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From: kingy17
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  • Beautiful... 

  • Beautiful song, and even if Whitlock truly did write it, Clapton still owns it.

  • So good to hear Bobby singing out after all these years - a truly gifted & blessed rock star.

  • What a talent- thanks so much for posting this- thank you Bobby Whitlock & God bless you

  • Eric still sings it better

  • @gatty52496 - not better, differently... both are wonderful

  • @gatty52496 -oops, sorry

  • Bobby does a sweet job of this song and should get credit for writing it

  • If you get to Austin, you can see Bobby (&CoCo) every Sunday night at the Saxon Pub! Great show!

  • Eric was a great guitar player than but to make a comeback he should polished his guitar technique. As we can see the drum grove was not played like before anymore. Sometime it’s quite embarrassing to say to the young that how great guitarist he was when his solo is on pentatonic all the way. However, I love his contemporary song.

  • @maddabdul Make a comeback? He never left...where have you been?

  • Take away Layla and it's still a great album.

  • Whitlock: "Eric met this girl, she was like a Persian princess or something, and she wore bell bottoms. She was all hung up on him - he gave her a slide that Duane (Allman) had given him and he wrapped it in leather and she wore it around her neck. She didn't speak a word of English and they had to date through an interpreter. That relationship did not last but a week. He started the song over there, then when we got back to England, we finished it up in his TV room in Heartwood Edge."

  • just read Bobby's book...he had sold all his songwriting credits away sometime in the 2000's - Eric bought them back and gave them to him. Sounds like a pretty solid dude to me.

  • what is the dummer's name???

  • @yikes00 Gilson Lavis, drummer in Jools' Rhythm and Blues Orchestra but the link is that Gilson was drummer for Squeeze in the 70's/80's, a band Jools Holland played piano in. Tilbrook and Difford are grea!

  • clapton has actually gotten better over the years. he was amazing in the 70s but a live clapton show now just blows your mind.

  • The vocal interplay between Eric and Bobby WAS the Dominos sound!

  • Any idea where I could get a 'Kentucky' t-shirt from?

  • Sounds great! Wish you guy's could get together for a Dominoes reunion tour!

  • @ChiroQuacker.....what the hell have you done lately?

  • hey bobby im ur cousin ur dad or uncle preached at my brothers funeral love to talk to u

  • One of the best songs from D&D - I would have liked to hear EC singing his part like the original, and he did his typically great but excessive runs during the lead. I've noticed this on a lot of live performances in the later years - including the Cream Reunion which I still thought was great. The original BBBlues lead had more bends and held the notes with more feeling than just playing through every break. Still...it was good seeing them do the song again.

  • Great version-Bobby Whitlock wrote the song and was the only white Motown artist for years- its Clapton afraid of fading away but I pray he wont

  • BOBBY --JUST GET A JOB  WITH OUT CLAPTON YOU WOULD BE COOKING MY DINNER ,

  • Whitlock actually wrote the song. Here is an interview with Bobby on the subject:

    Whitlock did not get a songwriting credit for this, but has no hard feelings: "That's part of the ego thing. Had I been credited on 'Bell Bottom Blues,' that would have meant I had more songs on the Layla album than Eric. At that time he had a massive ego trip going.

  • @Militiagoat

    fuck u bobby...if eric wasnt on the layla album it would have sold 6 copies..the total your solo catalogue sold u cunt...and u have no right to sing this song in this clip..you kill a good song by singing it so poorly...

    i dont believe bobby wrote this by himself....and that eric had nothing to do with composing it..bullshit...

  • @ChiroQuacker You need to learn english and then see a psychiatrist.

  • @ChiroQuacker Bobby Whitlock made some timeless music with Clapton.

    What have you done?

    Oh yeah...you got an internet connection.

