The second half of Layla... [Archive]

operanonverba

10-25-2008, 09:01 AM

I think it starts out great but when the slides or pedal steels are up high there is a point where it starts to sound like a few cats going at it. Almost like they are competing. They should have eased up on it some. Mabey it just goes on too long. Still love the build up with the piano and all but I usually move on when the slides overpower the song.

telecopter

10-25-2008, 09:05 AM

I like the whole thing...the slide, the Leslie drenched rhythm guitar, and piano.

darth_vader

10-25-2008, 09:06 AM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

reeced

10-25-2008, 09:21 AM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

And me !

great song, but to me the outro signals the beginning of the overblown, self-indulgent, self-absorbed pap of the 70s
Thank god for punk !

(BTW I think Peter Green did it so much better in "Oh Well" Part II)

musicman1

10-25-2008, 10:28 AM

Duane really plays way out of tune on the "out-ro part".

googoobaby

10-25-2008, 10:38 AM

I just love it. Last week I was watching "Tom Dowd & the language of music" and the best part was him playing with the components of this track. Lots and lots of details that I never heard until they were brought in and out.

PUCKBOY99

10-25-2008, 10:42 AM

Great song....but just like the nah nah nahs in Hey Jude, the outro stuff is way too long & I skip ahead.

Scott57

10-25-2008, 11:06 AM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

I have to agree but I use to feel the same way about "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" I've changed my mind about CYHMK but still feel the same way about Layla.

macheesmo3

10-25-2008, 11:09 AM

It is a really good song , but it DOES get to be a bit too much when it hits 4th and 5th hour . I actually prefer the acoustic version from the unplugged album !

shngn7

10-25-2008, 11:18 AM

I love the outro and rarely ever skip it.

mule train

10-25-2008, 12:03 PM

This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA4iJmO9IAI) my favorite....although the version from Claptons " One More Rider (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_MHMnCBVPI)" is right on, in the zone phrasing with great tone from the 4:00 minute mark on.

From 6:14 on his touch is velvet-like, smooth and light.

jtm622

10-25-2008, 12:52 PM

dewey decibel

10-25-2008, 12:56 PM

It fits in great in the movie "Goodfellas".

dewey decibel

10-25-2008, 12:57 PM

In fact I'd rather hear the outro then the rest of it. And don't get me started on the unplugged version...

:munch

gkoelling

10-25-2008, 12:58 PM

You guys are brutal!!!

I love the tune, all of it. I love the whole damn album.

Boomer

10-25-2008, 01:11 PM

The outro is one of my favorite pieces of music. Chances are I wouldn't listen to the rest of the song without it.

SnidelyWhiplash

10-26-2008, 01:47 PM

It fits in great in the movie "Goodfellas".

I love that movie!

atomicmassunit

10-26-2008, 02:30 PM

Can't stand it. The out of tune slide playing kills it. I like the song up until the outro.

leofenderbender

10-26-2008, 05:04 PM

Larry Carlton's cover of Layla is prime too - he improves the last half to some extent.

PosterBoy

10-26-2008, 05:06 PM

Best version of this I've heard was from Secret Policeman's Ball with Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Howard Jones and a few others (I don't think the screechy slide playing was included or it wasn't as overbearing as the original)

Grun

10-26-2008, 06:35 PM

In fact I'd rather hear the outro then the rest of it. And don't get me started on the unplugged version...

:munch

Agree

Grun

10-26-2008, 06:36 PM

You guys are brutal!!!

I love the tune, all of it. I love the whole damn album.
Agree here too.

arwhite

10-26-2008, 07:24 PM

Layla is my ringtone! :dude

rob2001

10-26-2008, 07:26 PM

Cool story.... my nephew is visually impared. Actually 100% legally blind.
He has been playing guitar for quite a few years and really is an EXELLENT player. Totally self taught. So one day he says he bought a piano. I didn't think much of it. Well, a month later we were at a family gathering and after dinner, he puts on Layla. I'm thinkin he's gonna pick up his guitar and play a bit. He steps over to the piano and proceeds to play the end section note for note with the CD! Never had a lesson and he'd only been playing piano for a month!! So whenever I hear that song I think of what an inspiration he is to me.
I know for sure, what's taken can be given back in other fantastic ways.

boog204

10-26-2008, 07:32 PM

i absolutely love it... wailing seagulls and all.

