Album Review

Derek and the Dominos – Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

• 21st Mar 2011

One of the most instantly recognisable guitar riffs of all time comes right at the start of one of rock’s greatest songs: Layla. Eric Clapton, or God as he was known at the time, and Southern rock guitar virtuoso Duane Allman combined their talents to create something very special indeed.

And the seminal double album that contains this classic track has now been re-released to mark its fortieth anniversary.

Derek and the Dominos was a short term group that Clapton created to get away from the fame that surrounded his name. He wanted to make a band album and so he formed a band. They came together in Miami, Florida in 1970 to record an album that would contain both new songs and covers of blues standards.

By coincidence the Allman Brothers were recording their second album in the same studio and Clapton got to know Duane Allman. The two young guitarists quickly became good friends and Clapton invited Allman to play on the album: two of the greatest rock guitarists of them all working together.

Over a period of just six weeks Clapton and his band were to create one of the most important albums in the history of rock music.

The original double album features 14 tracks, and at 77 minutes of music it now fits neatly onto a single CD. Among the love songs that Clapton wrote, many with American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Whitlock, are Bell Bottom Blues, the tender I Looked Away and I Am Yours.

The closing Thorn Tree In The Garden, a gentle acoustic number, was written by Whitlock and recorded in one studio take, all the musicians sitting in a circle around a mic and playing as live.

The covered songs included the blues standards Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Key to the Highway, Have You Ever Loved a Woman and Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing, which was added as a tribute to Hendrix who had died while the album was being recorded.

And then there is Layla. The story behind the track is well known. Clapton had fallen in love with Pattie Boyd, who was at the time married to his friend George Harrison. His unrequited love was the inspiration for the brilliant song.

Clapton was to marry Boyd nine years later, after she had divorced from Harrison. And she was to be the inspiration for another classic song, Wonderful Tonight. But they later divorced during Clapton’s years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Layla is a song in two halves. In the first, there is the opening guitar riff and the lyrical section. Clapton’s anguish is clear as he lays his pain bare. Then there is a guitar solo that sees Clapton and Allman duelling in fine style. The second half is an extended piano coda from Jim Gordon with soft guitar parts from the two master guitarists.

And there is a bonus CD in this reissue too. It includes a number of tracks that would have formed the core of a second Derek and the Dominoes album, had the band not split up as Clapton’s heroin addiction worsened. There are also outtakes from the sessions and extended jams. Mean Old World sees Clapton and Allman duelling on acoustic guitars.

Perhaps the most historically important work on the second CD is a recording of four tracks played on television for The Johnny Cash Show. These include Matchbox, which saw Clapton jam with Cash and Carl Perkins. Just how many musical legends can you fit into one track?

As a package, this set is one of the best re-releases of an album I have seen. Not only is there a classic double album, but the additional material contained on the bonus CD make it a must have for Clapton fans – and a treat for anyone who likes good rock and blues music.