Derek and the Dominos

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Derek & the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos original lineup, left to right: Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle
Derek and the Dominos original lineup, left to right: Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle
Background information
Origin Flag of United States New York, New York, USA
Genre(s) Blues Rock
Years active 1970 — 1971
Label(s) Polydor
Members
Eric Clapton
Duane Allman (deceased)
Bobby Whitlock
Carl Radle (deceased)
Jim Gordon

Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon, who had all played with him in Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The band released only one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which featured "a guitar "tour de force" sparked by the contributions of guest artist Duane Allman",[1] from the Allman Brothers Band. The album went on to receive critical acclaim, but initially faltered in sales and in radio airplay. Although released in 1970 it wasn't until March 1972 that the album's single "Layla", (a tale of unrequited love inspired by Clapton's relationship with his friend George Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison) would make the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album, which has received praise from both critics and fans alike, is often considered to be the defining achievement of Clapton's career.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

The seeds of Derek and the Dominos can be found in their involvement with Delaney, Bonnie & Friends of which they were all members, including Duane Allman who had played prior to Clapton. The members' departures from the group were caused by the constant infighting between Delaney and Bonnie, Whitlock explains:

“ Delaney was a little James Brownish, real hard to work with, him and Bonnie fighting all the time and carrying on. Everyone got disenchanted with the situation.[4] ”

After leaving Delaney and Bonnie & Friends, Whitlock was called by Clapton to visit him in England; Whitlock would subsequently live in Clapton's house and during that period the two would jam, hang out and write the bulk of the Dominos' catalog.

Soon after, they called the rest of their former Delaney and Bonnie musicians, Dave Mason, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon and together the quintet became the backing band for George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass.[5]

The group officially debuted at the Lyceum Theatre in London on June 14, 1970 advertised as "Eric Clapton and Friends". This was Mason's only appearance with the Dominos. The band was unnamed at the time and its final name, Derek and the Dominos, was an accident, by all accounts. Whitlock claims the previous performer, Tony Ashton of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke mispronounced their provisional name of "Eric and the Dynamos" as Derek and the Dominos.[6] However, in Clapton's biography a different story emerges claiming Ashton told Clapton to call the band "Del and the Dominos", Del being his nickname for Clapton. Del and Eric were combined and the final name became "Derek and the Dominos."[7] Either way, the band took up the new name and embarked on a summer tour of small clubs in England where Clapton chose to play anonymously, still weary from the fame and high profile chaos that he had felt plagued Cream and Blind Faith.[8]

From late August to early October 1970, working at Criteria Studios in Miami under the guidance of Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, the band recorded Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, a double album now regarded by many critics as Clapton's masterpiece. Most of the material, including "Layla" (which soon became an FM radio staple) was inspired by Clapton's unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, who was married to his best friend George Harrison.[9] It was not until several years that Pattie would consent to an affair and later move in with Clapton in 1974 and marry him in 1979. They separated in 1985 when Clapton started a relationship with Yvonne Khan Kelly and they divorced in 1988. Whitlock reminiscing would later say:

“ The basic concept of Derek and the Dominos was that we didn't want any horns, we didn't want no chicks, we wanted a Rock n' Roll band. But my vocal concept was that we approach singing like Sam and Dave did: he sings a line, I sing a line, we sing together ”

[edit] Duane Allman's inclusion

Duane Allman
Duane Allman

A few days into the Layla sessions, Dowd, who was also producing for the Allmans for their album Idlewild South, invited Clapton to an Allman Brothers outdoor concert in Miami. After several hours in the studio earlier that day the band was snuck into the show with the help of Dowd and sat between the riser and fans below. At the concert, Dowd distinctly remembers:

“ Duane was in the middle of a solo; he opens his eyes and looks down, does a dead stare, and stops playing. Dickey Betts is chugging along, see Duane's stopped playing, and figures he'd better cover, that Duane must've broken a string or something. Then Dickey looks down, sees Eric, and turns his back. That was how they first saw each other.[10] ”

The next day Duane arrived at the Criteria studios around 3 o' clock and would quickly befriend Clapton; Dowd says their easiness with one another was instantaneous,[11] saying they were

“ trading licks, they were swapping guitars, they were talking shop and information and having a ball, no hold barred, just admiration for each other's technique and facility. We got back, turned the tapes on, and they went on for fifteen, eighteen hours like that. I went through two or three sets of engineers. ”

