Come on, man. The instrumental bit is longer than the actual song and is crazy repetitive. Every 45 seconds I’m saying “OK, that’s it right?”. Gak.
That little trailing tweet sound on the end sounds like he’s running his finger down the string to me. eta: but I see Marley gave the answer.
I’ve never liked the ending of Layla. It just sounds completely tacked-on with no relation whatsoever to the original song. Add to that, it’s boring as hell (at least to me.)
I love it- its the only instrumental that’s ever gotten me near tears, well that and Albatross.
Well said - Peter Green is a wonder. And I would add Beck’s Bolero.
Some folks don’t want the end of Hey Jude to go on forever either - YMMV. While I normally prefer a structured 3-minute song to force innovation within a structure - like writing a sonnet or haiku or something - in some cases, I appreciate the need to stretch it out. I think Layla works - you have the aggressively emotional, tearing my hair out, prostrate at your feet sadness he feels at the surface - the coda gets at the more emotionally-rich melancholy underlying the rather immature feelings at the surface…again, YMMV…
I agree. It’s unfortuante that Layla isn’t the last song on that album. I think putting Thorn Tree in the Garden last was a bad choice.
Oh, farther than that. I remember thinking that Jagger was singing “I live in an apartment on the 99-49 block.”
For years a hard rock station in St. Louis (KSHE) played “the ending” as a news signoff song. (the news always opened with the intro from One Fine Morning by lighthouse). The station continued to play a 70’s style format until it became “classic”.
I heard them repeat the Layla bit about ten years ago when I was in town. I don’t know if they still do. Since KSHE did this at least 24 times a day other stations could have copied them and used the piece either as a standalone or as a fill piece.
I forgot to add, whenever KSHE played Layla they played the full version.
The first time I heard a radio station cut it off I was furious.
To me, its like cutting off Stairway to Heaven right before “…and as we wind on down the road”.
I like Clapton, at least his younger versions more than the fuddy player he turned into, and Duane Allman is The Bomb, but I’ve never gotten “Layla”, ever. It starts out powerful and strong, then lapses into the most tedious piano + going-nowhere slide guitar accompaniment ever. If it didn’t have ECs name on it, I doubt it would have gotten airplay. My Mileage Did Vary, sorry.
I have a horribly foggy recollection of reading some “guitar hero” back in the late 70s or so commenting on Layla, essentially criticizing the deification of Clapton, saying something along the lines of, "That’s not even Clapton, it’s Duane Allman and he’s not even in tune."
Sound familiar to anyone else?
Sounds like something Ted Nugent would say. I remember some interview in Creem around 1975 where he was badmouthing a bunch of other famous guitarists.
Excellent comments, WordMan, and not just for the work Dowd did with the Southern Rock bands, but also for his connections with early Atlantic Records and Ray Charles, Aretha, Coltrane, etc. The list of artists he worked with itself will blow your mind. I’ve seen this docu on On Demand as well as one of the regular cable channels (Sundance, maybe) and have learned new things each time. Dowd died a short time after it was made and it’s apparent he’s not altogether unaware that this is sort of a living epitaph to an amazing man. A definite must see for anybody into jazz, soul, rock, blues, and the history of recorded music in the 20th Century.
Cool, and I thought that I’d add that the documentary is available for free to subscribers on NetFlix Instant Play.
raises hand Yep, that would be me.
Great Og - what a great way to spend this lousy, rainy day in the Northeast / New York area - go see this immediately!!
I have the exact opposite reaction. To me, the only thing that saves that otherwise mediocre song is the marvelous piano and slide guitar work at the end.