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 This is music of almost violent intensity. Clapton sings as though his soul were being dragged across rain-soaked pavement. And his band-mates are right there with him. An all-time classic of gut-shot, unrequited love.
Glad I got on board, for this is a non-stop, through and through, dyed in wool amazing album. Everyone's already gone into the Duane Allman accolades so I won't get into that. Buy it.
What is it that makes it so great? First and foremost its the musicianship, the seamless call and response of the guitar and vocal duets, the feeling that every note that is there should be yet there are no unnecessary extras. Whatever led to this, whether it was the players' mucical skills, the combination of personalities, the Florida location, the personal inspiration, or the drugs, I don't know, but something was created which is greater than what mortal beings should be able to produce. It was a magical, unrepeatable time in music. In fact I remember seeing the group shortly after the album's release on the old Dean Martin show (sans Duane of course) and thought the playing uninspiring and tired, although I'm sure its hard to put it all together for a few songs on a TV show. What's dangerous about it? Make no mistake, every song on the album is great, but Little Wing has long been able to take over my mind and cut me off from the outside world. Other songs have come along which can do this for a few months, but only Little Wing has been able to do this so completely and for so many years. To me it blows Hendrix's original completely out of the water. I won't get into details about what happened this morning, but I'll just say I have to be way more careful about driving when this song comes up on the CD player.
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I'm not sure how I avoided this blues-rock masterpiece for so long. Maybe it was Clapton's catalog over the past two decades that turned me off.