  • @ChiroQuacker u just a hole

  • @ChiroQuacker sounds like u want his fame so sorry aint happening

  • @yantas100

    trust me yenta..i got loads more money, property, stock portfolio then most has been songwriters who haven't contributed to a hit record in 41 years...aka....mr. whitlock

    to claim he wrote songs on layla but did not receive any credit due to clapton's ego is pure bullshit...

  • @ChiroQuacker

    And YOU need to read my interview with Whitlock which is in this month's edition of Keyboard Player.

    If you think he is "a massive has been who only was relevant some 40 years ago due to his riding on eric claptons coat-tails" then you need to inform legends like George Jones and Sheryl Crow, who have had hits with RECENT songs that Whitlock has written and who sing his praises as one of THE BEST White Soul singers, Keyboard players and songwriters in the last 40 years.

  • @Babyhowdydoody233

    not bothering with your blog column in that penny saver magazine that you paid to print your rambling musings

    you say whitlock is one of "the best white soul singers"...try listening to his vocal on this clip...thats great singing to you?...you are an imbecile

    now steve winwood is a far suprior white soul singer to this slug and the great thing about steve is he still sings like he did 40 years ago..his recent "live" vocals on the winwood-clapton tour are evidence of it

  • @Babyhowdy233 You are so right. This clown has no idea what the hell he's talking about. His idea of a good singer/songwriter is probably Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. Bobby Whitlock is one of the true greats in the pantheon of rock. Why di Clapton, Harrison, and others work with him? Because he is simply one of the best, and an outstanding human being to boot. He has more talent in his little finger than most other artists!

  • @Militiagoat 1) There are 14 cuts on the "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs" album. Of these, 8 are originals (the rest are blues covers). Of these 8, 5 are co-written by Bobby & Eric, 2 are credited to Eric, and 'Layla' to Eric & Jim Gordon. Only "Thorn Tree" is credited to Bobby alone, so if "Bell Bottom" is his, and was credited as such, 2 cuts would be his and 2 would be Eric's- Gordon only wrote the outro to "Layla". So, why would another Whitlock credit outnumber Eric's credits?

  • @Militiagoat 2) .... I have no doubt that is how Bobby remembers it, and of course I have no reason to doubt him, but it must have been the drugs because Clapton is usually overly generous with giving credit where credit is due. In fact, unless it has always been false modesty, he always seemed shy about taking credit for his contributions to modern music, guitar playing and his own material in general. Weird.

  • it doesnt matter who sings this song, you can't help but to sing your heart out with all the passion you have. greatest song clapton has ever done

  • This is one of the only songs I have ever listened to and come to tears. Beautiful. Can never get enough of it.

  • I love Bobby's voice and the way he sings. The way he does it.

  • @babyhowdy233......perhaps i stand corrected.....Delaney bramlett might have been the one that passed on !

  • Really! it could be, but can't hear not even a little bit of is voice.

  • eric's microphone did not work! damn it!

  • @Brendelos His Microphone was working, he is just sitting back in this one and letting Bobby take the lead vocals, he has nothing to prove and can afford to be generous eh?

  • @Brendelos you can hear his voive in there

  • After years of loving this album, and isn't allman so missed, this was a great find. What a wonderfully soulful voice. Great post, great.

  • I've never understood why Clapton has not collaborated with Bobby since D&theD's...they wrote some classic songs together and to me Layla and Assorted Love Songs is one of the greatest album of all time !!!

  • @1947JAZ

    I sure do agree!

  • Loved it Bobby! <3

  • Wow some bad vibes going on here. The simple fact. Bobyy Whitlock is playing with Clapton. As he did on the Layla album. I Wish we all could grow up and make peace.

  • Whitlock still alive.

  • Jim Gordon, the drummer for Derek & the Dominos, was convicted of beating his mother to death with a hammer and he is currently in prison in California. He is believed to be suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia. For years his supporters have been trying to get him released from prison and into treatment for his mental illness, but he has been denied parole twice. It is a sad story made even sadder by the fact that Gordon was such a talented and successful musician.

  • iswhitlock dead or alive ?......i know delaney bramlett died acouple of years ago !

