On Tour with Eric Clapton is a 1970 album by Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton, recorded live at the Fairfield Halls, England. Released on Atco Records, it peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 in April 1970, at No. 39 on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified a gold record by the RIAA.
Content and reissue The album features Delaney and Bonnie's best-known touring band, including Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Dave Mason. Many of the players on this album went on to work with George Harrison on his post-Beatles debut album All Things Must Pass and with Clapton on his solo debut. The horn players Bobby Keys and Jim Price played on the albums Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones, and join them for their 1972 STP Tour. Whitlock, Radle, and Gordon formed with Clapton his band Derek and the Dominos for Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
The album was recorded during the band's tour of the U.K. in December 1969. I Don't Want To Discuss It was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on December 1. Where There's A Will There's A Way was recorded at Fairfield Halls in Croydon at the early show on December 7. The bulk of the album (Things Get Better, Medley: Poor Elijah / Tribute To Johnson, Only You Know And I Know, That's what My Man Is For, Coming Home, and the Little Richard Medley) was recorded at the late show that same day at Fairfield Halls. Overdubs were added later.
As no pictures of Delaney and Bonnie were deemed good enough for the album cover, a photo was used instead of a Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn in a desert, reportedly taken by manager Barry Feinstein while working as a photographer covering a Bob Dylan tour in 1966. Dylan's feet are those hanging from the car window.
On Tour was re-issued in 2010 as four-disc box set, packaged in a mock road case containing the complete performance from the Royal Albert Hall, plus a composite of the next night's performances at Colston Hall in Bristol, and both the early and late shows from the tour's final stop at Fairfield Halls in Croydon. George Harrison played slide guitar on the English leg of the tour that followed the Albert Hall performance, as well as in Scandinavia, which are represented on discs 2–4.
Reception
The album has received highly positive reviews, with many critics suggesting the album is superior to Clapton's prior project, Blind Faith. In the Rolling Stone Album Guide, the album is described as "a triumph", which is attributed to the fact the band was "one of the best" in "rock and roll". Writing for Rolling Stone, Mark Kemp said the album contained "wicked performances of the kind of country and boogie that would define Southern rock". Mojo described the album as "one of the two Rosetta Stones of roots rock'n'roll".
Track listing Side one
Side two
2010 deluxe edition box set
Personnel Bonnie Bramlett – vocals Delaney Bramlett – guitar, vocals Eric Clapton – lead guitar, vocals Rita Coolidge – backing vocals Jim Gordon – drums, percussion George Harrison (under the pseudonym L'Angelo Misterioso) – guitar (discs two – four of box set only) Tex Johnson – percussion Bobby Keys – saxophone Dave Mason – guitar Carl Radle – bass guitar Jim Price – trombone, trumpet Bobby Whitlock – organ, vocals
Production personnel Jimmy Miller, Delaney Bramlett – producers Bill Halverson – mixing Andy Johns, Glyn Johns, Tex Johnson – recording engineers Jim Price – horn arrangements Barry Feinstein – photography Tom Wilkes – design, photography
See also Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs All Things Must Pass
References