'LAYLA'

I think I was aware of the album of course when it came out but didn't buy it and yet bought the 12" single of Layla with it's long coda at the end that seemed like a operate piece of music. It is worth reading the notes here from Jeff Harris' blog which are tragic in the extreme and illustrate the pressures on stars are as heavy as those on any of us! [sic] And people wonder why there was only one Derek and The Dominos album!?!

On this day in music history: November 9, 1970 - “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs”, the lone studio album by Derek And The Dominos is released. Produced by Tom Dowd and Derek And The Dominos, it is recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami, FL from August 28 - October 2, 1970. Derek And The Dominos has its genesis in the Summer of 1969, during Blind Faith’s lone tour of the US. Opening for them are Delaney And Bonnie & Friends. Distracted by the adulation he has experienced previously, Eric Clapton is taken by the couple’s relative anonymity and the excellent musicianship of their band. Clapton tours with them again after Blind Faith split. In the Spring of 1970, former Delaney And Bonnie guitarist and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock visits Clapton in the UK. Both participate in sessions for George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”, and decide to form a band. Close friends with Harrison, Eric becomes infatuated with George’s wife Pattie Boyd Harrison. Deeply conflicted by his feelings for her, Clapton writes several songs with Whitlock. “Layla” (#10 Pop) is inspired by the poem “The Story of Layla and Majnun”, about a man who falls in love with a woman, and goes crazy when he can’t have her. Feeling that it mirrors his own situation, Clapton gives Pattie the nickname “Layla”. Bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon are summoned fill out the line up. Calling themselves “Eric Clapton And Friends”, they change their name to Derek And The Dominos. By August, the band are recording an album. During the sessions, guitarist Duane Allman is invited to hang out and jam. Bonding instantly, Clapton asks Allman to participate, adding his masterful slide guitar playing to several tracks. The album initially is a commercial failure, and the band falls apart while recording a second album. Interest in “Layla” is revived in 1972 when the title track is re-released, reaching the US top ten. In time, it becomes regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time, with the album receiving similar accolades. Nearly all of the members experience tragedy in the wake of bands demise, beginning with Allman’s death in October of 1971. Clapton spirals into heroin and alcohol addiction, Carl Radle dies in 1980 after years of drug and alcohol abuse, and Jim Gordon is committed to an institution after murdering his own mother in 1984. In 1990, it is reissued as a three CD box set featuring numerous outtakes, previously unreleased jam sessions and alternate versions. It is reissued again in 2011, as a two disc set with five previously unreleased live tracks. The Super Deluxe version also includes a 5.1 surround mix (a previous 5.1 mix is issued in 2004) and the live “In Concert” album originally released in 1973. “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs” peaks at number sixteen on the Billboard Top 200, is certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA, and is inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2000.