Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I Looked Away
2. Bell Bottom Blues
3. Keep on Growing
4. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
5. I Am Yours
6. Anyday
7. Key to the Highway
8. Tell the Truth
9. Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
10. Have You Ever Loved a Woman
11. Little Wing
12. It's Too Late
13. Layla
14. Thorn Tree in the Garden

Disc 2:

1. Jam V
2. Jam I
3. Jam II
4. Jam III
5. Jam IV
6. Jam V

Disc 3:

1. Have You Ever Loved a Woman [Alternate Master #1]
2. Have You Ever Loved a Woman [Alternate Master #2]
3. Tell the Truth [Jam #1]
4. Tell the Truth [Jam #2]
5. Mean Old World [Rehearsal]
6. Mean Old World [Band Version, Master Take]
7. Mean Old World [Duet Version, Master Take]
8. (When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too [Jam]
9. Tender Love [Incomplete Master]
10. It's Too Late [Alternate Master]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14818 in Music
• Released on: 1990-08-31
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.67 pounds

Customer Reviews

If you thought the origanal was good,wait till you hear this
First,we'll start with the first disc,which is a remaster/remix of the origanal "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs" album.

First,nothing was really taken or added to these tracks.The origanal album is 77:06 minutes long.This remaster is 77:00 minutes long.I can live with an album that is six seconds shorter.

The origanal version of this album,even the re-released remaster,sounds a bit muddy.By that I mean you can hear vocals,bass,drums,and in the background the other guitar and organ.

This new remix changes all of that.You can hear everything clearly,including all of Clapton and Allman's guitar parts.

Take for example the exellent song,"Why Does Love Got To Be Sad".In the origanal mix,when Clapton comes in twards the end of Allman's solo,it sounds like Allman stopped playing after a few notes.In this remixed version you can hear that he just moved lower on the neck,playing some very deep guitar lines.In the origanal mix this is burried under Clapton's playing.Now you can hear how it was meant to be heard,with both Allman and Clapton playing leads.

Plus,on tracks like "Anyday" and "Key To The Highway",you can hear Allman's slide parts much clearer.They ring out much more than the origanal versions.

Now,onto the jams disc.It should be noted that there are no vocals on this disc,just insturmental jamming.The first three jams are just Clapton and the other Dominos.Exellent playing,some of Clapton's best for sure.On the fourth jam,everything changes.This jam not only has Eric and the Dominos playing with Duane Allman,but also Dickey Betts,Berry Oakley,Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers.It is an insturmental take on Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor".There is no real virtuoso playing on this track (though Clapton,Allman and Betts were the most capable of any to do that),just clean guitar lines and a wonderful beat provided by Jim Gordon and Butch Trucks.Each guitarist takes turns playing.It is probibly the most exellent guitar playing ever put on disc.It was taken from the night Eric and Duane met,and the Allman Brothers came into the studio to jam with the Dominos.Out of an unreal 15 hours of jamming,all of which Tom Dowd smartly put on tape,this 12 minute track is the only part of it released.

On the fifth jam,it is what turned out to be the origanal line up of Derek&The Dominos,with Duane Allman.This jam is simmilar to the D&D/AB jam just before it for the first 8 minutes or so-just good easy playing between the two.Just at 8 minutes or so,things change.Allman slips on a slide and for the next 10 minutes you hear some of the most unreal slide playing ever.When Duane described his playing on this album,he called his own playing "something like a full tilt screech".That's about what it is on this track,and it is certainly the best screeching I have ever heard.

Now,for the alternate takes disc.Out of the three discs,I enjoy this one the least.The Tell The Truth jams are interesting,but after awhile seem boring and pointless without Allman's slide parts,which really make the album version of the song what it is.The tracks on this album that Duane perform on,which are all the Mean Old World takes and a few blues improvisions,are fantastic.The two versions of "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" on this disc,even though they do not have Duane Allman performing on them,are without a doubt much better than the album version.

Overall,if you are a Clapton fan and liked the origanal version of this album,you will LOVE this boxed set.It is worth every penny.

I'll tell the truth
The reviewer below states the truth when commenting that the new remix emphasizes the guitars and de-emphasizes drums and bass. If you're only going to have one copy of this album, then you'll probably be better off with the original remaster.

That said, this remix is a dream for me because, finally, I can hear all the different guitar parts distinctly. Like the aforementioned reviewer said, the original remix was muddy -- you can usually hear the main lead line, and the rest are lost in the mix. This new remix brings out the other guitar lines to the front. So now, among other things, you can hear the three simultaneous leads in "Keep on Growing" crystal clear, and so on. More importantly, you can finally hear Clapton's slide countermelody to Allman's lead in the coda portion of "Layla"!