Those jams can be found on the second CD of The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition. After the jam sessions Clapton invited Allman to become the fifth and final member of the Dominos. When Allman and Clapton met, the Dominos had already recorded three tracks ("I Looked Away", "Bell Bottom Blues", and "Keep On Growing"); Allman debuted on the fourth cut, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", and played co-lead and slide guitar on the remainder of the LP. Many critics would later notice that Clapton played best when in a band composed of dual guitars; working with another guitarist kept him from getting "sloppy and lazy and this was undeniably the case with Duane Allman."[12]

[edit] The Layla album

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Main article: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Although most commonly attributed to Clapton, the album was truly a group effort.[13] Only two of the fourteen songs on the album were written by Clapton alone and Whitlock writing one of the tracks alone "Thorn Tree in the Garden." Rather, most of the songs were the product of Clapton and Whitlock's writing co-operation, but a number of blues standards were included as well, including "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" (Jimmy Cox), "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" (a Billy Myles song originally recorded by Freddie King), and "Key To The Highway" (William Broonzy).

The last of these was a pure accident – the band heard an artist in another room at the studio doing the song, liked it, and spontaneously started playing it. The startled Dowd heard what was happening, and quickly told the engineers to start the tape recorder running — which explains why the song fades in the middle on the album.[14]

"Tell the Truth" was initially recorded in June 1970 under the direction of Phil Spector as a fast up-beat song and released soon after as a single. But during the Layla sessions, "Tell the Truth" was recorded again, but this time as a long and slow instrumental jam. The final version of the song that appears on the album is a combination of these two takes: the frantic pace of the single is slowed down to the laid-back speed of the instrumental. The two previous versions of "Tell the Truth" were released on The History of Eric Clapton (1972).

Audio sample:

The most critically acclaimed and popular song off the album, "Layla", was recorded in separate sessions; the opening guitar section was recorded first, with the second section following several months later. Clapton thought Layla was missing an acceptable ending; an abrupt conclusion would diminish the intensity of the music and a fadeout detract from the urgency of the lyrics. The answer was an elegiac piano piece composed and played by drummer Jim Gordon. Gordon had been separately writing and playing songs during the Layla Sessions for a solo album when Clapton accidentally heard the piano piece, Clapton asked Gordon to use the piano piece as the ending for "Layla", Gordon agreed and the song was complete.[15]

When the album was released in December 1970, it was a critical and commercial flop. The album failed to make the top 10 in the United States and didn't even chart in the United Kingdom. It garnered little attention which some blamed on Polydor for a lack of promoting the record and general unawareness of Clapton's presence in the band.[16] However, the song "Layla" when released in 1972 as a single would be a "smash hit" charting in both the U.S. (#10) and the UK (#7) and again chart in 1982.[17] Clapton reworked the song as an acoustic ballad in 1992 for his MTV: Unplugged album and that also managed to chart at #12 in the U.S. and the album win a Grammy Award.

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs has continued to be noticed by critics and has been named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#89).[18] and Rolling Stone (#115).[19].

[edit] Live shows

Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, and Duane Allman live at the Curtis Hixon Hall, one of the two shows which Allman appeared.
Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, and Duane Allman live at the Curtis Hixon Hall, one of the two shows which Allman appeared.

After the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the group undertook a drug-riddled and vice-prone U.S. tour that didn't include Allman, who had returned to The Allman Brothers Band after the recording process. However, Allman did perform two shows with the group at Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa, in Florida, on December 1, 1970, and at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York the following night. By all accounts, including a bootleg recording of the Florida concert, both shows with Allman were disasters. Whitlock recalls their drug situation as:

“ We didn't have little bits of anything. There were no grams around, let's just put it like that. Tom couldn't believe it, the way we had these big bags laying out everywhere. I'm almost ashamed to tell it, but it's the truth. It was scary, what we were doing, but we were just young and dumb and didn't know. Cocaine and heroin, that's all and Johnny Walker.[20] ”

Despite the drugs, the tour resulted in a well received live double album, In Concert, which was recorded from a pair of shows at the Fillmore East in New York, New York. Six of the recordings from that album were digitally remastered and expanded with additional material from the same shows to become Live at the Fillmore, released in 1994.

