Bobby Whitlock, keyboardist in Eric Clapton’s short-lived but acclaimed band Derek and the Dominos, has died at the age of 77.
Whitlock’s death early Sunday morning was confirmed by his manager Carol Kaye, who said in a statement to ABC Audio, “With profound sadness, the family of Bobby Whitlock announces his passing at 1:20am on Aug. 10 after a brief illness. He passed in his home in Texas, surrounded by family.”
The Memphis-born Whitlock began his career in the mid-Sixties at his hometown Stax Records, becoming the first white artist signed by the label and recording alongside the likes of Booker T & The M.G.’s and Sam & Dave.
In the late-Sixties, Whitlock would join the husband-wife duo Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and an army of talented musicians in a group dubbed Delaney & Bonnie and Friends; some of those “Friends” included a post-Cream Eric Clapton, guitarist Duane Allman, bassist Carl Radle, and drummer Jim Gordon. Those four artists and Whitlock would eventually form Derek and the Dominos.
Whitlock, who previously played on Clapton’s 1970 self-titled debut album, co-wrote half of the songs that appear on Derek and the Dominos’ 1970 studio album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, including the classic rock standard “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Anyday,” “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?,” and opener “I Looked Away.”
Whitlock also played the piano part on the band’s classic “Layla,” and had long been vocal about Rita Coolidge being credited with the song’s second movement; drummer Jim Gordon, Coolidge’s boyfriend at the time, was instead credited as “Layla” co-writer.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs would later be named be named one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. However, it was not commercially successful upon release, and compounded with the 1971 death of Duane Allman as well as Clapton’s drug addiction, Derek and the Dominos ultimately broke up in 1971 in the midst of recording their second album.
While recording that failed sophomore album in London, Whitlock also worked on his own self-titled debut album, which featured his Derek and the Dominos band mates as well as George Harrison; Whitlock previously contributed organ and piano to the former Beatle’s 1970 masterpiece All Things Must Pass, appearing on songs like “My Sweet Lord,” “What Is Life,” the title track, and the vinyl-length Apple Jam.
(Whitlock also appeared, uncredited, on the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., and later claimed that he and the Stones’ Mick Taylor, and not Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, co-wrote that album’s “I Just Want to See His Face.”)
Whitlock’s second solo album, 1972’s Raw Velvet, also featured Clapton and Harrison. Whitlock released two more solo LPs before largely leaving the the music industry by the end of the Seventies. However, by the turn of the millennium, Whitlock returned to recording, often accompanied by his wife and musician CoCo Carmel. Whitlock and Clapton also reunited in 2000 to perform “Bell Bottom Blues” together on Later With Jools Holland: