures of those nights at the Fillmore, please contact me through this magazine. And one other thing, at the end of 'Got To Get Better In A Little While' before Clapton plays that last E (ninth) chord, you can hear this loud yell of sheer delight. That was me. I was there!