Derek and the Dominos

Derek and the Dominos was a music group formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist/singer Eric Clapton with other former members of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends: Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon and the later inclusion of Duane Allman from the Allman Brothers Band. They were a blues-rock band that demonstrated virtuosity at its finest and is considered to be among Clapton's very finest works.

Beginnings

The group debuted at the Lyceum Theatre in London on June 14, 1970 where the announcer mispronounced their provisional name of Eric and the Dynamos to Derek and the Dominos, the band decided to take up the new name and undertook a summer tour of England. From late August to early October, working at Criteria Studios in Miami with legendary Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, the band recorded a brilliant double-album which is now widely regarded as Clapton's masterpiece, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Most of the material, including the title track (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. Clapton was seeing Patti secretly at the time and Whitlock was dating her sister. It was not until much later that the affair was open and Boyd moved in with Clapton in 1974 and married him in 1979. However, they were seperated in 1985 when Clapton started a relationship with Yvonne Khan Kelly and they divorced in 1988. The two-part. "Layla" was recorded in separate sessions; the opening guitar section was recorded first, and for the second section, laid down several months later. The second section was an elegiac piano piece composed and played by drummer Jim Gordon; he early on objected to it being added onto Layla but after some arguing amongst the band he finally agreed.

Related Topics:
Lyceum Theatre - Atlantic Records - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Unrequited love - Pattie Boyd - George Harrison

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