[edit] Tragedy and dissolution

Eric Clapton performing at the Fillmore East for the recording of In Concert
Eric Clapton performing at the Fillmore East for the recording of In Concert

Tragedy dogged the group throughout its brief career. During the sessions, Clapton was devastated by the death of his friend and professional rival, Jimi Hendrix; eight days previously the band had cut a version of "Little Wing", which was added to the album as a tribute. One year later, on the eve of the group's first American tour, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Adding to Clapton's woes, the Layla album received only lukewarm reviews and weak album sales upon release; Clapton took this personally, accelerating his spiral into drug addiction and depression.[21] In 1985 when talking about the band Clapton remarked:

“ We were a make believe band. We were all hiding inside it. Derek and the Dominos--the whole thing....assumed. So it couldn't last. I had to come out and admit that I was being me. I mean, being Derek was a cover for the fact that I was trying to steal someone else's wife. That was one of the reasons for doing it, so that I could write the song, and even use another name for Pattie. So Derek and Layla - it wasn't real at all.[22] ”

The band disintegrated messily in London just before they could complete their second LP. Much later in an interview with music critic Robert Palmer, Clapton said the second album "broke down half-way through because of the paranoia and tension. And the band just...dissolved."[23] Although Radle worked with Clapton for several more years, the split between Clapton and Whitlock was apparently a bitter one. Radle would die of alcohol poisoning in 1980 and Jim Gordon, who was an undiagnosed schizophrenic, killed his mother with a hammer some years later during a psychotic episode. He was confined to a mental institution in 1984, where he remains today.[24]

After the dissolution, Clapton turned away from touring and recording to nurse an intense heroin addiction[25] resulting in a career hiatus interrupted only by George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 and the Rainbow Concert in 1973 (see 1973 in music), the latter organised by The Who's Pete Townshend to help Clapton to kick the drug and build momentum for a Clapton return.[26]

Song material from the group has been present on many of Clapton's compilation albums (i.e. Crossroads) and music from the abortive second album sessions was later released in a 3 CD/cassettes box set aptly titled The Layla Sessions.

The group's sole studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs although initially a critical and commercial flop in 1971.[27] has since charted in 1972 and 1982 and is now considered among Clapton's most outstanding achievements.[28] The band's producer, Tom Dowd said of it that he "felt it was the best...album I'd been involved with since The Genius of Ray Charles" and was disappointed at the lack of acclaim it garnered in its release.[29]

[edit] Members

[edit] Discography

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
November 1970
#32 (US)
2. In Concert
(January 1973)
3. The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition
(August 1990)
4. Live at the Fillmore
(February 1994)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Romanowski, , Patricia (2003). Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Rolling Stone Press, ISBN 0-671-43457-8
  2. ^ nndb.com. Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
  3. ^ superseventies.com. Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
  4. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 5.
  5. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 5.
  6. ^ artistfacts.com. Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
  7. ^ Schumacher, Michael (1992). Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2466-9.
  8. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 4.
  9. ^ msnmusic.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
  10. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 6.
  11. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 7.
  12. ^ Schumacher, Michael (1992). Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2466-9.
  13. ^ Reason to Rock. Retrieved on September 26, 2006.
  14. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 6.
  15. ^ Schumacher, Michael (1992). Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2466-9.
  16. ^ Shapiro, Harry (1992). Eric Clapton:Lost in the Blues Da Capo Press Inc., ISBN 0-306-80480-8
  17. ^ Sandford, Christopher (1999). Clapton:Edge of Darkness Da Capo Press Inc., ISBN 0-306-80897-8
  18. ^ VH1's List of Greatest Albums. Retrieved on October 6, 2006.
  19. ^ Rolling Stone's List of Greatest Albums. Retrieved on October 6, 2006.
  20. ^ The Layla Sessions liner notes, page 12.
  21. ^ Biography on Clapton Fanclub Magazine. Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
  22. ^ Decurtis, Anthony (May 1998). Rocking My Life Away, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-2184-X
  23. ^ Decurtis, Anthony (May 1998). Rocking My Life Away, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-2184-X
  24. ^ Romanowski, Patricia (2003). Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Rolling Stone Press, ISBN 0-671-43457-8
  25. ^ VH1.com Derek and the Dominos. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  26. ^ Romanowski, Patricia (2003). Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Rolling Stone Press, ISBN 0-671-43457-8
  27. ^ Shapiro, Harry (1992). Eric Clapton:Lost in the Blues Da Capo Press Inc., ISBN 0-306-80480-8
  28. ^ allmusic.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
  29. ^ About.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2006.

[edit] External links

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