  • @ronnied828

    Bobby is very much alive. I just interviewed him for Keyboard Player magazine.

  • derek and the dominos ftw

  • i never realized the power and majesty whitlock possessed in his pipes; truly a revelation-thanks for sharing!

  • @nosleep62

    I think alot of folks don't realize what a phenomenal singer Bobby really is.

  • i guess this is as close to a Derrik and the Dominoes reunion as Carl has passed on and so many stories as where Jim Gordon is. still nice to see them performing

  • This is from the greatest album ever! I love the line in the song "once I was strong, but I lost a fight; but you won't find a better loser."

  • buddyrichjunier(sic)-As opposed to a douche bag such as yourself? When did Clapton convert to Judaism? Eric's got more talent than you will ever see. Everybody's got their moment in the sun, Eric's has come and gone and come back again! To be around as long as he's been and still be a journeyman for his craft is a remarkable achievement and a testament to his character. He's not perfect and he's never claimed to be. Yeah, he's rich & happy, maybe not quite as sharp as he used to be, so what...?

  • bobby whitlock sang the arse off clapton on the dominos album. he had (i hesitate to use the word 'has', sadly) one of the best white soul/blues voices i've ever heard.

    this is still a great performance though! :o)

  • @mistersnaredrum the album was personal to clapton though, so there wouldnt be that raw emotion therein the singing

  • 2:29 eric so want to sing!!! why bobby dont give him space!!

  • @MrMakore A simple mistake - EC has sung this so often as a solo artist since 1971 remember!

  • Bell bottom blues, you made me cry. I don’t want to lose this feeling. And if I could choose a place to die It would be in your arms. Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you? Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back? I’d gladly do it because I don’t want to fade away. Give me one more day, please. I don’t want to fade away. In your heart I want to stay.
  • It’s all wrong, but it’s all right.

    The way that you treat me baby.

    Once I was strong but I lost the fight.

    You won’t find a better loser.

    Bell bottom blues, don’t say goodbye.

    I’m sure we’re gonna meet again,

    And if we do, don’t you be surprised

    If you find me with another lover.

  • I find the vocalist has a nice voice, but this performance is quite uninspiring insofar as Clapton and his guitar goes. In the original version, his guitar is ringing loud, and has a much more edgy, raw sound, played with such passion and intensity. Here, Clapton has turned into a tired old lounge act. It's the same as when I saw him back in the early 90's in northern CA. I was totally disappointed. I wanted to hear him tearing up White Room, but he was simply going through the motions.

  • @raremountainbear The best guitar playing on the Derek & The Dominoes album was not Clapton's but, of course, Duane Allman's, who was, in my mind, a far superior player and composer. I agree with you that Clapton has become a tired old lounge act, but then again, I always thought he was over-rated, at least compared to Jimmy Paige, Alvin Lee, Rory Gallagher, and yes, Tommy Iommi.

  • @raremountainbear Considering their age and the number of times they've played these songs over and over to feed the ravenous fans, I figure they're doing good by just showing up.You want passion and intensity? Get you a 19 yr old.

  • @ladyfuschia Say, how old are you? ;O)

  • @raremountainbear Old enough to remember when lots of these performers were in their prime and I was so in awe at the ages of around 10 to 17 when they first recorded. I don't expect myself at the age of 52 to be able to do all the things I did so well back then!

  • @raremountainbear Never ask a woman her age Dopey!!

  • @raremountainbear You find the vocalist has a nice voice? His name is Bobby Whitlock you jackass. Based on your comment, you might feel more comfortable discussing Barbera Streisand.

  • @jdrock14 I know who he is, fuckstain. You're 14, right?

  • @raremountainbear Fuckstain? What is that? If you were a Clapton fan, Which you obviously are not. You would realize that he took a back seat on this song. He's a class act. You are not!!

  • @raremountainbear I respect your choice, but women are ok too!!

