On Tour Team: Mad Dogs, Englishmen, Delaney, Bonnie and Carl

Late 1969, ’70 & ’71 were the true hotel hot tub of blues-based rock & roll. A warm, gooey cesspool of talent & comingling organisms. A time when transatlantic partnerships were at their peak & supersized British rockers were trying to hide out in American rock bands.

Some of the “friends” on tour with Delaney & Bonnie included Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon & Carl Radle, all who would play on occasional-on-tour-friend George Harrison’s debut solo album, All Things Must Pass. But that crew is best known as Derek & The Dominos.

Other On Tour members including Bobby Keys & Jim Price – also featured on George’s debut masterpiece – were also part of Joe Cocker’s 1970 traveling circus, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, with Leon Russell leading as musical director.

In early ’71, Bonnie, Delaney, Leon, Joe & another cast of characters released Motel Shot, an album basically chronicling their after hours jam sessions. Along with other stars like Dave Mason, this incredibly loose & lowkey album would also featured few friends that wouldn’t be around much longer. Sadly, Duane Allman would be gone later that year, and Gram Parsons was gone by the end of ’73.

But before the tragedies of the 70s took hold, there was still some good to be had in the rock & roll world. The summer of 1970 George Harrison tapped Leon to pull together another musical feat with The Concert for Bangladesh. This show brought both Bob Dylan & Eric Clapton out of hiding & has featured other Storytime greats like Klaus Voormann & Billy Preston. The Concert of Bangladesh also featured Carl Radle. For those playing at home, this little-discussed bass player was apart of every album mentioned in this story AND he was a part of The Last Waltz. His superlative: Most Forgettable.

If you haven’t spent much time with Bonnie & Delaney & Friends’ On Tour with Eric Clapton or Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, you should marinate in the rock & roll stew at some point. And if you throw in The Faces, you have the basic ingredients that would become the style, the sound & certainly the setlists of The Black Crowes.

Don’t forget to bring a towel!