Thwap

10-26-2008, 07:52 PM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

Yep.

slider313

10-26-2008, 08:07 PM

In fact I'd rather hear the outro then the rest of it. And don't get me started on the unplugged version...

:munch

The unplugged version................:barf

rongtr

10-26-2008, 08:10 PM

You mean Jim Gordon's piano part with Duane's slide?

Funny how that song evolved to include that, and the source of the part too.
From the book "Skydog" by Randy Poe:
"In truth, the actual number of composers who contributed to Layla (although offically credited to Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon) might be closer to half a dozen- not only because of the interpolation of "As the Years Go Passing By (the first few notes of the melody became the opening riff to Layla, as played by Duane) but also due to the question of how many people were involved in the creation of the piano piece that makes up the second half of the song. Along with Jim Gordon, two other writers are said to have contributed. "Rita Coolidge wrote that, when we were still with Delaney and Bonnie, up in John Garfield Jr.'s guest house," says Bobby Whitlock. It was a song called 'Time.' The melody was actually a song, but Jim Gordon ripped it off." And according to another source, saxophonist Jim Hord deserves at least partial credit for the piece as well".

Shiny McShine

10-26-2008, 08:11 PM

I never really liked the second half of the song.

signed,

The Party Pooper.

DrSax

10-26-2008, 08:21 PM

to the naysayers: come on, people! why not just erase A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, Michael Jordan at his best, and everything else that makes life a bit worth living?! Man......

GTRJoe

10-26-2008, 09:44 PM

Always liked it. Always will. It's one of the classics of it's time.

OOG

10-26-2008, 09:46 PM

fwiw
it's the piano that's out of tune
still a great track

A-Bone

10-26-2008, 09:47 PM

RickC

10-27-2008, 01:18 AM

I think it's the length of the original second half that throws people, for the most part. It's a beautiful melody and a great fit for the song; it just drags.

We play this tune sometimes, and we've come up with a shortened version of the second part that imo is just about perfect; people sitting in usually agree. Of course I'm sure there are those who will think we've "cut the Mona Lisa in half"; so be it.

/rick

Baby Evil

10-27-2008, 02:07 AM

Love the first half, but I've always found the second some of the most cringe inducing wailing. Maybe all the more because it's plastered to something so great.

Jan

Steve Gambrell

10-27-2008, 02:13 AM

I agree. Love that musical moment, and the documentary about Tom Dowd is great.

Agreed! As for the song, the first half is too short, and that whole thing on the end, one piano riff, over and over, is pretty stale.
And the "unplugged" version does away with one of the all-time greatest riffs in rock and roll. When you hear that "dah-dah-DA-DA,-dah-dah-dah,"
you know SOMETHING'S gonna happen!

Soundhound

10-27-2008, 09:28 AM

Man o man. Not like the second half of Layla? What?!?!?!?!??!?!!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!

tholle1

11-03-2008, 11:26 PM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

funny. i skip the outro.

akihiro

11-03-2008, 11:46 PM

I love it!

ocripes

11-04-2008, 07:07 AM

actually prefer the acoustic version from the unplugged album ![/quote]

:barf

cnardone

11-04-2008, 07:43 AM

Love it. That album is why I picked up the guitar in the first place. I've also grown to love the Allmans version of it as well. They do it once in a while and D Trucks (as you might expect) is fantastic. All of it. The lead playing during the verse, the lead break and the outro. Just love it.

cmn

seiko

11-04-2008, 07:51 AM

Given: Duane Allman was a great rock guitar player as well as a great "slide" player...

