Accidents Will Happen . . .

. . . and sometimes, they’re good things. Especially when they result in something special.

Accidents happen all the time in recording studios. Usually they are edited out during production, but some are deliberately left in place in the released product. There are numerous lists on the Internet detailing such accidents left in place on songs that later became hits.

But sometimes recording studios also capture music that is sublime purely by accident. In rock & roll, that happened at least twice in the early 1970s. Both were unplanned, accidental single takes that captured “lightning in a bottle”.

. . .

The first occurred during the 1970 recording sessions for the album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos (Eric Clapton’s new but short-lived band). There were two chance occurrences that came together here.

The first was Eric Clapton being invited to an Allman Brothers Band concert. (Clapton was a fan of Duane Allman’s guitar work.) Afterwards, he met Duane Allman – who he’d previously only known by reputation. The two hit it off wonderfully; Allman was shortly invited to become a member of Clapton’s new band. He accepted the invitation, and contributed to most of the songs on the album.

The second chance occurrence occurred during the recording sessions for the “Layla” album. One day, Clapton and Allman were in the studio. Sam Samudio (AKA “Sam the Sham”) was in a neighboring studio; he was recording the blues classic “Key to the Highway.” Clapton and Allman heard this, and started playing the song themselves in an impromptu jam session. Their album’s producer, Tom Dowd, walked by and heard their jam; he quickly told the recording engineers to “Hit the goddamn machine!” (e.g., start recording immediately). The result speaks for itself.

 

 

. . .

Something similar happened the following year, during the recording of the Rolling Stones’ classic album “Sticky Fingers”. Here, the band was recording “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”. The song was set to end at around 2:43. However, at the end of the song the Stones’ second guitarist Mick Taylor simply wanted to continue playing – so he sat there and jammed a bit. The rest of the band rejoined him, and they jammed for another 4 1/2 minutes. Fortunately, the recording engineers had let the tape run – and captured some truly inspired rock & roll during that unplanned 4 1/2 minutes.

 

 

FWIW: in the comments to the above Youtube clip, there’s this comment about the tune by commenter “Munch da Cat” (presumably about the song’s intro and early guitar work by Keith Richards; Mick Taylor did the final guitar solo, and his guitar is markedly less distorted than Richards’) that IMO absolutely nails the overall vibe of the tune – and the Stones of that era in general.

“That guitar is so dirty. That guitar has been up all night drinking whiskey, smoking Marlboros, and there are two young ladies in a state of dishabille lying on the bed; and that guitar is about to go out to work and replace the transmission on a 59 Chevy Impala . . . .”

Tip o’ the hat, amigo.

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Just a little music for Saturday morning enjoyment. Hope you liked it. (smile)