Carl Radle


Carl Dean Radle was an American bassist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. Radle is best remembered for his work with Eric Clapton from 1969 to 1979, including as a member of his band Derek and the Dominos. Radle is sometimes quoted as being Clapton's "right hand man" as he helped him during dark periods of his life battling drug addiction.
Radle had first found fame as the bassist for pop band Gary Lewis & the Playboys from 1965 to 1967. In 1969 he joined the session group who backed husband and wife recording duo Delaney & Bonnie, which is where he met Eric Clapton and formed Derek and the Dominos in 1970. Radle played on all of Clapton's solo material released in the 1970s before Clapton fired all of his backing members in 1979.
Over the course of his career, Radle played on a number of gold and platinum singles and albums and garnered the respect of many musicians. Radle died in 1980 from organ failure caused by effects from hard drug and alcohol consumption and was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

Early life

Carl Dean Radle was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1942. He picked up many instruments as a teen including the clarinet, piano and guitar before sticking with the bass guitar at age fifteen.

Career

Early career

Radle’s professional career started out when Leon Russell, a fellow Tulsa sound musician, offered him his entry into the music industry, inviting him out to California.
His big break came along in the mid-1960s, as the bass player in Gary Lewis & the Playboys. In 1967, Gary Lewis was drafted into war, he ended the band and Radle started working as a session musician.
Carl also was a member of Colours, a psychedelic cult band from Dot Records for whom he played on the first album and guest appeared on the second. In 1970, Radle joined Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.
Radle was a session musician for many of the most famous blues rock and rock and roll artists in the 1970s, including Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson. Over the two-year period before the release of the album The Concert for Bangladesh, Radle recorded albums with Dave Mason, J.J. Cale, George Harrison, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Buddy Guy, among others.

Eric Clapton

Radle was best known for his long association with Eric Clapton, starting in 1969 with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and continuing in 1970 with Derek and the Dominos, recording with drummer Jim Gordon, guitarist Duane Allman, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. In August 1971, they appeared with Leon Russell at George Harrison's The Concert for Bangladesh and its film The Concert for Bangladesh.
Radle was pointed out by Clapton as being the one who started the idea of making a band; Clapton said in a 2004 interview that he was dividing time between his house in Surrey and Delaney's house in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, when he received a phone call from Radle, in which he told Eric "were leaving Delaney. Are you interested in having a band?" It was also revealed in that 2004 interview that Radle and the rest left because Delaney refused to give them a raise.File:Derek and the Dominos.png|thumb|Derek and the Dominos in 1970 : Jim Gordon, Radle, Bobby Whitlock and Eric ClaptonHe worked on all of Clapton's solo projects from 1970 until 1979 and was a member of Clapton's touring band, Eric Clapton & His Band, from 1974 to 1979, when Clapton fired all of his backing musicians. Radle was instrumental in facilitating Clapton's return to recording and touring in 1974 and is quoted as being Clapton's "right hand man". During Clapton's three-year hiatus, Radle furnished him with a supply of tapes of musicians with whom he had been working. Dick Sims and Jamie Oldaker were the core of Clapton's band during the 1970s. Radle served as more than a sideman, acting also as arranger on several songs, notably "Motherless Children". Radle earned credit as an associate producer of Clapton's album No Reason to Cry.
In 1979, Radle, Dick Sims and Jamie Oldaker, who were Clapton's backing band, were told through telegrams that he had fired them from being in his backing band.

Death

Radle died at his home in Claremore, Oklahoma in May 1980, from the effects of alcohol and narcotics; he was 37.

Legacy

In 1991, Clapton remembered Radle in an interview saying he was like a brother to him and also spoke about how Carl helped Clapton during a period in the 70s when he was living in seclusion and addicted to heroin. In later years he also felt regret for firing Radle in 1979 even though he helped him through dark times and regretted not seeing Radle again until his death less than a year later and claimed he felt responsible for parts of his death. In 2008, Clapton called Radle and Jim Gordon as "the most powerful rhythm section I have ever played with. They were absolutely brilliant."
He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Radle was described in an article as "America's Paul McCartney" due to him being a popular and skilled bass guitarist, his work with Beatle George Harrison and because he was also born on the same day was McCartney, June 18, 1942.

Discography

With Gary Lewis & the Playboys
With John Lee Hooker
With Derek and the Dominos
  • Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
  • In Concert
  • The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition
  • Live at the Fillmore
With Eric Clapton
  • Eric Clapton
  • 461 Ocean Boulevard
  • E. C. Was Here
  • There's One in Every Crowd
  • No Reason to Cry
  • Slowhand
  • Backless
With Delaney & Bonnie
With Dave Mason
  • Alone Together
  • It's Like You Never Left
With George Harrison
  • All Things Must Pass
  • The Concert for Bangladesh
  • Extra Texture
With Leon Russell
  • Leon Russell and the Shelter People
  • Carney
  • Hank Wilson's Back
  • Stop All That Jazz
  • Will O' the Wisp
  • Live in Japan
With Marc Benno
  • Minnows
  • Ambush
  • Lost In Austin
With JJ Cale
  • Naturally
  • 5
With Freddie King
Others:
1968
  • Soul Folk In Action — The Staple Singers
  • Daughters of Albion — Daughters of Albion
  • Colours — Colours
1969
1970
  • Mad Dogs & Englishmen — Joe Cocker
1971
  • The Sun, Moon & Herbs — Dr. John
  • País Tropical — Sérgio Mendes
  • Klatu Berrada Nitku — Dependables
  • John Simon's Album — John Simon
  • Asylum Choir II — The Asylum Choir
1972
1973
1976