Community Theater
Berkeley, California
Aud 3
Special Guest: (a 16-year-old) Neal Schon
Geetarz Comments:
Derek and the Dominos played two consecutive nights at the Community Theatre in Berkeley, California, and this recording represents the second of those two nights.
Sitting in with the band that night was a 16 year old Neal Schon. In a 1995 "Off the Record" (Westwood One) interview, this was Schon's recollection:
-----------------
"You know, I had been doing a lot of playing in San Francisco ... I had lived in the Bay area ... I didn't have a driver's license ... so a good friend of mine, Jackie, that ended up working for Journey later, would come and pick me up on weekends and I'd go play on Broadway ... I'd play at [Mike Bloomfield's] club, and it became this thing, there was like, this 'buzz' in the city, about this kid [Schon].
I was in the studio with the Santana band, and we were just jamming, you know, getting high and jamming, and staying up until the wee hours of the morning, and just trying to create some music, and Eric Clapton walked in. You know, Eric Clapton at that time, was like, and before that time, had been like a god to me, a guitar hero, and he walked in and I didn't even say 'hello', I was like so scared he was in the room ... and we played all night, and without even saying goodbye to or anything to him he walked out, and I was just still like ... in shock.
So I went home, went to sleep at some ungodly hour, got up at 3 or 4, went back to Wally Heider's in San Francisco where we were rehearsing, and I had a message there waiting at the front desk, and it was from Clapton, and he was playing at the [Berkeley] Community Theatre there that night, and he invited me to play with him.
So, I didn't have a car, I didn't have a license ... I can't remember exactly who drove me there ... I forget too many things these days, too many drugs (laughs) ... but, she drove me, I remember she drove me over there, and I got there about 5 or 10 minutes before he went on stage, and he said "... I'll go out and play about two numbers, and then I'll call you out on stage as a really good friend of mine, and you can stay up the whole rest of the night and play the whole set with me.
I said "yeah, okay ... no problem", because I knew all his songs, all his guitar solos, from record, note-for-note ... I wasn't scared to do it, because I knew all his material, like the back of my hand, I had studied it for so many years ... I went on, and just ripped the place up, and he loved it.
He [Clapton] invited me back to his hotel later that evening, and basically was asking me 'who do you listen to?', and I said "well, I listen to YOU" and he said *bleep*, 'I don't believe it', he didn't believe it and there was this little acoustic guitar in his room, and I played him note-for-note 'Live Crossroads' or something, and he was like "I can't believe that, you've taken it where I left it".
And that's still [like] the ultimate compliment for me at this point in my life, coming from any guitarist, and I'll never forget that, a highlight of my life!"
-----------------
Overall, this is an exceptional performance, and a worthwhile listen for those intrepid enough to brave a fair to poor audience recording. Once again I invoke Geetarz' Law, which states "The best performances are usually captured by the worst recordings, and vicey versa".