But... Duane's slide work at the end of "Layla" sounds like a flock of starving seagulls fighting over a couple of stale hot dog buns at the beach...

So, if he was such a great slide player, and he was, Allman presumably decided to play it that way for a reason.

heavysoul

11-04-2008, 08:42 AM

love it. can't stand the unplugged version.

I actually really dig duane's slide work more on "I am yours"

Psychotronic

11-04-2008, 02:19 PM

I skip to the next track when the outro starts. Puts me to sleep every time. That's just me though.

Nope, not just you -- me too, and my wife. Every time. :hide

Soundhound

11-04-2008, 02:49 PM

Amazing. It's one of the great moments in modern music to me.

Dave Orban

11-04-2008, 04:39 PM

I love it just as it is.

Steve Foley

11-04-2008, 04:54 PM

If I had to pick one or the other, I prefer the first half. The Derek and Dominoes albums, though are some of my desert island top-ten's, along with "Who's Next", "Every Picture Tells A Story", and "White Album"...
El Steve-0

Pete Faragher

11-04-2008, 05:05 PM

Duane really plays way out of tune on the "out-ro part".

Thank Gawd someone said it before me. I thought I was the only one that could hear that.
I guess he couldn't hear himself cause the piano was too loud in the studio :rotflmao

But I do love the outro....out of tune...out of shmoon...great piece of music.

Didn't both Duane and Eric use Fender Champ amps on this record?

cheers
pete

Dave Orban

11-04-2008, 05:07 PM

Thank Gawd someone said it before me. I thought I was the only one that could hear that.
I guess he couldn't hear himself cause the piano was too loud in the studio :rotflmao

But I do love the outro....out of tune...out of shmoon...great piece of music.

Didn't both Duane and Eric use Fender Champ amps on this record?

cheers
peteChamps and Heroin...

Pete Faragher

11-04-2008, 05:09 PM

Champs and Heroin...

LOL !!!! Very funny !!!!

But was it tweed or blackface..........heroin

JDW3

11-04-2008, 05:30 PM

I figured it was Clapton learning how to play slide at the end. Years later discovered it was a stoned Duane Allman.

fenderball

11-04-2008, 05:45 PM

hahahahahahaahaha that's great! used to be mine...now it's in memory of elizabeth reed

Layla is my ringtone! :dude

m.z.

11-04-2008, 05:48 PM

love the tune...... can't handle the out of tune slide playing...... great players..... not my favorite of moments captured on tape

cnardone

11-04-2008, 07:29 PM

I was always under the impression that both Clapton and Allman played on the outro. I also thought that Dwaine was using a deluxe and Clapton was using the champ.

cmn

airwarrior

11-04-2008, 08:31 PM

I always skip it. It bores me to tears.

vegetablejoe

11-04-2008, 08:38 PM

sounds fine to me... i only wish I could play it as well as they did.

Steve73

11-04-2008, 09:31 PM

This reminds me when I saw Clapton in the late '80's as a young lad. He played Layla as an encore and people started to leave during the outro so they could get to their cars faster and avoid the rush. As a militantly guitar minded adolescent, I was thoroughly offended.....

GAT

11-04-2008, 09:57 PM

I always skip the song once the second part starts. Doesn't do it for me. Love the first part, though.

neastguy

11-06-2008, 12:38 PM

man, that whole song I just dont like... I like "lay down sally" better.. IMO..

davess23

11-06-2008, 12:50 PM

I love Layla, the entire piece. (I despise the Unplugged version, mostly because it dispenses with the electric riff that I think helps make the original great. And it generally waters down the tough passion and pain expressed in the real Layla. Talk about castrating a song...)

I agree with the post that compares messing with the original to screwing around with any other piece of great art. Out of tune? If that were a reason to eff with a song, you might as well toss out half the great live albums I've ever heard. You wanna go back and edit the clams out of Exile or some of the other classic Stones recordings? Be my guest...but you'll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life, worrying when Keith is gonna come for you.