Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – "Comin' Home" (1970)

I'm comin’ home . . .

To your love

[NOTE: “Comin’ Home” is the second of three records from this year’s class of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME to feature Eric Clapton, who joined up with Delaney & Bonnie (according to Robert Christgau) because he “found their youthful fun and mature equanimity an antidote to the formless pretensions of Cream and Blind Faith.”  What follows is an edited version of my original July 18, 2017 post about “Comin’ Home.”]

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Delaney Bramlett moved from Pontotoc County, Mississippi, to Los Angeles in 1959 and became a session musician.  He eventually was hired to play in the Shindogs, which was the house band for the ABC-TV series, Shindig!  (Other Shindogs included Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell.)  

Shindig!

In 1967, Delaney married Bonnie Lynn O’Farrell, a talented young singer from a small town in southern Illinois who had once been a backup singer for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.  She was the first white Ikette, but disguised her race with the help of a black wig and “Man Tan” skin darkener.

The couple then formed Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included Russell and other session veterans like Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Jim Keltner and Rita Coolidge.  (Take a look at the credits on the Derek and the Dominoes album, and Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St., and All Things Must Pass, and The Concert for Bangladesh, and other classic rock albums from that era, and you’ll see those names over and over.)

Delaney and Bonnie got their big break when Eric Clapton invited them to be the opening act for the one and only Blind Faith tour.  Clapton seemed to enjoy playing with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends more than he did with Blind Faith, and recorded a live album with them that was very successful.

That album – titled On Tour with Eric Clapton – featured not only Clapton but also George Harrison and Dave Mason.

L to R: Clapton, Bonnie, Delaney, Harrison

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends sort of ran out of steam after that.  The group released its last studio album in 1972, and the couple got divorced the next year.

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Click here to listen to the On Tour with Eric Clapton version of “Comin’ Home,” which was recorded during a London performance in December 1969.

Click here to see a video of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – including George Harrison and Eric Clapton – performing the song in Copenhagen about a week later.

Click on the link below to buy today's featured recording from Amazon:

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – "Superstar (Groupie)" (1969)

And I can hardly wait

To sleep with you again

A few nights ago, I heard the Carpenters’ 1971 hit, “Superstar,” on the Sirius XM ’60s on 6 channel.

I usually change channels quicker than you can say “Jack Robinson” when a Carpenters song – any Carpenters song – comes on the radio.  (“Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begin,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Top of the World” . . . it’s hard to say which one I dislike the most.)

For some reason, I listened to “Superstar” all the way through that night.  It turns out that it is a GREAT record.  The song itself isn’t anything special, but Karen Carpenter’s singing and her brother Richard’s arrangement are quite extraordinary.  

I ended up writing five posts about five different recordings of the song.

That’s just how it works sometimes.  I like to think I’m in control of 2 or 3 lines, but but my wildly popular little blog has a mind of its own.  Stuff happens, and when it does, all you can do is try to hold on and enjoy the ride.

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In 1969, Rolling Stone bought a full page ad in the New York Times to promote an upcoming special issue on “groupies.”  (The story goes that publisher Jann Wenner had to empty the magazine’s bank account to pay the $7000 that the ad cost.)

The term “groupies” was originally used to describe the screaming teenage girls who innocently worshipped the Beatles and other pop groups of that era.  But by the time the Rolling Stone issue came out, the word had taken on a sexual implication.

Groupies were no longer the innocent female fans who got picked up and driven home by mom or dad after a concert.  Instead, they were the adventurous women who went backstage after the show and usually ended up spending the night at the band’s hotel (or on the tour bus).

Rolling Stone's “groupies” issue

Frank Zappa, one of the musicians who were interviewed by Rolling Stone, had this to say about groupies:

New York groupies are basically New York chicks. They're snobbish and uptight -- they think they're big. San Francisco groupies are okay, but they think there's nothing happening outside San Francisco. L.A. groupies are without doubt the best -- the most aggressive and the best f*cks, and the only drawback is the incredibly high rate of venereal disease.

(That’s a little harsh, but it’s the kind of provocative thing that Frank Zappa was always saying.)

Later that year, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends released a song titled “Superstar (Groupie).”  It told the story of a gullible groupie who believed that a touring musician she had slept with would someday come back to be with her.

The chances of that happening, of course, are slim and none – and Slim just left town, along with the musician and his band.  But every time the groupie hears the musician’s record on the radio, she thinks about him and wishes for his return.

Eric Clapton with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett

“Superstar (Groupie)” was written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett – or that’s what the record label says.  After the Bramletts divorced, Delaney claimed that he assigned the ownership of a number of songs he had written or co-written to Bonnie in order to avoid the provisions of an onerous publishing contract he had signed.

Rita Coolidge later said that she came up with the idea for “Superstar (Groupie),” and the next 2 or 3 lines will feature her cover of the song.

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Here’s the original Delaney & Bonnie and Friends recording of “Superstar (Groupie),” which was released as the B-side of the group’s “Comin’ Home” single in 1969.  (Both songs were released on Delaney and Bonnie’s sixth and final studio album, D&B Together, in 1972.  The couple divorced a year later.)



Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – "Comin' Home" (1969)

I'm comin’ home . . .

To your love

Delaney Bramlett moved from Pontotoc County, Mississippi, to Los Angeles in 1959 and became a session musician.  He eventually was hired to play in the Shindogs, which was the house band for the ABC-TV series, Shindig!  (Other Shindogs included Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell.)  

Shindig!

In 1967, Delaney married Bonnie Lynn O’Farrell, a talented young singer from Illinois who had once been a backup singer for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.  She was the first white Ikette, but disguised her race with the help of a black wig and “Man Tan” skin darkener.

The couple then formed Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included Russell and other session veterans like Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Jim Keltner and Rita Coolidge.  (Take a look at the credits on the Derek and the Dominoes album, and Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St., and All Things Must Pass, and The Concert for Bangladesh, and other classic rock albums from that era, and you’ll see those names over and over.)

Delaney and Bonnie got their big break when Eric Clapton invited them to be the opening act for the one and only Blind Faith tour.  Clapton seemed to enjoy playing with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends more than he did with Blind Faith, and recorded a live album with them that was very successful.

That album – titled On Tour with Eric Clapton – featured not only Clapton but also George Harrison and Dave Mason.

L to R: Clapton, Bonnie, Delaney, Harrison

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends sort of ran out of steam after that.  The group released its last studio album in 1972, and the couple got divorced the next year.

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I think Delaney & Bonnie’s best song was “Comin’ Home.”  

A studio version of that song was released as a single in 1969, but pooped out at the #84 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  There’s a live version of “Comin’ Home” on the On Tour with Eric Clapton album.  Both versions are great.  

I think redneck soul reached its epitome with “Comin’ Home,” although you can make a case for Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady.”

(Does the term “redneck soul” bother you?  Well, excuuuuuse me!) 

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I don’t need an excuse to feature “Comin’ Home,” but I’ve got one.  

The B-side of the “Comin’ Home” single was a song called “Groupie (Superstar),” which was later covered by a number of other well-known female singers. 

The next several 2 or 3 lines posts will feature the original recording and several of the covers – including one that was a big hit for an artist who sounded nothing like Bonnie Bramlett.

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Click here to listen to the On Tour with Eric Clapton version of “Comin’ Home,” which was recorded during a London performance in December 1969.

Click here to see a video of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – including George Harrison and Eric Clapton – performing the song in Copenhagen about a week later.

Click on the link below to buy today's featured recording from Amazon: