Guest Book

I think that I'm sort of a hybrid in this who came first, the chicken or the slide guitar...As a musician in the Daytona area, naturally, I was acutely aware of what Duane was doing...hell it was almost impossible to ignore it. He was the local whiz-kid that we all knew in our hearts, was headed to bigger and better things, one day...hey, come to think of it, I was right about one for a change! 🙂 We were also aware of Clapton because of his work with the Yardbirds, the Bluesbreakers, and Cream. It was pretty hard to play the clubs that we did in 1968 without a healthy dose of British Blues as well as Butterfield, and some tasty Chicago blues. Duane covered lots of Yardbirds music, early on, and I feel sure that is where he initially became acquainted with Clapton. Actually, I have a recording of Gregg playing electric piano with my band on "Sunshine of Your Love" in 68 during one of the Hour Glass trips to Daytona. So Gregg and Duane were certainly familiar with Clapton, and even happy to play some Cream in a jam here or there. I'll never forget an old friend, here in town, handing me the Derek and the Dominos album, right after it was released, and asking me if I knew who it was. The word had spread in music circles around here pretty quickly, early on, and a lot of us knew that Duane was working on a project with Clapton, but as Bobby Whitlock said, "nobody ever heard Layla until a year after the band exploded, and Duane had died." That was the odd thing about that album...it almost got s**t-canned because no one knew who Derek was until a year after it was released. Anyhoo, it's all good, and what Duane taught Clapton will live on forever, in everything that he plays and records. Bobby Whitlock's early albums were rumored to have Duane playing on them, but according to Bobby, it's Clapton playing that sweet melodic slide, so at least Clapton learned a thing or two from the master. Just my two cents worth. BTW if you haven't seen Bobby Whitlock's myspace site...check it out. He has a new version of Layla that I think most will find very interesting. Bill __________________________________________________ Facts are mere pretense to the story, and the storytellers are gods