[Charles Henrickson]

Now 'splain this to me, Loosy:

How could one guy do some of the greatest songs and also some of the worst--and even do it with the same song?

I refer to Mr. Eric Clapton. In his "Derek & the Dominoes" phase, he gave us the wonderful "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Layla," the latter being one of the greatest songs of all time.

Yet this is the same Eric Clapton who sang, "I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy." And much later he took the magnificent "Layla" and destroyed it with an "unplugged" version of the same. There must be tears in heaven.

Of course, Paul McCartney went from the Beatles to Wings.

And then there's the group I like perhaps as well as or even better than the early Beatles, and that's CCR. John Fogerty wrote "Proud Mary," and CCR's version was OK, but not one of their best. But because John Fogerty wrote that song, we then had to suffer under Ike & Tina Turner's lousy and more ubiquitous version of same.

[T Minus Four]

Hey now! Eric Clapton didn't write "I Shot the Sheriff", Bob Marly did. And I happen to think the unplugged version of Layla was awesome!

Mr. T Minus FOur, a guitar player, is hanging over my shoulder and shouting things at you :-)

He says, "Tell him there are only three word I want to say: Clapton is God"

[T Minus Four]

The Beatles to Wings thing though was sadness, true enough.

[speedy]

See, now you're introducing people with real talent into the thread. It's so much simpler at this time of night to be beating up on 1910 Fruit Gum Company than charting the ups and downs of Eric Clapton. Come on now, "Put your hands in the air (Simple Simon says) Do it double time (Simple Simon says).

Now, isn't that easier than wrestling with the twists and turns of Layla? Goody goody gumdrop, my heart is doing flip flops.