Am I the only one who thinks that "Layla" by D.A.T.D. has an ugly guitar sound?

[gunslinger]

I like his tone on these songs:

 

[MBreinin]

The magic of the album is Eric's singing and his playing. Tone be damned, that is a man in pain, in love and pouring out his heart and soul in every note. You can feel it. THAT is why Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of the greatest records of all time.

 

[cheeseflavor]

I think you're right. It's Eric's Strat, so it's bright and thin sounding to begin with, but generally speaking, that album is not recorded very well at all.

It's hard to listen to because of the audio quality, but still so worth it.

 

[the_Chris]

Find the Dowd documentary. He plays the individual tracks. Clapton’s tone on Layla is really terrible, you have to hear it isolated.
The finished produced song works because of Dowds mastery.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting this, but a “terrible” tone is kinda part of the “mastery”, is it not? Listen to most isolated guitar tracks on popular recordings and they sound like trash, but in the mix they cut and they fill a needed space and just “work”.

When you listen to “Layla” and knock EC’s tone it takes a man such as Dowd to see past it (heck, he probably encouraged it) and look at the bigger picture - the song. It clearly worked because we’re discussing it so many years later.

 

[Blackmoreguitar]

I love it, it's perfect, flaws and all. I also much prefer EC post Cream and never understood all the comments about Randy Rhoads having 'crappy tone' on the Ozzy studio albums so presumably I know nothing

 

[woof*]

Maybe I’m misinterpreting this, but a “terrible” tone is kinda part of the “mastery”, is it not? Listen to most isolated guitar tracks on popular recordings and they sound like trash, but in the mix they cut and they fill a needed space and just “work”.

When you listen to “Layla” and knock EC’s tone it takes a man such as Dowd to see past it (heck, he probably encouraged it) and look at the bigger picture - the song. It clearly worked because we’re discussing it so many years later.

I agree with what you say.
The studio tracks I’ve done have always been a simple tone. When we listen to isolated tracks today often impressed with how bland and generic they often are..yet the finished product can be glorious.
However if you have not heard Layla tracks isolated your missing what’s being discussed. If you have, apologies.
It’s just the thinnest rattiest sound. Duane’s is modest but still nice.

 

[mikefair]

It sounds like it's supposed to sound. Layla is a mess. The slide parts are pitchy, the guitar sounds are nothing most people on this message board would be proud of, but when you put it all together, it's a masterpiece. Say what you want. Maybe the guys in the band were just too high to care but the finished product is a masterpiece and about a zillion people agree with me.

 

[Dead Astronaut]

There’s a wildness to it that catches your ear and that’s what more musicians need to pay attention in the modern age of Auto-Tune, quantization and endless takes of “perfect” performances.

As a sometime denizen of LA studios mostly geared toward pop, hip-hop, and R&B, I cannot tell you how right you are. Producers are forever looking for that one "magic" synth sound or sidechain compression effect that'll make a listener sit up at attention, and so few of them understand that the easiest way to get a unique sound is to let a unique musician, in a unique moment in time and space, deliver a unique performance through unique gear (and I don't mean "boutique" gear – every $100 Squier Strat is unique, too).

 

[Julio Iguana]

Affirmative to your question and adding that small amp/speaker combos have been used by many guitarists. But even more than that I credit the engineer with capturing the sound. And to add my $.02 I have recorded with a Pignose 7-100 straight into a mic (on tape b4 digital) and was very happy with the result. The artist who I did that with loved it despite his displeasure when I showed up at the studio with it!

 

[halcyon]

I've never even liked the song. And the tone appeals less to me than the song.

 

[TopJimmy5150]

That albums sounds like poo in general. I think it was just the times...

 

[dalezjc]

It's Clapton and frigging Allman forcristesakes. Of course Jimi was horrible too.

 

[JDW3]

The song was also vari-sped up significantly.

Thank you. I'm surprised none of the experts and apologists had mentioned this!

I remember buying a remastered cd for a friend as a gift. We played it, and it still sounded horrible.

There is a clip of Layla as a demo on youtube, at correct speed. And it sounds much better!

Many songs coming out of Muscle_Shoales studios got he same treatment. Speed it up, give the song an edge.

 

[Surfreak]

“You are entering a world of pain” (W. Sobchak)

 

[Aardvark]

Check out D&D live if you want killer guitar tone on the same songs, same era.

 

[Gspspinone]

I love most of the songs on Layla but not a fan of the tones... especially Allman’s (I know, heresy).....his tone is piercing and screechy to my ears.


Aardvark has it right, the live album tones are great.

 

[Motherfuzzer]

I absolutely love my Eric Clapton Vibro Champ.

just sayin'

 

[gillman royce]

There's been a lot of conjecture and speculation over the years as to the amps/set up used in the making of this album. No dispute that the amps were tweed Champs, owned by the studio owner and placed side by side on top of the grand piano. According to one source, the amps were then run into 4 x 12 cabs. The Allman Brothers used Marshalls which they turned into open back cabs using either JBL or Altecs. Cream used JBL's in their Marshalls on the Farewell Tour. If you've ever been around a recording studio when an album's being made, anything and everything gets tried so my take is that there's a little bit of everything on that record = straight, into the Champ' s combo speaker; 4x12's; mono, stereo splits etc. etc.

 

[zombiwoof]

There's been a lot of conjecture and speculation over the years as to the amps/set up used in the making of this album. No dispute that the amps were tweed Champs, owned by the studio owner and placed side by side on top of the grand piano. According to one source, the amps were then run into 4 x 12 cabs. The Allman Brothers used Marshalls which they turned into open back cabs using either JBL or Altecs. Cream used JBL's in their Marshalls on the Farewell Tour. If you've ever been around a recording studio when an album's being made, anything and everything gets tried so my take is that there's a little bit of everything on that record = straight, into the Champ' s combo speaker; 4x12's; mono, stereo splits etc. etc.

Actually there is a dispute about the amps used in the studio. Tow Dowd said in an interview that despite the rumor that they were tweed Champs, he says he went to a local music store and bought a couple of the Vibro Champs of the period, brand new Silverface models which were used for the recording. He supposedly did this because Clapton had told him he wanted to try using small amps for the session. I would tend to go with Dowd's version, but this has been debated to death.
Al

 

[gillman royce]

Actually there is a dispute about the amps used in the studio. Tow Dowd said in an interview that despite the rumor that they were tweed Champs, he says he went to a local music store and bought a couple of the Vibro Champs of the period, brand new Silverface models which were used for the recording. He supposedly did this because Clapton had told him he wanted to try using small amps for the session. I would tend to go with Dowd's version, but this has been debated to death.
Al

Yeah - no argument here. Clapton went for small amps for a period, like the Marshall Studio 15 which he used on Behind The Sun LP