Derek & The Dominos, "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs"

Mitch drops a deuce

, and

Jul 27, 2022

Mitch’s Pitch:

Let’s tell the truth: there are a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t pitch Derek & The Dominos’ Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. To enumerate the most obvious reasons:

I don’t like pitching albums that are older than me, and Layla is really old, like, CJ old.
Head Domino Eric Clapton has been rightfully “canceled” for his overt racism, which includes concert footage of him in the ‘70s advocating to keep England white. Truly ghastly behavior…
…which doesn’t even make him the worst person in the band, as drummer Jim Gordon ended up murdering his own mother in 1976 and is still in prison.
The guitar stylings of a young Duane Allman are largely overdubbed; and
It’s a blues album, and the blues as a genre has an “appeal that is becoming more selective” to quote the great Ian Faith.

All fair points, if I do say so myself, but there is a pretty strong counter-argument in favor of pitching Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs:

It’s the best blues-rock record ever produced, featuring one of the greatest songs ever.

Right, then, on with the pitch…

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You probably thought I was talking about “Layla” when I said this album featured one of the greatest songs ever. “Layla” is obviously an all-time classic - but it’s only great because of the piano coda, which was actually performed by aforementioned drummerer-murderer Jim Gordon. The inside story is that he copped the piano melody from then-girlfriend Rita Coolidge, making him a drummerer-murderer-thief. That coda, and it’s use in Goodfellas (RIP Ray Liotta & Paul Sorvino), is much better than the song part of “Layla”, which is good, but not necessarily great.

No, the song I am nominating as one of the greatest compositions ever is “Thorn Tree in the Garden,” the gorgeous, elegiac Bobby Whitlock ballad that closes out this majestic double album. This song captures everything that’s special about Derek & The Dominos - the interweaving guitar lines and the contrapuntal vocals of Clapton and Whitlock. This is an album full of twins: twin guitars, double vocals, and two-faced lovers that both break and mend hearts.

There’s no doubt that Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs is Eric Clapton’s show, even if he just want to be one of the guys: he co-wrote most of the originals, picked the covers, and delivers the greatest performance of his career on both guitar and vocals. This is Clapton’s apex mountain. But I’ve always thought that it was a shame that Bobby Whitlock never got more credit for his work on this album. His keyboard playing is terrific, his vocals are incredible, and he brings just enough Southern stank to make this album the perfect blend of second generation American and British blues.

Each side of this double album features one blues standard, and if I had to rank them I’d go “Keys to the Highway” > “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” > “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” > “It’s Too Late”. The performances are so strong that they overcome the overfamiliarity of these old songs, and breathe some fresh life into traditional material.

The other cover is a superlative version of Jimi Hendrix’ “Little Wing,” and I wish artists today covered their contemporaries more often. “Little Wing” was less than 3 years old when Derek & The Dominos covered it, and they made a soaring song fly even higher by upping the tempo a little bit.

The rest of the album is bursting with one incredible Clapton-Whitlock song after another. The opener “I Looked Away” is infectious, and when Eric cries that he’s “such a lonely man” you truly, deeply believe it. “Bell Bottom Blues” is that kind of accessible, poppy blues that Clapton is known for, and is the rare tune that is inexplicably immune from overplay. “I Am Yours” pulls off the neat trick of having the slide guitar double the vocal melody, adding to the urgency and intensity of Clapton’s vocal performance. “Tell the Truth” has a great start-and-stop cadence, and is just bursting with swagger.

Sure, there are a couple of choogly rockers like “Keep on Growing” and “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad” that might technically be considered filler tunes, but they’re top-shelf filler tunes that fit the theme of the album, so they get a pass. And all things considered, two filler tunes on a 14 song double album is a ratio that would make Stevie Wonder jealous.

On top of all of the great music contained within, Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs also has one of the most beautiful covers that we’ve covered. A painting by the French artist Emile Frandsen, La fille au bouquet, shows half of a beguiling woman’s face, the other half concealed by a bouquet of flowers, a symbolic representative of the album itself: an irresistible woman who can never be fully known or trusted, both the cause of, and the solution to, the immense pain in Clapton’s heart.

***

In 2017 one of Emile Frandsen’s heirs sued Clapton to get the painting back, based on infringement of moral rights. Now I gave up my legal license after my old law firm boss ended up dead with a cartel boss in a pit underneath a meth lab in Albuquerque, but I think Frandsen’s heirs didn’t want the painting associated with Britain’s most famous racist. The courts ruled in favor of Clapton.

