The one band Bob Dylan needed to see perform live: “I feel bad”
Throughout his entire career, Bob Dylan never seemed to understand the meaning of the term ‘slowing down’.
There were bound to be times when he was a little less active than others, but the key behind any great songwriting drifter like him was to keep searching for whatever song lit a fire under him and demanded to be written down. Not all of them knocked it out of the park, but there came a point where Dylan had to stop and take in the rock and roll milestones that were passing him by as well.
Then again, Dylan exists in his own little bubble in many respects. There are many people who have tried to get into that inner circle, but even listening to his times working with producers like Daniel Lanois or playing entire tours with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backing band, the real person behind all of that is still a little bit of a mystery. But when he sees something he likes out in the wild, he will make sure that the world knows it, no matter how controversial it might be.
He had an affinity for the classics ever since the days when he was making folky protest songs, but there was a lot more to rock and roll than being able to translate his lyricism over to the electric guitar. Plenty of artists had already followed in Dylan’s footsteps and begun turning his tunes into rock standards, but if Dylan was still in the folk category, there was another movement that was deeply rooted in the blues.
Both genres weren’t mutually exclusive or anything, but Dylan’s take on the blues was a lot different from what was going on on the other side of the Atlantic. The Beatles had given fans a taste of what the British invasion sounded like, but the other side of that coin was listening to what The Yardbirds were doing in those sweaty clubs throughout London. Eric Clapton was clearly on another musical level, but he was moving almost too fast for Dylan to take in half the time.
Before you knew it, Clapton was out of The Yardbirds, and while working with John Mayall gave him a place to hone his chops, the fact that Cream broke up so quickly was a real missed opportunity for Dylan. They had the chemistry that most people would kill for, and while Clapton was doing with his guitar what Dylan did with his pen, he knew that he needed to see him in action by the time he started working with Blind Faith.
Having Steve Winwood as a frontman was bound to give the material a shot in the arm, but Dylan could tell by listening to them that they would be short-lived, saying, “I never even saw Cream. I feel bad about those things, but what can I do? I’m going to see this new group, called Blind Faith. I’m going to make it my duty to go see them … ’cause they’ll probably be gone in another year or so. So I’d better get up there quick and see them.”
While Dylan was sadly correct about Blind Faith disbanding, that was almost a necessary evil for Clapton to go through. Getting Ginger Baker back into a band was bound to be a bit difficult, and even if all the band members got along well enough, Derek and the Dominos was always going to be a better outlet for him, especially since he was able to pour his heart out for Patti Boyd on half the tracks on Layla.
But in another life, Blind Faith could very well have been the kind of band that could give Led Zeppelin a run for their money. Each member was a virtuoso in every sense of the word, but since Clapton was only just starting to write fantastic songs, a tune like ‘The Presence of the Lord’ feels more like a transitional period for him than being a mandatory part of his discography.
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