  • just wonderful

  • derek and the dominos ---is where this all came from and the youth is great --I am getting old and it sucks -----peace

  • It's All Good

  • amazing performance!!! love Clapton

  • bobby whitlock looks like the bad guy in undersiege 2 with that fro thing. lol.

  • bobby whitlock looks like the bad guy in undersiege 2 with that fro thing. lol

  • AWESOME rendering!

  • I'm Totally with DarkeningSkies1 and the casting is perfect. Unfortunately, the shows would be so sold out at sky high prices which I wouldn't be able to afford, but the HD vid on you tube and elsewhere would be a sight for sour eyes and sound for sour ears.

  • How about Jim Keltner on drums, Derek Trucks on Slide Guitar & Nathan East on Bass. Eh? Eh? C'mon, it would be towering.

  • Awesome! I didn't know they had ever performed together again...

    Eric & Bobby could put together a hot little rhythm section and do The Dominos again, for as much as E.C. has been looking back and playing with his old mates since 2005 or so (Cream, JJ Cale, Steve Winwood)... a dream, but that would be so sweet.

  • The second chord is supposed to be an E7th, wonder if why they did it this way.

  • What a Wonderful Voice.

  • ya bobbys a great pianist but he doesnt pay his way through life! dodgin bills bob!

  • Saw this on the Jools Holland DVD. Jools said that pre show they didn't recognise one another. It was a long time, 20 plus years, but worth it as this song proves

  • Comment removed

  • Wow. Just wow. what a fantastic rendition of one of my favorites of all time.

  • Bobby, I love you!!!!

  • At 1:50 all I could think was " Why hasn't Eric gotten back with Bobby yet? He's done it with everyone else?"

  • Thissong is in the movie the box

  • This was a treat to listen to. Thank You for posting!

  • what a terrific underrated singer is bobby whitlock!

  • His best friend was George Harrison.I hope I never feel that kind of heartbreak.If it wasn't for that pain,there would be no Layla album.

  • Happy Birthday Bobby Whitlock!

  • I often wondered why they never reunited considering EC's record of playing with everyone he ever played with.  Thanks for posting!

  • I agree that Whitlock was key.. great back up voice on those tracks and his blues piano was unreal... but wrote second rate songs????? Seriously!? Tears in Heaven, Rule the World, Motherless Children, the slowhand album, and both albums with JJ Cale and BB King are flat amazing... NOT as good as Dominos imo... but that is b/c D&D's Layla is the best album ever and is pretty dang hard to top... NOT because EC has been "second rate" since... just my two cents...

    overall, great vid

  • One word: B R A V O ! ! !

  • @KHaendiges1

    The man has a phenomenal voice, no doubt about it!

  • People usually regard Derek and the Dominos as an Eric Clapton--Duane Allman collaboration, but I think that Bobby Whitlock was the key to that band. Since Derek and the Dominos, Clapton has been a very one-dimensional artist, writing second-rate songs. The Layla album, on the other hand, was magical.

  • @gclafontaine Post Layla albums - Eric Clapton "solo debut", 461 Ocean Blvd, Slowhand, Behind the Sun, Journeyman, etc. There is so much music throughout his solo career that is so moving, so powerful, and so brillantly written. For God's Sake, "Let it Rain" is one of the greatest rock songs of our time. Oooohh why do I let simple minded people get to me?

  • @jdrock14 the Eric Clapton album came before the Layla Album I believe, there he met Carl Radle, Bobby, Jim Gordon. I mean, he met them while touring with Blind Faith, they were with Delaney and Boney band.

  • @PindamonhaMAN My point was that Eric was not two dimensional after the Layla album. He had alot of great albums and songs through his solo career. All you could come up with from my comment is that the E.C. album came out a couple of months before the Layla album. That's so sad. I lived through Clapton's career, while you on the other hand simply recite facts from Wiki. Go have a cheeseburger with your girl and leave classic rock to the elders.