I’m asking the gentle members of the Newbury St. Collection Supreme Court to respect legal precedent, put aside Clapton’s odiousness and Gordon’s murderousness, and just focus on the incredible music contained within Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

CJ’s Response:

Way back in the early days of EONS (we’re talking Week 2), Ken floated the idea of pitching Cream’s Disraeli Gears. While I was listening to the album, I started writing down my thoughts about Eric Clapton and why I’ve always had such a hard time connecting with his music. Before Ken could make his pitch, though, Mitch jumped all over the Cream catalog. He texted snide remarks about several tracks and made a point of lambasting the unfortunately titled “Anyone for Tennis?”. Ken pivoted and went with Elton John’s Madman Across The Water, a decision he later regretted.

Did Mitch bully Ken out of Cream only to pitch Derek & The Dominos nearly two years later? Maybe. But I was busy bullying Don back then, so I’m not one to talk.

I looked back at what I had written about Clapton in 2020 during the throes of the pandemic and it turned out to be remarkably prescient. Here was my opening paragraph:

My favorite thing Eric Clapton ever did was a cover of a Bob Marley song. I know that’s a douchey way to start a review of a monolithic Cream album, but I’ve had this problem with Clapton for his entire career. He plays his guitar beautifully and flawlessly and without a single iota of emotion. His nickname really should’ve been “Cold Hand”. In fact, his ideal drummer wasn’t Ginger Baker. It was Neil Peart. Watching Eric Clapton perform a guitar solo is like watching David Blaine perform a magic trick. It’s fucking amazing, but it has absolutely no connection to human reality. Even Clapton’s appropriation of George Harrison’s wife was a bloodless coup.

And that’s exactly where I landed this week. Layla is a beautiful album and I still enjoy the hits. I also have to give credit to Mitch for touting “Thorn”, “Keys to the Highway” and “I Looked Away”. I’m less enamored with “Little Wing” than he is, but that’s just a personal preference. So, yes, great stuff here.

But, man, is this album a slog.

It’s the musical equivalent of War and Peace. Sure, it’s a literary masterpiece and one of the most important novels in modern history. But, have you ever tried to wade through that thing? It’s like, Leo, we get it. Avoid a land war in Russia at all costs. With Layla, it’s like, Eric, we get it. You’re Patti Boyd’s huckleberry.

Ultimately, I can’t deny the album’s place in music lore. Cultural significance wins the day. And maybe Disraeli Gears had to die so that Layla could live forever in Newbury St.

Elton John was collateral damage.

Pitch Successful (“Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.”)

Ken’s Response:

CJ is right, I suppose in hindsight I was bullied out of doing Disraeli Gears, but I don’t regret for one second having Madman Across the Water as its worthy understudy…that was a miss by you guys, not me.

I’ve already established that I think Eric Clapton is a pretty abhorrent person. And while it’s a difficult exercise for me, I’m going to give it my best shot to separate the man from the music.

Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs is a phenomenal album. It’s a couple of tracks too long, and leaving “I Am Yours” and “Anyday” on the cutting room floor probably would have been a good decision. Other than that, you’re treated to some of Clapton’s best work, including “Bell Bottom Blues”, “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?”, and the cover of “Have You Ever Loved A Woman”.

As much as we revere EC for his guitar playing, this album doesn’t make the cut without Bobby Whitlock’s co-writing. “Thorn Tree In The Garden” might just be the best song on it, and Whitlock’s contributions throughout the album on vocals and keyboards needs to be more universally recognized. This isn’t a Clapton album, it’s a true collaboration.

The unsung hero of Layla is, however, Clapton’s…well, singing. I’ve been saying for decades that Clapton is a fantastic guitar player, but he’s limited to blues and blues-adjacent playing. His vocals though, are amazing! Without those pipes, I would argue that he never makes it past the Joe Bonamassa-level of popularity in the rock world.

Pitch Successful (Tolstoy is overrated!)

Mitch’s pitch was successful and Derek & The Dominos’ Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs has been added to the old guy section of the Newbury St. Collection.

Nobody knows you when you’re down and out, but everyone knows you when you leave a comment about Derek & The Dominos. Tell the truth: does Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs have blues power or does it make you look away?

Exile on Newbury St.

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