Carl Radle

Carl Radle
Carl Radle was a distinguished bass player who hailed from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and worked with some of rock’s finest. In 1969 as a member of “Delaney & Bonnie” he was introduced to Eric Clapton who played lead for them on the “Delaney and Bonnie On Tour” album. After the tour, Radle and the rest of the “Delaney and Bonnie” band hooked-up with Leon Russell who recruited them for Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs and Englishman” tour. The resulting double album live-set and accompanying motion picture is a rock classic and perhaps the pinnacle of Joe Cocker’s career (Which reportedly left Cocker broke and in ill-health). After the MD&E tour most of the entourage backed Clapton on his solo album, which featured the Clapton classics’ “After Midnight” and “Let It Rain”. After Clapton’s solo effort he plucked Radle, Jim Gordon and Bobby Whitlock out of the ensemble and formed “Derek and the Dominoes”. Released in November of 1970 “Layla and other Assorted Love Songs” eventually became hailed as a rock classic. The “Layla” recording sessions are rock legend. Duane Allman was invited to sit in and the sessions escalated into three-day long marathon jam sessions fueled by “huge bags of dope”. Tom Dowd, the producer of all this could barely keep up. Forced into a break by the call of nature, he was on the toilet when Clapton and Allman broke into “Key To the Highway” and Tom had to scream on the top of his lungs to get the tape machine started (which accounts for the fade-in beginning). Somewhere amidst all of this, Carl and the rest of the gang backed George Harrison on the Phil Spector produced classic “All Things Must Pass”, Dave Mason’s “Alone Together” and “Leon Russell and the Shelter People”. In 1971 Carl played bass for George Harrison’s “The Concert for Bangladesh”, a Tour-de-force of rock legends including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton,Leon Russell,Ringo Starr,Billy Preston and a host of others. After Clapton’s “Rainbow” comeback concert in 1973, he recruited Radle again for the “461 Ocean Boulevard” sessions. Carl would remain with Clapton for the next six years. After 1979’s “Backless” tour Clapton fired the whole band. Carl would never be the same. He literally drank and drugged himself to death. On May 30th of 1980 he passed away from kidney failure in Tulsa Oklahoma at the age of 38