  • @jdrock14 what? I think you mistake me with the other guy you were arguin with... i was just saying... and in my post i did not disagree with you. Did i? Clapton is my favourite ( and yeah even the solo carrer ). I didn`t read it in Wiki, i got it from his book. And sorry i don`t eat meat... Jeez i can`t understand why you got so agressive...

  • dang this is the song for me atm....im basically losing the girl i love to my best friend..........

  • and your friend's song must be "Have you ever loved a woman"! heh sorry man...

  • @PindamonhaMAN or Jesse's girl hahah dont know who its by i forget lol

  • Very soulful and heartfelt. Some elements of the Layla album have always struck me as unpolished in a distracting way. More Bobby Whitlock vocals might have helped, as is clearly the case here. I guess what I'm saying is I prefer Whitlock's vocals to Clapton's -- and this rendition of the song moves me as much, maybe more, than the original studio version. Now, Have You Ever Loved a Woman and Why Does Love Have to Be So Sad are completely different -- impossible to surpass. Is that so wrong?

  • Not wrong at all man Whitlock is a very good singer. Also agree that there are some that can't be surpassed, you have to take in consideration that Clapton was feeling every word he sang, take the phrase from Have you ever loved a woman for instace: "Even tough you are in love with your best friend's girl"

  • @ITryNot2Crash I don't know, polishing that album would have taken away its soul. The only problem was someone spilling coffee on the master tapes, which meant Tommy Dowd had to mess around cleaning the tapes & consequently changing the speeds slightly. I'd take an unpolished diamond over a shiny piece of glass anyday.

  • The bass player doesn't know the correct bas line during "I don't want to play that way.... " which Carl Radle played so well

  • Just for the record I think you mean "I don't want to fade away"

  • this is just a great one!

  • god bless bobby whitlock!

  • Layla is one of the few perfect records in my collection, top to bottom. And I can't think of a double album better than this one. It's sad, because nothing after Money and Cigarettes (1983) has any soul. It's all by rote with Eric now...

  • Not necessarily - the early 1990s accoustic work was v good and EC experimented with mainstream 'rock'. Perhaps the problem was always that he was too drunk/stoned to develop as a (prolific) songwriter & spent the 1970s/80s being pushed out on stage. The fact is, he was 26 when D&D split, after 7/8 years he'd done everything musically & otherwise. The problem for all 60s stars who didn't die young was how to cope with

  • The problem for all 60s stars was that if they didn't die young, they were under pressure to keep mining the same influences/approaches that got them success, or they took radically new directions to survive musically. EC tried the latter, not always successfully in the 1970s & did the former in the mid-80s. His biog suggests he need to give up the addictions, then mature as a person before he could begin to recapture the magic of the 1965-70 era.

  • @PetraeKo EC has done some great stuff in the last 20 years, but you are right, from beginning to end....nothing touches the Layla album

  • @PetraeKo I did like Journeyman pretty well, but overall you're right.

  • @PetraeKo I guess u never listened 2 from the cradle.One of ec`s all time bests.

  • he wasn't trying to spin the drumstick; he was changing from the head for cymbals to the fat end for rim playing.

  • D & D - still my favorite Clapton by far. I like his Crossroads Festival. He's a blessing in his later years, quote, unquote.

  • sweet kentucky shirt

  • I saw that too !!! Cool

  • CLAPTON is not GOD..... its sth MORE...........

  • Bobby Whitlock and Michael McDonald were just two of the (similar styled) and greatest talents I have ever had the pleasure of growing up with. Love This!

  • @GratefulGrey I mean Michael McDonald from "The Doobies".

  • LOL at the drummer trying to spin the drumstick at 00:18

  • I love both of these guys (as well as the Dominos that present) more than I could ever say. But what I want to point out right now is how awesome Jools Holland is on the B-3. Playing the organ is not the same as playing piano, and he's really tearing it up.

  • eric a master at low volume playing.

