Once Layla went digital, it took a while to find its zenith. Especially revelatory: Jim Gordon's piano coda on the iconic title track and the delicate-flower nature of the album closer, "Thorn Tree in the Garden," sung with compassion by Whitlock and caressed by Allman's dobro. My turntable is even happier now thanks to the 50th anniversary 2020 Polydor/UMe half-speed-mastered 180-gram 4LP set overseen by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. I later upgraded to UMG International's 2013 Back to Black 180-gram 2LP set with noticeably better playback. My first 1970 Atco/Polydor Layla double LP sported a ringwear imprint that tarnished Frandsen de Schonberg's beautiful cover painting. (He passed away a decade later.) "Here we had two different cultures coming together-the common denominator being the old blues masters- and instead of clashing, their styles met head on. "It was the true fusion of American blues and jazz with The British Invasion," Layla executive producer Tom Dowd told me in 1992.
As time wore on, however, listeners warmed to all the angst found within Layla's grooves-not to mention garnered a better appreciation for the twin-guitar mindmeld between a raw, incendiary Clapton and fretboard legend Duane Allman, who contributed sizzling leads and searing slide guitar to 11 of the album's 14 songs.
Hence, Clapton did what any relatively desperate artist would to express his innermost feelings about the situation-he created an alternate identity (Derek), gathered a semi-fictional band around him (The Dominos), and channeled all of his heartache into a triumphant, sprawling double album, November 1970's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.Ĭlapton's anguish resulted in the hands-down best work of his career, though at the time of its release, Layla-named after a character in an epic, tragic 12th century Persian poem-was actually seen as somewhat of a failure. He was hopelessly in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his close friend George Harrison, and there was little he could do about it.
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