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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Chris Jisi

“I would listen to Eric, but my responsibility was really with the rhythm section”: You know the tune, but maybe not the bass player – how the unassuming Carl Radle carved out a spot in music history on Derek & the Dominos’ Layla

. English singer-songwriter and guitarist Eric Clapton, performing during his US tour, July 1974. Photo of Carl RADLE, Carl Radle performing on stage, 53.

Perhaps more than any musician on a landmark recording, the bass player can languish in anonymity even long after the song attains classic status.

Witness Carl Radle, who from the late '60s to the late '70s grounded such mega-hits as Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight and Lay Down Sally, George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, Leon Russell's Tightrope, and Delaney & Bonnie's Never Ending Song of Love, not to mention Joe Cocker's gritty Mad Dogs and Englishmen covers.

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