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Clapton with Les Paul Custom, 1969

LeonC

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Here's some photos I've never seen before. Apparently Clapton was playing a 3-pickup Les Paul Custom for a while on tour with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett in parts of Europe in 1969. I've been under the impression that this is where/when he really picked up his love of Stratocasters--with Delaney and Bonnie. But these photos were apparently from a tour of parts of Europe. This is in Copenhagen.

Clapton_Les_Paul_Custom.PNG
Clapton_Copenhagen_1969.PNG

And there's a youtube clip too. They had half the Mad Dogs / Englishmen with them...Jim Price, Carl Raddle, Bobby Keys, Jim Keltner, Rita Coolidge, Harrison, et al.
 

goldtop0

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He used his Custom on Disreali Gears also.
When I was a kid I saw those '69 pics of him with the Custom and thought that that was the be all and end all of guitars..........little did I know as a 15 year old what else there was out there.
 

Wally

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Also, Delaney gave Harrison the Rosewood Tele.

Well, it went the other way. George gave the rosewood Tele to Delaney.

Re: the core of Derek and the Dominoes got together in that Delaney and Bonnie band…Clapton, Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle.
 

jb_abides

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Well, it went the other way. George gave the rosewood Tele to Delaney.

Re: the core of Derek and the Dominoes got together in that Delaney and Bonnie band…Clapton, Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle.
Yup, mind fart. Sorry.
 
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LeonC

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A bit off topic--only a bit. Anyone else into Delaney and Bonnie? Man, I have to admit, I was not all that into them back in the day. My first exposure to them wasn't until after Clapton had hooked up with them. But their first LP, Home, was done in Memphis at Stax record and it just kills!! It's loaded with all those great Stax players - Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns. You can hear the Stax influence all over it. Great record!

 

Wally

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A bit off topic--only a bit. Anyone else into Delaney and Bonnie? Man, I have to admit, I was not all that into them back in the day. My first exposure to them wasn't until after Clapton had hooked up with them. But their first LP, Home, was done in Memphis at Stax record and it just kills!! It's loaded with all those great Stax players - Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns. You can hear the Stax influence all over it. Great record!

New one for me…but look who is on that album….I am a big fan of Leon Russell. Leon was everywhere and knew everyone back then…and before…and after. I’ll have to give this one a listen. Thanks for the exposition….
 

bern1

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I always remember listening to Delaney and Bonnie sing Livin’ On The Open Road with Duane Allman playing slide. Man that track is so awesome from every point of view. It still kills today!
 

Hayduke

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My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Custom, and when I was a young teenager, pre-internet, I always took a lot of delight stumbling on pictures of guys like Clapton, or Keef, or Jimmy Page with their not-as-well-known Les Paul Customs. It made me feel like I was in the same club, or knew the secret handshake.
 

Redhod

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4e165f4c87b8c13810dabdab67f4d339.jpg
 

Redhod

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I saw them before Clapton joined and really liked them. It was on one of those strange triple bills at the Fillmore East. They opened, then the Woody Herman Jazz band, with the headliner being Led Zeppelin on, I believe, their second trip to the Fillmore.
D&B really went over well. They had energy and soul. I could understand why EC wanted to join them. I think he recruited them to open for Blind Faith in their short run.

Actually I got to hang with them at the hotel room for a while. They were just folks, and in about one second felt like I was hanging with my own family. Only patches of the conversation remain in my head but, oddly enough, one of the things I remember from Delaney was his appreciation of Paul Kossoff. (Free had just arrived in America that same summer.) He liked Kossoff's whole-hand tremolo action, and imitated it.

Later on, I think Delaney was embittered by the way his band left him to run off on Joe Cocker's tour, then later becomes the nucleus of Derek and the Dominos. Then his keyboardist Leon Russell becomes a star. Then he loses Bonnie. You could hardly blame him for getting blue.
 
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jb_abides

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Later on, I think Delaney was embittered by the way his band left him to run off on Joe Cocker's tour, then later becomes the nucleus of Derek and the Dominos. Then his keyboardist Leon Russell becomes a star. Then he loses Bonnie. You could hardly blame him for getting blue.

To hear others speak of it, including Bobby Whitlock if memory serves, it was his demeanor that drove them away. He was said to have a bit of an ego trip and somewhat harsh manner toward those in the band. Maybe a bit like James Brown..? And this contributed to members moving on, no matter how talented they thought him to be.
 

Wally

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I saw them before Clapton joined and really liked them. It was on one of those strange triple bills at the Fillmore East. They opened, then the Woody Herman Jazz band, with the headliner being Led Zeppelin on, I believe, their second trip to the Fillmore.
D&B really went over well. They had energy and soul. I could understand why EC wanted to join them. I think he recruited them to open for Blind Faith in their short run.

Actually I got to hang with them at the hotel room for a while. They were just folks, and in about one second felt like I was hanging with my own family. Only patches of the conversation remain in my head but, oddly enough, one of the things I remember from Delaney was his appreciation of Paul Kossoff. (Free had just arrived in America that same summer.) He liked Kossoff's whole-hand tremolo action, and imitated it.

Later on, I think Delaney was embittered by the way his band left him to run off on Joe Cocker's tour, then later becomes the nucleus of Derek and the Dominos. Then his keyboardist Leon Russell becomes a star. Then he loses Bonnie. You could hardly blame him for getting blue.

With regard to Leon Russell, by that time Russell was a very well established studio musician. He had been in L.A. for. Long time and played on a wide range of various artist’s recording….including Frank Sinatra. Russell knew every musician in the industry by the time he put the Mad Dogs And Englishmen troupe together for Cocker. That album was recorded two weeks after the band was assembled. I could be wrong, but I a have never thought of Leon Russel as anybody’s keyboardist.
 

Drayve85

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Didn’t Clapton trade a 3-pup custom with Kossoff on a euro D&B tour? Could that be this one?
 
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