Darling, won't you ease my worried mind

Derek & The Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - 1970

Story has it that this album (probably even the band itself) was born out of conflict, turmoil and a general sense of discontent on Clapton's side about the way things were going. He resented the fame and hype he got with his previous work with Cream and he was going through some personal stuff, namely the unrequited love he felt for Pattie Boyd, who was the wife of his friend, George Harrison. He sort of bumped into Duane Allman while in the process of forming a new band, and they became great friends and their collaboration became this album.
The band would be short lived, though. Duane Allman died in 1971 in a motorcycle accident, and that torn Clapton apart. He had already been struggling with the death of Jimi Hendrix, which happened during the recording of this album.
There's a point in mentioning all this drama and tragedy, because I think it probably explains the existence of such a powerful blues / rock album as is this one. I can't remember when it was the last time I had listened to this one in full. It's a longish album, at nearly 70 minutes, and one I would pick off some tracks from time to time. Still today, it does feel a bit too long to me, but it's such a brilliant album, that I think it deserves us taking our time to give it a good listen.
And for all lovers of blues and classic rock, this is a fundamental album.

• It always makes me a bit sad to read that this one is considered the highest point in Eric Clapton's career. I mean, really, the guy's been playing for 50 years or so now, and there's been quite a few great moments there!
• They recorded their cover of "Little Wing" barely 8 days before Jimi Hendrix's death, on September 18th, 1970.
• One of my favourite tracks here is Billy Myles's blues "Have you Ever Loved a Woman?" This one is a great version, and it showcases his talent as a guitarist perfectly. He did a live version in his amazing 1980 live album Just One Night. We'll get there, and I'll probably expand quite a bit because it's one of my Top 3 live albums, and the version he plays there, in a medley with Robert Johnson's "Ramblin' on my Mind" is pure gold.
• Of course, the most famous song in this album "Layla", was about his infatuation with Pattie Boyd. He would eventually get his girl, and she left George Harrison and married Clapton in 1979. After that, Harrison began to refer to him as his "husband-in-law"

Marmalade, I like marmalade

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother - 1970

Sigh....

Another year, another album by Pink Floyd that doesn't quite get us there. 

This one stubbornly decides to repeat their Ummagumma experiment on the second side, with each of them working on one track individually. Unlike their previous work, there's no Nick Mason's track here (he probably ran out of solos), and there's a ... thing at the end, which is pretty much nearly 14 minutes of nonsense. When discussing their previous album, I mentioned it was probably a case of "it felt like a good idea at the time". This is a bit more inexplicable, because it's hard to imagine they hadn't still figured out it was not a good idea. 

But now we have the first side, at least. Which is devoted entirely to the title track, also known as "Atom Heart Mother Suite". It's the longest PF song (at least all at once), lasting 24 minutes, and it's pure brilliancy, if you can take their longer tracks. It has beautiful melodious passages, choirs, a very cool guitar solo, and your typical experimental electronic bit. A lot of this sounds already like the Pink Floyd we all know and love, the choir sections are amazing, especially in the second half of the suite, and as I mentioned when discussing King Crimson, and their experimental progressive tracks, Pink Floyd really knows how to handle chaotic sections, because when after each of the crazier sections we hear the main theme, it sounds simply glorious.

• Roger Waters's song on the second side, called "If" is more of Waters doing his bucolic silly melodies. It's not a horrible song, but a bit silly.
• Wright's "Summer '68" is my favourite on the B-side. It's quite upbeat and catchy. But it's so "retro" that, upon listening to it now, it actually made me feel nostalgia for those good old days in the mid 60s -- that is, a couple of weeks ago. 
• Gilmour managed to write his most boring song with "Fat Old Sun". It's one of the few songs by Pink Floyd I can never remember because of how bland it is. 
• The closing track, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is, literally, Alan (one of PF's roadies) making and talking about breakfast. There's also some music interludes, which aren't actually bad, but they don't really go anywhere. 
• The cover of the album has a very cool looking cow in it, and that's a very good thing.

Butterflies and zebras and moonbeans and fairy tales

• As, shame on me, I don't have Axis: Bold as Love by Hendrix, who I mentioned a bit today, and this one is one of the most beautiful song ever written, here goes this great version of Jimi live playing "Little Wing".