Day 308: Derek & the Dominos – Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Today’s album isn’t a new one, but one I definitely haven’t listened to for at least a decade. It’s actually kind of a perfect example of albums I should be listening to because I used to love this one, and I still haven’t listened to it in years – surprisingly I also never listen to Eric Clapton’s solo stuff despite liking Derek & the Dominoes so much, that could be another avenue to explore. But today it’s time to listen to their first and only album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
Album cover courtesy of Polydor
Derek & the Dominos were formed after Eric Clapton became disillusioned with the cult of personality that was growing around him when he was in his previous supergroups, Cream and Blind Faith. He wanted to return to just playing as a member of a band instead of being superstar Eric Clapton, so he first joined the rock and soul group with varying members, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, but when they broke up, he and some of the former members of the band got together for Derek & the Dominos.
The band consisted of singer and guitarist Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Carl Radle. They were sort of formed when they all played as a backing band on George Harrison’s masterpiece, All Things Must Pass, with Clapton saying “We made our bones, really, on that album with George” because their game plan had until then only consisted of getting stoned and playing songs together.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was released in 1970, and it consists of original songs and five covers, including three blues standards, a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and a doo-wop ballad cover of “It’s Too Late” by Chuck Willis. It features the members of the band, along with Duane Allman playing slide guitar on almost all of the songs.
Listening to this album, I’m even more baffled by why I haven’t put it on in years. The blues-inspired classic rock and roll paired with the emotional depth of the lyrics makes it, to me, one of the most stunning albums of all time – especially on the yearning love songs like “Layla” and Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" but the slower love songs are almost equally resonant. “Bell Bottom Blues” is so good that it’s hard not to be moved by the earnestness of it.
The album was born from the emotional turmoil that Eric Clapton was going through due to being in love with his best pal George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. It culminated when he went over to their house to tell Pattie to leave George to be with him, and threatened her by pulling a bag of heroin out of his pocket and telling her that if she says no, he’s going to do the heroin, and whatever happens as a result is on her – he did also tactically omit from his emotional blackmail that he’d already been doing heroin for months, so she’d hardly be the reason for his heroin addiction.
It didn’t work then, so Clapton was forced to go back to his 18-year-old (!) girlfriend, but she did leave her husband for Eric Clapton a few years later. They got married in 1979. And before you feel too bad for George Harrison, he was having an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife and he was so brazen about it that Pattie caught them together in their home.
Do you have to be a bit of a scuzzy bastard in relationships to write a song as good as “Layla”? Probably not, but I’m assuming it doesn’t hurt. I hope this sort of love never finds me, but I also deeply envy Pattie Boyd for having some of the best love songs of all time written about her, like Clapton’s “Layla” or “Something” by the Beatles. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a rare 10/10 of an album, I’m choosing to credit at least half of that to the all-time muse that is Pattie Boyd.