So... The original remastered album makes a more "unified" statement and is probably more listenable. It brings out the important melodies and relegates the rest to the background. This boxed set mix can sound a bit cluttered (so many guitar lines going at once can be distracting), but it's great for the collectors/completists and the guitar fanatics.

As for the unreleased material: "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" (alternate master #1) is, IMO, even (yes!) better than the album version (a pretty mean feat! ). I always love "Mean Old World," and I enjoy all the other outtakes as well. I do tend to find my attention wandering during the jams, mostly because they're so long. Much of it is very enjoyable, nevertheless.

I won't speak for others, but for me (Clapton completist/guitar fan) this set was worth every penny -- and that's the truth.

Technical review of the remix...
Originally, I purchased the single Anniversary Mix disc that had been separated from the rest of it's set at a used CD store. Hey, I was in college at the time and was trying to broaden my palette. So, this newer mix was what I got to know over the years and really was none the wiser to the original.

Now, being 10 years after first having purchased the CD, I am comparing the two mixes side by side, switching between the two, and have come to a personal conclusion that is at odds with most of the other reviewers.

It's pretty clear to anyone who does a comparison between the two where you can rapidly swap between the two mixes, that the original mix is more dynamic; it just jumps out at you more. It also contains more high frequency content. There are a couple of possible reasons for this.

Someone probably surely more about the actual equipment history of this album. But from what I can gather, Criteria Studios at that time should have been outfitted with MCI consoles and tape machines built by Jeep Harned with "philosophical direction" provided by Tom Dowd. While the MCI consoles that became marketed later across the world (which later evolved into Sony's consoles) are solid state designs, it is possible that these early MCI consoles that Layla would have been recorded and mixed through were tube designs. Again, I might be wrong here and it is strictly open for conjecture from someone who absolutely knows for sure. For recording engineers like myself, older (more simple) console designs of that period and before are revered for their unique sonic character.

Now that brings us to the studio where the Anniversary CD was mixed: The Power Station. Today, The Power Station is now Avatar Studios in New York and Studio A (housing a very good sounding Neve 8068 console) has been mostly left the way it was in the days of the Power Station, with the exception for whatever the flavor of the month is when it comes to recorders. However, the time period of the late 80's and early 90's was a time when digital mixing was rampant (it's back unfortunately) and this is most certainly the case with the Anniversary Mix with it's ADD designation (the second D denoting that it was mixed to a digital format). The original mix was definitely an analog reel to reel (either 1/4 or 1/2 inch master) tape.

This is significant for when you mix to analog tape, an interesting phenomenon called "crosstalk" alters the mix ever so slightly. What happens is that the left and right channels of magnetic information stored on the tape interacts with one another as higher bursts of energy on each track often co-mingle in the space between them (and sometimes even bleed over to the other track ever so slightly). The result is, believe it or not, a much more strong center image which, when done properly, creates an even sound field. A technical engineer would say that this is a negative and undesirable side-effect of analog mixing since it is not what the engineer was hearing at the console outputs. However, a musical engineer would recognize that crosstalk is a beneficial thing to the music and the listener and would listen to the mix through the repro heads on the machine as it is being recorded so as to know exactly what is being committed to tape.

Digital mixes of the time of the remix are often sterile and severely lack the dynamic range and character present on that old "inferior" analog tape. What I have noticed in the Anniversary mix is a more cautious mix that fears sounds that jump run and play. The original tracks and comps were so good and whole (as well as limited; the drums were premixed to L and R tracks only) that only balancing, some compression here and there, and some time based effects were needed to complete the remix. However, the compression is perhaps a tad overdone, thusly preventing the mix to "live" as much as the original.

The original mix's reverb (really noticeable on the guitars) take more risks (and wins) and is either an EMT plate reverb or a live chamber (if Criteria had one). The predelay on the reverb might have been provided via a spare mix deck's repro head before the signal went to the reverb. While digital reverb was the rage at the time of the Anniversary Mix, I feel that it is likely that a plate reverb was used, but that the highs were rolled out more than on the original mix.

Give them both a comparison side-by-side and decide for yourself. Be sure to use a good copy of each (I would use at least a recent printing [Re-Master] of the original mix since the Analog to Digital converters and digital clocking are MUCH better now than at the dawn of the CD age - perhaps yet another strike against the Anniversary Mix).