50 Years Later: Revisiting Derek and The Dominos’ Profound Double LP ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’

Difficult as it may be to believe half a century on, Derek and The Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (released 11/9/70) was not wholeheartedly embraced by critics or the general public at the time of its release just three months after Eric Clapton’s eponymous solo debut. The camouflage of Slowhand’s real name was no doubt a factor, but his status as guitar hero worked against him too: if he wasn’t soloing, many listeners weren’t so interested, much less fully engaged. 

To be fair, though, The Dominos weren’t exactly one firebrand of a band. Keyboardist, vocalist and composer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon were all refugees from Delaney & Bonnie’s Friends who had first coalesced around the man once called God when participating in George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album. The taste and economy with which they naturally played foreshadowed the group Clapton used in the studio and on-stage during the comeback encompassing 461 Ocean Blvd. and, as such, their musicianship insinuated rather than overpowered. 

Duane Allman was the catalyst in elevating the group to a markedly more intense level of interplay, whether he was blazing away with his slide on “Anyday” or gently adding decorative touches to the subdued “I Am Yours.” After a somewhat fitful start to the recording under the aegis of Tom Dowd—who was producing the ABB’s Idlewild South when he acted as liaison between EC and Skydog—the Southerner’s fiery guitar work not only ignited Eric’s own playing, but instigated a bond between all five musicians. 

There’s a readily discernible progression in that relationship in listening to the album as it was eventually released. The man nicknamed ‘Skydog’ clearly brought a creative camaraderie to the band lacking in the initial sessions and, in reading the chronological annotations for the sequence of fourteen total tracks, the founder and linchpin of the ABB is not involved until “Nobody Knows You Till You’re Down and Out,” a slow blues where the innate passion of the musicianship rises to a level far beyond that of the preceding “I Looked Away,” “Bell Bottom Blues” and even “Keep On Growing.”  

The appearance of Clapton and The Dominos on ‘The Johnny Cash Show,” with and without the host and Carl Perkins, highlights the natural understatement within the core four that the founder of Allman Brothers Band galvanized with such grand results. Perfectly appropriately, just such a peak, perhaps the very epitome thereof, occurs at the very beginning of  the title song, through the exalting opening riff Duane professed he based on one of Albert King’s (from “As The Years Go Passing By”). 

In that regard, the four fairly open-ended jams that appear on 1990’s The Layla Sessions 20th Anniversary Edition are as enlightening in their own way as the previously-unreleased material (including recordings for an aborted second studio album) contained on  The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. The former took place after producer Tom Dowd escorted Eric to an Allmans show, following which its titular leader and the British guitarist, along with various other members of the  Brothers, including guitarist Dickey Betts and drummer Butch Trucks, returned to Criteria Studios; in this spontaneous setting the two brilliant fretboarders discovered the potential of their partnership and subsequently decided to explore it formally as they do with such mutual relish on “Key to the Highway” as well as the acoustic duet outtake “Mean Old World”). 

Another heartrending slow blues, “Have You Ever Loved A Woman.” as well as the straightforward r&b of “It’s Too Late,” stand as allusions to those personal observations Eric Clapton tenders in his original songs such as “Tell The Truth.” And this stirring rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ “Little Wing” fits into the autobiographical scheme underlying Layla too: it constitutes affectionate and respectful homage to the iconic guitar hero from men who admired his innovative technique as much as the depth of feeling in his playing. Its majesty is also redolent of the mutual admiration between these two brilliant and consummately professional guitarists: even during the frenetic “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?,” Allman never oversteps his bounds, while the bandleader tends to defer to him even as Duane’s pronounced presence elevates the ingenuity of his own playing.

Refusing to officially join the band at the time because The Allman Brothers Band was still working to make a name for itself, Duane Allman did nonetheless guest with Derek and The Dominos for two gigs within the latter’s otherwise very limited touring. In the years since, Clapton has largely eschewed delving too far into the contents of the album—though he did perform some strings of the tunes while Derek Trucks toured with him in 2007—but that’s understandable considering the circumstances of the recording. 

Quibble as some may with the various versions, remixed and otherwise, including the vinyl package of 2020, the performances of this music alone, as originally released, comprises the pinnacle of Eric’s career, a point that’s become all the more irrefutable in the half-century since it first came out, under the radar of its time.