Derek and the Dominos was formed in 1970, when after touring with Delaney and Bonnie for the summer, Eric Clapton found he rather enjoyed just being a regular old guitar player instead of being Eric Clapton, of "CLAPTON IS GOD!" fame. Joining forces with fellow Delaney and Bonnie alums Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon, the new band spent time playing together in and around London, were basically George Harrison's backing band for his All Things Must Pass LP, were joined for a time by FNJ featured artist Dave Mason, and eventually landed in Miami where they recorded their one and only album. Fueled by cocaine and heroin (not usually a good combination...), the band was joined by Duane Allman, of, obviously, Allman Brothers fame (and another featured FNJ band), and released their album to little or no fanfare (at least partly because Clapton refused to have his name plastered all over the project). Within a year the band had dissolved (again, cocaine and heroin, not a good combination), and as is sometimes the case, fate was not kind to the band members. Clapton spent the next three years shooting heroin into his veins before being rescued by Pete Townshend and would eventually lose his four year old son in a tragic accident, Carl Radle would die of a kidney infection in 1980 brought on by drug and alcohol abuse, and saddest of all, Jim Gordon, an undiagnosed schizophrenic, would eventually murder his mother during a psychotic episode and was put in a mental institution in 1984 where he remains today. I wish I had some uplifting close to the band's bio, but alas drug addiction, death, and schizophrenia are tough to put in a happy light.
As noted above, "Layla" was released on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in 1970 to little critical or commercial success, but was re-released as a single after being placed on a Clapton retrospective, The History of Eric Clapton, in 1972 and rose to #10 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. History would be very kind to the band--"Layla" is a classic rock staple and ended up at #27 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Meanwhile, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of Clapton's career (and that's saying something) and was ranked #117 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
For the three people who may not be familiar with the song's background, "Layla" was written about Patti Boyd, the wife of Clapton's good friend George Harrison (yes, that George Harrison), with whom Clapton was hopelessly in love. For those wondering...Harrison wasn't all that bothered by Clapton's desire for his wife, being quite the philanderer back in the day and they would eventually divorce. Clapton married Boyd in 1979 but they, too, would end up divorced by 1988...because, in no small part, Clapton was quite the philanderer back in the day, as well.
The song opens with perhaps the most widely known burst of guitar in the history of pop music (and for which Clapton gives all credit to Duane Allman), which literally sounds like lightning bolts shooting out of a guitar amp, moves into Clapton's plea (and it's truly a plea) for Layla/Boyd to give her man/Harrison the heave ho for him all the while Allman and Clapton are frenetically playing a real life version of Guitar Hero, before the release comes about three and half minutes in and the song moves into a comforting piano while Clapton and Allman provide some subtle backing guitar for the last three and a half minutes. If ever there was a song that was a metaphor for sex, "Layla" would be it: the guitars and vocals being the excitement of the foreplay and the passion of the actually making of love, with the piano closeout being the canoodling after the climax. Forty four years of following pop music and I'm finally ready to admit that just maybe sex plays a small part in rock and roll....
Fun Fact: Jim Gordon stole the piano part from then girlfriend Rita Coolidge, and she has never been credited for her work on the song. Amazingly, Coolidge never sued, though it likely would have meant millions in royalties for her.
Lyric Sheet: "Layla/You've got me on my knees, Layla/I'm begging, darling please, Layla/Darling won't you ease my worried mind..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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