Albums2010 Revisited: Layla (Tedeschi Trucks Edition)

I think I saw a preview of Learning to Live Together (one of the coolest-looking documentaries I can recall seeing, which is, of course, on some random streaming platform/app that I don't have), and that was the first time I heard about the Tedeschi Trucks Band. I don't know what brought me back to them on Spotify, but I saw their re-release/re-recording of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and then I also saw another recording of Layla as well.

Sign me up- not that I don't like the original album; on the contrary, I do-- but I just thought it was the coolest damn thing that a whole other band was revisiting an entire album and just releasing it out into the world. I thought it was even cooler when I discovered that they had Trey Anastasio joining them on it.

In a weird coincidence, Disintegration was #17 according to The Archives and guess what dropped at #18? That's right, The Layla Sessions. 

Okay, let's talk about why exactly I'm such a 'stan' as the kids say today for this album. When I was growing up-- MTV Unplugged was a thing and it produced some incredible moments. Nirvana, 10,000 Maniacs, and of course, Eric Clapton and this version of Layla:

This version of Layla was absolutely everywhere right as I was getting into music. Just all over the airwaves. You couldn't get away from it and it's not bad... it's a different take on the song, but for a long time, I had no idea there was another version of Layla-- the original version, which opens with probably one of the greatest guitar hooks in the history of rock n'roll. Instantly recognizable:

I had a college roommate who insisted that the Unplugged Version was the superior version, and it always pissed me off because if you're going to write a song about your unrequited love for your best friend's wife, which version captures the pain of that love better? It's not the Unplugged version, I can tell you that-- on the original, you can hear the longing in Clapton's vocals, and it's echoed in the music and the wail of the guitars. Interestingly enough, a little further down the rabbit hole, I found this:

The album contained the hit love song 'Layla', inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature Nizami Ganjavi's 'The Story of Layla and Manjun', a copy of which Ian Dalles had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and went crazy because he could not marry her.

This also tracks-- but given that Harrison divorced his wife and she wound up marrying and then divorcing Clapton, I also think there might be something to the 'unrequited love for your best friend's wife' thing. (Also, to be fair, a brief glance at Pattie Boyd's Wikipedia page is fascinating- a model, then a photographer, and she fought demons of her own. Also, it appears that Eric Clapton wasn't exactly a great husband either, so the two divorced.)

Layla aside, if you dig into the album, you'll find a whole host of amazing tracks. Clapton's career arc is a little weird-- he does a lot of band hopping before settling into a more or less solo type existence by the 90s, and Derek and the Dominos was a one-album stop before everything fell apart in the face of addiction and acrimony amongst the band members. But man, if you're only going to put out one album-- what a goddamn album this is.

I mean, start with the blues classics: 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out' and 'Key To The Highway' blues tracks through and through-- but then you've got sad, melancholy tracks like 'Bell Bottom Blues', 'I Looked Away' and 'Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?'. So there's kind of a balance of mood across the album-- traditional blues with melancholy love songs, but in between the two you get genuinely great tracks that peek out in between these two threads and just light up the album. My favorite is probably 'Anyday', but you can add 'Keep On Growing' and 'Tell The Truth' to that list as well-- and you sort to include the poignant tribute to Jimi Hendrix as Derek and the Dominos cut a version of 'Little Wing' and added it to the album following his death.

I tend to be a little pickier when it comes to Live Albums, but the Tedeschi Trucks version of this is just magical. Sure, you can argue that the original album is better, because, well, it's not Live-- but holy shit, did they nail this. I know the comp that everyone always wants to trot out with Tedeschi Trucks is their version of Mad Dogs and Englishmen (which I'm working my way through now-- both the original and their version) but that was a Live album too, so I'm inclined to think the translation will be even better with that one than it is with this one.

The original album has to be one of the greatest of all time. If you're doing one of the 500 Greatest Albums or 100 Great Albums or whatever-- it's gotta be somewhere on the list. I won't argue about where in the rankings, but you gotta put it on here. I haven't done a deep dive on Clapton's discography, but I think there is an argument to be made that this might be the best album of his career in many ways. It's almost perfect that the band imploded, because I don't know how you'd follow this up without inevitably disappointing fans. Everything lined up, came together, and this resulted. But if you're looking for a good time Live album, you can't really go wrong with the Tedeschi Trucks version of this album either. 

It's a win/win either way.