When they all start soloing at the same time it is a mixture of chaos that only a couple of virtuoso musicians could pull off.

The song really gets special though when the three members of the power trio play take it out for an extended drive live. Eric even squeezes in a reference to the pop standard “Blue Moon” during his solo. The atypical tom-tom drumming for a rock song that emphasizes 1 and 3 instead of the typical 2 and 4 gives the song a unique groove. Later both Clapton and lyricist Peter Brown added to the song. The story is that it started out based on a bass line by Jack Bruce after a trip to see Hendrix play in London. There is a blues base to this song with some of the ’60s psychedelia mixed in. “Sunshine Of Your Love” – Cream – ( Disraeli Gears, 1967) While the version on Layla is good, Eric improved on the song when he added an orchestra during one of his residencies at the Royal Albert Hall. He claims that it was actually written about a girl that Eric met in France after recording Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album. Eric started writing it well before they entered the studio. Bobby Whitlock who received a co-writing credit on this song 40 years later, claims that this was not written about Pattie as was the rest of the album. You can hear the anguish in his voice as he describes their fight. In this case, Duane Allman had not yet joined the group when they recorded “Bell Bottom Blues.” A slow blues that paints a picture of a man who desperately wants to keep a relationship going. Layla is a treasure trove of material written by Eric. “Bell Bottom Blues” – Derek and the Dominos ( Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970 & 24 nights, 1991) And yes… I left “Wonderful Tonight” off the list. I set myself a goal of songs that his contribution was paramount or critical to the song. Trying to stick to songs where he had a key role in the writing of the song, which could have been just providing a truly memorable guitar solo for it, also ruled out classics like “I Shot the Sheriff”, “Cocaine”, “After Midnight”, “Crossroads,” and a lot more. Which for a blues-based musician is difficult, since it ruled out amazing albums like “From the Cradle” or “Me and Mr. With all that in mind, I tried to avoid covers of someone else’s songs. This truly looks like an impossible task. What did I get myself into…? How do I sum up a career that spans over 50 years and by my count when you throw in all the guest recording work that he has done has appeared on well over 350 different recordings…? No matter what I do there are so many songs that are “classics” that someone is going to be upset that I left “Wonderful Tonight” off the list. After contemplating it a little though some fear and dread started to set in. Listen closely following Eddie's slide solo to hear Larson and Diamond Dave make sweet harmonized magic.When this article was suggested I jumped at the chance to write it. Templeman suggested a different sound for one of the choruses and brought in country singer Nicolette Larson, who was working in a neighboring studio, to lend vocal support. The idea to use a slide came from producer Ted Templeman, and while Eddie was initially leery of trying it, he practiced for a few days and, in typical VH style, pulled off the part with aplomb.Īnother first: Could This Be Magic? represents the debut of an outside singer on a Van Halen album. The track, which marks the guitarist's first recorded bottleneck moment, finds Eddie's whimsical acoustic slide playing expertly shadowing David Lee Roth's vocal on the verses. But guitarists of all stripes found a lot to like in the bluesy-and boozy, slightly off-kilter Could This Be Magic? Van Halen - Could This Be Magic? (1980)Įddie Van Halen gave acoustic-shred fetishists much to chew on in 1979 with Spanish Fly, a hummingbird-fast flamenco instrumental from Van Halen II. Five years later, Ozzy Osbourne included an extended, studio outtake version of Dee on his album Tribute, reminding us all of Rhoads' immense and largely untapped talent.ġ1.

Tragically, Rhoads was killed in a 1982 plane crash, at the age of 25. Fingerpicked on a nylon-strong acoustic, the piece is by turns playful, melancholy, heartbreaking and hopeful. Rhoads grew up in a musical family - his mother, Delores, runs a music school in North Hollywood, California - so it was only fitting that 'Dee,' all 49 seconds of it, paid tribute to the woman who inspired and nurtured his dreams. But while electrified Ozz rockers like Crazy Train and I Don't Know wowed the metal masses, it was the solo classical piece Dee that was Rhoads' true masterpiece. With his inventive, neoclassical spin on Eddie Van Halen's already established bag of tricks, Randy Rhoads became the new heavy metal guitar king after fans heard his work on Ozzy Osbourne's 1980 solo debut, Blizzard of Ozz.

Songs like layla unplugged