  • This isn't the best version, but Bobby manages to make it sound like I'm listening to someone who is heartbroken

  • Bobby Whitlock always comes across as such a neat, classy guy in interviews. If ever I'm in Austin I'll definitely catch his and CoCo's act. I love his voice- it really is true that he was a big part of making the Layla album so fantastic. His songwriting and vocals pushed Eric to do even better (as did Duane), as others have said.

    Bobby has said that he and Eric never argued- but I wonder if Bobby reminds Eric of that really bad time in his life, and that's why they don't see eachother much.

  • @bulstrode100

    Check the upcoming edition of Keyboard Player magazine. I interviewed Bobby and this was one of the things we discussed. You are right, Bobby is indeed a neat, classy guy.

  • best version but eric should have sang it...

  • no eric did in derek and the dominos xx

  • did bobby sing lead on the original

  • Bobby Whitlock and Coco Carmel have an almost regular gig at Saxon Pub - Austin TX They do a great job.

  • TheRussell7 - Wow, I would give anything to hear Bobby do this in person. I know the story. Bobby is an incredible musician and southern gentleman.

  • Clapton's guitar tone on this isn't a patch on the original

  • its not the same without duane allman rip

  • duane didnt play on bell bottom blues, he plays from the 4th track on.

  • how true. duane allman always makes it sound better! :)

  • did Duane play on this specific track? He is missing on 3 from the original album.

  • No, he didn't. This was one of the tracks recorded before he arrived.

  • Thought not.

    The sad thing is that of the 6 men who recorded that album, these were the only 2 able to perform it now - unless Albhy Galuten is still around???

  • also in Mississippi met Bobby--Clapton never gave credit --oh well life goes on and Clapton still wonders how Hendrix did it,,,,haha

  • well, who doesnt?

  • theres no end to idiots putting clapton down, he,s the best all around out there, go eat sh--

  • The Dominos have a tragic story. Not only do Clapton and Whitlock have strained and awkward relationship, Carl Radle died at 38 from booze and Jim Gordon lost his mind and killed his mother. Yet, the music still lives on.

  • Bobby Whitlock...very underestimated part of the Derek and the Dominoes overall sound. ,,,,soulful!

  • I got to know Bobby in Mississippi and he is the greatest guy in the world.

    Folks, you ain't lived till you sit down, alone, with him and he plays "Thorn Tree in the Garden" for you on the piano.

    Got to spend some time out at his house. Awesome treat.

  • that's one of my favorite songs of all time. you lucky dog

  • I could tell ya some stories my friend, sitting out on the porch for hours with Bobby and his acoustic and then heading into his studio, in the middle of nowhere,

    nothing but gold records lining the wall and then listening to anything you wanted to hear on piano or electric and his new stuff that he was working on.

    That's Mississipi and I'm a Damn Yankee. His graciousness is beyond belief.

  • David on the money He has his limitations- like everyone else

  • A bit older, a lil' grayer, the dominoes soldier on...I'll be listenin to this shit when I'm in the grave

  • Comment removed

  • is not best..but a disaster????

  • dose anyone know if there is tab for this version bell bottom blues?

  • I've been seriously hoping that with Eric reuniting with all of his old musical confederates what with Cream and Steve Winwood, that a Dominos reunion is somehow in the works. Yes, I know it won't be the same without the highly under-rated legendary Rhythm section of Jim Gordon and Carl Radle but it could be sweet. I'd get Steve Jordan on the skins and perhaps Willie Weeks on the bass. And Derek Trucks too. He and Eric rock out together on "Why does love got to be so bad."

  • I was lucky enough to see D&D in NY...and the things that will always be burned in my mind, Was the Blue Light shinning down on Duane, the Red Light on Eric and the Singing of BW and his B3swirling above...all meshed into some type of Musical Magic...never to be recreated again....

  • nicely put, dusty

  • Sublime

  • It's in the way YOU USE IT... Hail Hail Bobby ---

  • Love Clapton's solo

  • great to see Derek and one of the Dominos ;)