Delaney and Bonnie w/Eric Clapton – Comin’ Home

In the past few years, I’ve learned more about this group of musicians. The first time I noticed Delaney and Bonnie was in the great movie Vanishing Point. 

There’s a carefree spirit to Comin’ Home that feels like a blend of Rock, Soul, and Blues. It was released in 1969 on On Tour with Eric Clapton, and after listening to the album…I wish I could have seen that tour. Delaney & Bonnie were leading a rotating group of talented players at the time, and you can hear that sense of a band finding its way together perfectly.

By this time, they had built a strong live band that mixed rock, gospel, and soul, and it caught the attention of Eric Clapton, who was looking for a way out of the pressure surrounding Blind Faith. Clapton joined their touring group, not as a headline name, but as part of the band. He also occasionally brought his friend George Harrison to join in. 

 Clapton’s guitar work sits along with his work with Blind Faith at the time. The sound tilts toward gospel and Southern soul, which makes for some great roots music. The tour itself ran through the UK in December 1969, with a lineup that was deep to say the least! The backing band featured Leon Russell, Delaney Bramlett, Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Dave Mason, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, George Harrison (on some shows), Tex Johnson, Bobby Keys, and Jim Price.

If you wanted a big tour back then, you grabbed Leon Russell. He would soon be on the notorious Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour of Joe Cocker. The recordings were taken from shows in cities like London and Birmingham, captured on the fly rather than built in a studio. Producer credit went to Delaney Bramlett, and the goal was simple: to document the band as it sounded in the room.

What gets me is the looseness of the recordings. Songs like Things Get Better and Only You Know and I Know stretch out, driven by Russell’s piano, while Clapton adds fills and does his thing.

The album also mattered for what came next. Clapton carried this experience forward into Derek and the Dominos, both in personnel and in feel. The Dominos were all in this band except Duane Allman. The idea of a band built around feel and fluidity hit home for Clapton. He would not be the spotlight of that band, just a member.  In that sense, On Tour with Eric Clapton works as a bridge record, a live document of one group, and the starting point for another.

You want to listen to a great live album that sounds like the musicians are in the room with you? Listen to this album and hear some of the greatest musicians of the era. The album peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts and #12 in Canada in 1969. The single Comin’ Home peaked at #84 on the Billboard 100 and #55 in Canada. 

Comin’ Home

Been out on the road ’bout six months too long.
I want you so bad, I can hardly stand it.
I’m so tired and I’m all alone.
We’ll soon be together and that’s it;
I’m comin’ home to your love.

 

Hitchhiking on the turnpike all day long.
Nobody seemed to notice, they just pass me on by.
To keep from going crazy, I got to sing my song.
Got a whole lot of loving and baby that’s why
I’m comin’ home to your love.

 

Coming home.
Coming home.
Coming home.
Coming home.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

28 thoughts on “Delaney and Bonnie w/Eric Clapton – Comin’ Home”

  1. Pingback: Delaney and Bonnie w/Eric Clapton – Comin’ Home – MobsterTiger

  4. Delaney and Bonnie put this band together. Leon Russell borrowed the nucleus for a quickly organized tour behind a guy named Joe Cocker and the Mad Dogs and Englishmen were a part of rock and roll history. And then, as you note, Clapton and Derek and the Dominoes. WOW

    I loved this record when it came out.

    No, when I think of Delaney and Bonnie I think of “When This Battle Is Over” from the Elektra (?) album.

    And I recognize that they were an important part of the fluidity of the music as the music grew and developed.

    Again, Max. Great stuff.

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  6. I found “On Tour with Eric Clapton” in a used record bin in 1971. The price tag ($1) is still on it. I was amazed by who their friends were. Later in life Bonnie did some great duets with Tracy Nelson (of Mother Earth, not the actress).

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  7. I don’t remember where I came into the Delaney and Bonnie sphere, either the never ending song of love, or I don’t want to discus it? but yeah what a band!..and there’s so many interesting connections, Dave Mason ending up at one point with Fleetwood Mac and Bonnie’s daughter Bekka, and who didn’t Leon Russell play with….I know it’s not politically correct, but Youngblood/Jumpin’ Jack Flash is an all time favourite…but there were always so many of those guys that would pop up everywhere, Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston comes to mind, and so many of the people that populated Steely Dan or the Doobie Brothers.

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  10. I was just reading about a couple things Eric Clapton was involved with the other day. The variety is astounding. Not that I don’t recall D&B but I have not listened to this album. Fantastic.

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  12. Excellent-sounding tip, Max. I mostly know of Delaney & Bonnie because of Eric Clapton’s affiliation. The songs you highlighted are right up my alley, and I definitely want to hear more from the album. And, as you said, what a killer backing band!

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