Bobby Whitlock, Co-Founder of Derek and the Dominos, Dies at 77
Bobby Whitlock, the keyboardist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of the blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos, has died on the future of 77.
Whitlock kicked the bucket early Sunday morning (Aug. 10) at 1:20 a.m. following a short lived struggle with most cancers, his supervisor Carol Kaye showed to Variety. He died at his house in Texas, surrounded via population.
Whitlock’s spouse, Coco Carmel Whitlock, commemorated his peculiar age in a remark to TMZ.
“How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?” she stated. “My love Bobby looked at life as an adventure taking me by the hand leading me through a world of wonderment from music to poetry and painting. I feel his hands that were so intensely expressive and warm on my face and the small of my back whenever I close my eyes, he is there.”
Born on March 18, 1948, in Memphis, Tenn., Whitlock made historical past as the primary white artist signed to Stax Data when he was once nonetheless an adolescent within the mid-Nineteen Sixties. Throughout his presen with the mythical label, he carried out along soul greats together with Booker T. & the MG’s and Sam & Dave.
In 1968, Whitlock joined Delaney & Bonnie and Pals, a gaggle whose collaborators integrated occasion Derek and the Dominos participants Eric Clapton, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. Throughout this era, Whitlock additionally contributed to Clapton’s 1970 self-titled debut booklet and performed organ and piano on George Harrison’s landmark 1970 drop, All Issues Will have to Cross.
Then that very same past, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon shaped Derek and the Dominos. Whitlock co-wrote part the tracks at the band’s first and handiest studio booklet, Layla and Alternative Varied Love Songs, together with “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Tell the Truth.” Derek and the Dominos launched into a U.S. excursion in aid of the booklet, with Elton John serving as their opening work.
“It was their keyboard player Bobby Whitlock that I watched like a hawk,” John wrote in his autobiography, in line with the Los Angeles Times. “He was from Memphis, learned his craft hanging around Stax Studios and played with that soulful, deep Southern gospel feel.”
Amid escalating drug importance and rising private tensions throughout the workforce, Derek and the Dominos fracture in 1971 year in the middle of recording their sophomore booklet. Whitlock went directly to drop a tale of solo albums within the Seventies, starting together with his self-titled debut, which featured contributions from the entire participants of Derek and the Dominos, in addition to Harrison. He adopted it nearest that very same past with Uncooked Velvet.
As a consultation musician, Whitlock additionally gave the impression at the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Primary St., Dr. John’s The Solar, Moon & Herbs, and Stephen Stills & Manassas’ Unwell the Highway.
Whitlock spared backup solo tune all the way through the Seventies and returned within the Nineteen Nineties, frequently taking part together with his musical spouse and occasion spouse, CoCo Carmel, whom he married in December 2005.
Whitlock is survived via his spouse, CoCo Carmel, and his kids Ashley Faye Brown, Beau Elijah Whitlock, and Tim Whitlock Kelly, in line with the Los Angeles Occasions.