Bobby Whitlock Dead At 77
The Derek and the Dominos co-founder arose out of Memphis to make his mark on music in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and beyond
Bobby Whitlock, the Memphis-born singer-songwriter and keyboardist who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton and played on a slew of classic records in the 1960s and ‘70s, has died. Per his manager Carol Kaye, Whitlock passed away at home in Texas in the early hours of Aug. 10 following “a brief bout with cancer.” He was 77.
Whitlock is best known for his early ‘70s tenure alongside Clapton, Duane Allman, and others in Derek and the Dominos, whose lone album, 1970’s Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, yielded the seven-minute epic ‘Layla’ and other beloved tracks like ‘Bell Bottom Blues,’ written and sung by Whitlock. But his catalog extends far beyond that band.
Whitlock got his start in the Memphis music scene in the late 1960s, becoming the first white artist signed to the legendary Stax Records and honing his chops performing with R&B greats like Sam & Dave and Booker T. & the M.G.’s. By 1969, he fell in with Stax signees Delaney & Bonnie, the all-star Los Angeles-based rock and soul collective, contributing keyboards and vocals to their albums Home and Accept No Substitute.
Through his stint in Delaney & Bonnie, Whitlock met Clapton, who also logged time in the group. Before the formation of Derek and the Dominos, Whitlock and other Delaney & Bonnie members backed up Clapton on his 1970 self-titled album. Also in that circle was George Harrison, who recruited Whitlock to play on 1970’s All Things Must Pass, the triple-album he released as his solo debut following the dissolution of the Beatles.
Whitlock played on albums by artists including Dr. John, Doris Troy, John Simon, and Manassas, and he made an uncredited appearance on the Rolling Stones’ 1972 masterpiece Exile on Main Street. In the wake of Derek and the Dominos’ breakup, he launched a solo career in 1972 with the release of two albums, Bobby Whitlock and Raw Velvet. Two more albums followed, 1975’s One of a Kind and 1976’s Rock Your Sox Off, before Whitlock retreated from the music industry.
He spent most of the 1980s and ‘90s living on a farm in Mississippi, raising children and occasionally doing session work. Not until 1999 did he return with the appropriately titled album It’s About Time, which kicked off a new wave of activity. From there, Whitlock and CoCo Carmel—who he married in 2005—released a series of live and studio albums starting with 2003’s Other Assorted Love Songs, Live from Whitney Chapel, a recording partnership that continued for a decade.
