Derek & Dominos-Layla and other Assorted Love Songs

Love lost….Unattainable love….forbidden love…Heartbreak…obsession…infatuation….enamored…envy….pleas for understanding
……and expressing all this in a musical statement.
Never have I been so moved by an album and a musical cry for love in a musical statement. The story of a man longing for the wife of one his friends. He writes an unforgettable song to her. He eventually gets this woman of his dreams and eventually marries her.   How romantic right?  I once thought so.  Years pass into their marriage. He pushes her away, keeps her off his tours, cheats on her and eventually fathers a child with another woman.
Never have I had a stir of contradictory emotions about what seemed like a perfect musical statement.  I’m talking about Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos(AKA Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon and Carl Radle)

Through my early infatuation with Eddie Van Halen and his love of early Clapton(mostly Cream), I sought out everything Clapton.  I had read about the landmark recording that Eric did with Duane Allman on dual guitars. I had been working at Dustys and decided to make the purchase of this double LP.  I bought it and dubbed it to a cassette for portable listening purposes. It was a double album that times in at about 77 minutes long. At first, I only had heard the title song of Layla and that is the next to last track on the album. So, you either fast forward to that song or you just take in the whole album the way it was meant to be listened to.
Well, I had it available in a portable format. So, as I would walk to class or drive across town to campus, I would take all of this in. It didn’t take long that I was really into it. But, something happened as I listened to this.  The blues of the album was so strong that I felt myself relating to the music contained within.  When you get to songs called Have You Ever Loved a Woman? and Why Does Love have to Hurt So Bad?,  you start to think about past girlfriends and lovers. It had been a year or so after a relationship had ended with a past girlfriend. At first, I was glad she was out of my life. But, she had returned to the boyfriend she had dumped to be with me. In fact, they are still together and have a family of their own.  At the time, I was longing for that companionship and… well…. the intimacy.  Truthfully, she was probably my first love and now she wasn’t mine any more.  Did I still have feelings for her?  Probably?….definitely?…..ABSOLUTELY!  I still saw her around campus. Some of her friends were still telling me stories about her and him. I said I didn’t care. But, I did. But, then again, I had a tendency to get myself all wound up about it and proceed to have a little pity party for myself. 
I had seen the MTV Rockumentary on Eric Clapton and how he told the story of writing the Layla song and the entire album with Derek and the Dominos.  He had met Pattie Boyd Harrison who was the wife of Beatle George Harrison.  He fell crazy head over heels in love with her. He wrote her letters to let her know how he felt. She rebuffed him and his advances and he fell into the throes of heroin addiction. He recorded the album with the band from his days with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. So, Eric was the only Englishman in a band of American musicians.  After this rejection from Pattie, he poured his heart into the music of this album. He eventually included slide guitarist Duane Allman to the recording sessions and musical magic happened.  All of this somehow resonated for me as I felt lonely and longed for the former girlfriend myself. I felt a kinship to Clapton. 
According to 1001 Albums:

Clapton’s masterstroke was recruiting Duane Allman as a guest player: Allman’s slide guitar on the title track screamed like a train coming off the rails over one of rock’s most memorable riffs

Even producer Tom Dowd’s quote from the book said:

I walked out of the studio and said ‘That’s the best goddamned record I’ve made in 10 years’

I would listen to the album from start to finish and every song had something that a lonely heartbroken man in his early 20’s could relate to. (Even men out of their 20’s can relate too)

I looked away and she ran away from me today
I’m such a lonely man
It came as no surprise to me
That she’d leave me in misery
It seemed like only yesterday
She made a vow that she’d never walk away
Bell Bottom BluesI don’t want to fade away
Give me one more day please
I don’t want to fade away
In your heart I long to stay

Have you ever loved a Woman may not have been written by Clapton but he sure made it his own. Especially when the lyrics even allude to be “in love” with another man’s wife.
Little Wing …for me was really cool as I discovered an alternate cover of the Hendrix masterpiece. I had played the Hendrix version over and over both as a drummer and a music lover.
Too Late:
It’s Too Late. She’s gone!
Once again, I thought this was a Clapton/Derek and the Dominos original. Truthfully, I just found out a few weeks ago that this was actually a lesser known Buddy Holly and the Crickets tune from their only album in 1957 called The “Chirping” Crickets. I was sampling through some Buddy Holly albums and played this song and I did that “I know this song only it’s performed by another artist…….who is that other artist?”
This whole album just seemed like a great study in the blues as it was steeped in heartbreak and loss. Keyboardist and Vocalist Bobby Whitlock compliments Clapton vocally while the rest of the band (drummer Jim Gordon and Bassist Carl Radle) locks in.
Sadly, Clapton fell into heroin addiction for years after this album. He suffered from the loss of his grandfather(who he considered as a father) and his friend Jimi Hendrix who passed away 8 days after they had cut the new version of Little Wing. Duane Allman died a year later in a motorcycle accident. Bassist Carl Radle actually toured with Clapton’s band from 1974-1978 and died in 1980 of a kidney infection. Drummer Jim Gordon has long been revered by studio drummers as a peer of Jim Keltner and Steve Gadd and a strong influence on Jeff Porcaro. He also played with artists as diverse as Joe Cocker, Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Rickie Lee Jones and Alice Cooper.  But, in 1983, Jim brutally murdered his mother and is currently serving a life sentence at a series of correction facilities in California. He’s been denied parole twice.
Of course, the showpiece and classic track on the album is the title song – Layla.

What do you do when you get lonely?
and No One’s waiting by your side
You’ve been running and hiding much too long
You Know it’s just your foolish pride

Clapton and Allman are interacting so well with each other. It’s the stuff legends are made of. It’s a shame there is no live recorded performance of the two legends playing this together.  But, a few years back, Clapton employed Derek Trucks on slide guitar in his touring band.  Derek is actually the nephew of Allman Brothers’ drummer Butch Trucks.  It was reported a few years back that (with Derek in the band) Clapton was playing the entire Layla album in concert.

The great story I like to tell about this album and the title track is that one summer morning during my college years, I was lounging around my apartment and made my way to the bathroom. I decided to cue up my cassette copy for some listening music during my shower. I cued up the title track that runs at 7:07.  I found that this song is the perfect shower song.  I told my ex-wife about that years later.  If I ever tell her I was listening to Layla , She then asks me if I was taking a shower. 
Clapton later recorded a different acoustic version of Layla on his Unplugged album.  He definitely puts a different spin to it. I also remember a Vh1 collaboration that Clapton did with Dr. John for a definite funky version of the same song. I still like that version as a different version. But, then again, I like New Orleans style rhythms too.
Last year, I read both Clapton’s biography and Pattie’s biography – Wonderful Tonight.  As I read Pattie’s book, I felt disillusioned by the romantic story that had followed this song over the years.  She eventually left George Harrison. She was ignored by Clapton and banned from joining him on the road as he cheated on her. He eventually fathered his son Conor with another woman and that ended their marriage.
I still enjoy the music. But, I have discovered that the hero worship that I bestow on these artists are nothing but hollow admiration for someone who’s struggling to make it through life like the rest of us.  But, I am forever thankful for the music that resonates in those times of something to lift you up.

 

 

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