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Clapton in RS


MK

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There's a couple bits I found interesting in the recent Clapton interview in Rolling Stone. Mainly that Richard Manuel was a genius.

quote:

After Cream's final U.S. tour, in 1968, you went to Woodstock to visit the Band and Bob Dylan. What happened on that trip?

It was a funny feeling. I was so disenchanted with Cream and my role in it and my view of English music. Do you know that term "giving away your power"? It's like self-help or recovery-speak, giving away your power. It's a good term. I wanted to give my power to the Band -- I went and knocked on their door, and I was ready to be a groupie. I was drooling about what they had going on: They were all equal, they all took turns and, to me, it looked like integrity. There was no hierarchy. They were all doing it from the heart. So I was completely in awe. On the same visit I went to see Bob, and he was wearing Timberlands, a checked shirt, and he was chopping wood. And I'm a drug-crazed psychedelic. The sad part was that it made me feel like what I was doing was worthless. I was ready to give up and become their road manager.

Did you get to jam at Big Pink?

No! I said, "It'd be great to play," and you know what Robbie [Robertson] said? "We don't jam." It was like he was telling me off, or he was saying they were above that. God bless him. That's the way it was. Big Pink was their clubhouse, and they worked there -- they wrote. So for a guy to come over with pink trousers and a perm and say, "Let's jam!" -- they weren't into that. Not at all.

Have you ever met a genius?

I met the genius of that outfit, who was Richard Manuel. He was a drunk like me -- a real practicing alcoholic, and he'd slunk off with me. He was as close to genius as I've ever met in a white guy -- all the other geniuses I've met have been black blues players, like B.B. and Buddy Guy. The reason I say they're geniuses is that they do what they do effortlessly with a gift that is so powerful that they don't need to engage in any kind of thinking to pursue it.


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Thanks for the post.

I've been very critical of Clapton for years ( due to his awful latter-day musical directions ), but it's good hearing stories from his good old days. I like his honesty and his vivid memory, plus he's perceptive regarding the " real " genius of The Band.

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I think that was a pretty common reaction to Richard amongst musicians from what I've read. Everybody wanted to meet Richard. The way that nobody could figure out who the front man reminds me of the early Dead- is it Jerry's band or Robbie's, Richard's or Pigpen's, oh now the drummer's singing and the bass player maybe it's their band.

One of the most beautiful things I've heard of Richard's is a really short unfinished ditty called Beautiful Thing- look for it. There are some good bootlegs from the eighties ('86) with Richard and Rick that are really worth having too.

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Thanks for the article....

I hope you guys all downloaded that Danko & Friends torrent,some awesome Rick & Richard on it.

Rick Danko & Friends

7th & Hamilton Streets, Allentown, PA

6/23/85

Unkonwn aud cass>??>cd>eac>mkw>shn

Disc 1:

01. Crazy Mama 6:33

02. Shape I'm In 4:15

03. Sail on Sailor 4:17

04. Makes No Difference 6:59

05. Chest Fever 5:06

06. Can't Find My Way Home 6:57

07. Unfaithful Servant 4:17

08. She Knows 3:10

09. Silver Raven 5:35

10. Feel a Whole Lot Better 2:55

11. So, You Want to be a Rock & Roll Star 3:17

12. 8 Miles High 6:44

13. I Shall Be Released 3:25

14. Baby shake your... 5:27

15. Knockin' on heaven's door 10:23

Total time: 79:20

Rick Danko, Blondie Chaplin, Richard Manuel & Danny Brubeck

Gene Clark & John York join in on tracks 9 through 15.

http://www.sharingthegroove.org/msgboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51640

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