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This album represents the "swan song," the last "glow of vivid and bright light" for the English artist, marking the end of the first and dazzling part of his career, before plunging into the darkest times for a few years. Those weren't easy times for Clapton; in fact, after the "Layla" tour, from which the tracks of this splendid album were taken, the guitarist disappeared from the scene for a long period due mainly to two problems. First, the troubled love with Patty Boyd, wife of his great friend and colleague George Harrison, a tumultuous, hidden affair that led the guitarist into a deep depression. Meanwhile, perhaps the greater problem was the strong heroin addiction that was undermining his body and mind.
Although in poor physical and mental conditions, Clapton appeared in dazzling form on stage at the famous New York auditorium, showcasing all his qualities in an elegant and powerful performance, launching into long guitar improvisations without giving up his clean and chiseled style, a true trademark of "Slowhand." The tracks of this live album were taken from the two dates of October 23 and 24, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York, where Clapton shared the stage with Bobby Whitlock on keyboards, Carl Radle on bass, and Jim Gordon on drums, the same lineup (apart from Gregg Allman) that had created that studio masterpiece just a few months earlier, the famous "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs," perhaps the perfect album of an entire career.
The concert kicks off with "Got To Get Better In A Little While," a lively and pulsating blues that immediately reveals the band's great technical abilities; Radle and Gordon form a highly experienced rhythm section and perform their duties with perfect precision, while Whitlock on keyboards provides a soft base where the leader can indulge in his guitar skills. On the same level, the subsequent "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad," one of the fourteen masterpieces of "Layla," is expanded immeasurably by Clapton's solos that follow one another without interruption, accompanied by a chorus that exudes joy and cheerfulness, quite different from the meaning of the song's title. Whitlock executes his role excellently, proving to be an excellent second voice and providing an excellent base with his honky-tonk piano. Undoubtedly among my favorites in the setlist, the following "Key To The Highway," a splendid reinterpretation of the original blues by Big Bill Broonzy, one of Slowhand's idols, is performed perfectly by the band, although in my opinion, the studio original was better, as in that case, the guitar was assisted by "Skydog" Allman. After the lively "Blues Power," a song from Clapton's self-titled solo debut of the same year, it's time for another highlight of the guitarist, the historic "Have You Ever Loved A Woman," a reinterpretation of the Billy Miles blues standard, still today one of the strengths of concert setlists, a slow and clean blues, with our Fender cutting the air with powerful and determined phrasing, simply splendid and seductive.
The audience appreciates, Slowhand doesn't talk much but leaves the music to speak, and the concert flows swiftly, with the subsequent "Bottle Of Red Wine," a song with a deep southern feel, the tense and vibrant blues of "Tell The Truth," and the poignant "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out," another classic of the British artist, until reaching "Presence Of The Lord," the only song credited to Clapton from the Blind Faith experience, performed in a relaxed and laid-back manner. The voice may not be as brilliant as Winwood's, but in my opinion, this version is more fluid and heartfelt than the studio version, always a nice listen nonetheless. With "Little Wing," the audience is thrilled, joining in the chorus and fully enjoying the band's great performance; the track, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, a longtime great friend and highly esteemed by Clapton, is rendered in a more bluesy and delicate manner by the Dominos, always performed cleanly and dreamily, a worthy tribute to an exceptional artist who passed away just a month before the concert. To conclude the show, the band performs a classic, the evergreen "Crossroads," a song by blues father Robert Johnson, revisited by Clapton with Cream a few years earlier, and included in the famous "Wheels Of Fire" album by the English power trio. The concert version is slower, less visceral and decisive, but excellent and so well done that it splendidly closes one of the artist's most famous and successful live performances.
This live was released only in 1973, a period when there was practically no news of Clapton. At the end of the tour, Slowhand indeed retired from the scene for about three years; no album, no concerts except for occasional appearances like the Concert for Bangladesh organized by Harrison or the live at the Rainbow in London in '73, where, with the help of Pete Townsend, he managed to perform publicly again, almost completely freed from the slavery of drugs and ready to relaunch himself in the music world, but that's another story... "Live At The Fillmore" is still today a pleasant album, well-played, with excellent and very talented musicians, a child of one of the most important studio albums in the rock-blues field, so I highly recommend listening to it...
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