While Derek and the Dominos’ Layla is heralded for its electric guitar riff, its cinematic piano outro is considered by many fans to be a classic contribution to the iconic rock song in its own right.

However, Rita Coolidge – who alleges she wrote that very coda, having played it to Clapton some time before it became part of Layla’s structure – never received credit for the role she says she played in bringing it to life.

As per Guitar Player, a recently resurfaced clip from an interview that Professor or Rock conducted with Coolidge last year has once again shed light on the alleged credit issues surrounding Layla.

In it, the Grammy-winning vocalist – who’s performed with Delaney & Bonnie, and served as a back-up singer for Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan and, of course, Clapton – remembers being rebuffed when she sought out an appropriate songwriting credit for her compositions.

In the interview, Coolidge explains she wrote the coda with Jim Gordon – who would later play drums in Derek and the Dominos – and produced a demo cassette. Not long after, she played the song for Clapton in the studio.

“We made a little demo and when we got into the studio a couple of months later I sat down at the piano in breaks between songs, played the song for Eric, he liked it, and I left the cassette on the piano,” Coolidge says.

“I felt nothing had happened with that. Immediately after, they formed Derek and the Dominos.”

Then, while in the studio for a photoshoot to support her first solo album, Coolidge heard that unmistakable coda.

“I hear this music come over the PA system in the studio and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I recognize this music and know this music,'” she says. “They’re like, ‘You don’t know it, it’s a brand-new Eric Clapton record,’ and I said, ‘It’s my music!’ They took pictures of the veins popping out in my neck. I was so upset.

“I ran out of the studio and ran to Tower Records, and picked up the record to see if I had gotten any credit and of course I didn’t.”

Coolidge tried getting in touch with Clapton through Robert Stigwood, who was Slowhand’s manager at the time, to smooth things over.

“I got him finally on the phone, and I said, ‘I’m one of the writers, that’s my music.’ He said, ‘Yeah, what are you gonna do about it? You’re a girl. You don’t have the money to fight this. Let it go.’ And that was it.

“I went back to my record company and they said, 'This record company doesn’t have the money to fight Robert Stigwood.' So the only thing I can do is tell my story.”

Coolidge previously discussed the alleged injustice in her memoir, writing (via Miami Herald), “I was infuriated. What they had clearly done was take the song Jim and I had written, jettisoned the lyrics, and tacked it to the end of Eric’s song. It was almost the same as the arrangement.”

Coolidge’s composition originally had lyrics, and was later released as Time by her sister, Priscilla, and Booker T.

It was of little consolation, though. Gordon received a songwriting credit for Layla, but Coolidge didn’t. “There was no way Jim could have forgotten we’d written the song together,” she continued in her memoir. “And, frankly, I don’t think Eric could have, either.”

As for the writing of Layla and its piano coda, Clapton himself told Guitar Player in 1985, “Jim Gordon wrote that and had been secretly going back into the studio and recording his own album, without any of us knowing it.

“And they were all love songs composed on the piano. And we caught him playing this one day and said, 'Come on, man. Can we have that?' So he was happy to give us that part. And we made the two pieces into one song.”

Perhaps more than any musician on a landmark recording, the bass player can languish in anonymity even long after the song attains classic status.

Witness Carl Radle, who from the late '60s to the late '70s grounded such mega-hits as Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight and Lay Down Sally, George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, Leon Russell's Tightrope, and Delaney & Bonnie's Never Ending Song of Love, not to mention Joe Cocker's gritty Mad Dogs and Englishmen covers.

Radle's discerning, flash-free bass guitar style didn't draw him any additional outside attention, but he had an impact on many bassists – including his peer Jerry Scheff, who credits Radle with changing his concept and teaching him about the elegance of space in the groove.

Radle was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the same day as Paul McCartney. He had logged some time on the clarinet, piano, and guitar by the time he picked up a Danelectro bass at age 15 – enabling him to do his first gig the very next day!

Drawing from the influences of Willie Dixon, and Joe Osborn, Radle hooked up with fellow Tulsa native Leon Russell, eventually heeding his advice to move to Los Angeles.

Quickly established, Radle balanced his big-time rock credits among stints with Gary Lewis & the Playboys, J.J. Cale, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Sergio Mendes, Dr. John, and King Curtis, before the cumulative effects of alcohol and drugs led to his death from kidney disease in 1980, at age 37.

No Radle performance alludes to his versatility better than Derek & the Dominos' Layla. On Clapton's song about his love for George Harrison's wife, Patti Boyd – made all the more poignant by the haunting piano coda written and played by drummer Jim Gordon – Radle revealed his melodic sensibilities beneath the immortal pairing of guitar gods Clapton and Duane Allman.

The sessions took place at Miami's Criteria Studios Room B in early September 1970, with the four joined by keyboardist/guitarist Bobby Whitlock (who maintains that he did a take of the piano part, with producer Tom Dowd combining his and Gordon's takes for the released version).

The song was actually three separately recorded parts spliced together: The blues-rock opening section, Gordon's solo piano, and the last section, with the band coming back in to play to the piano track. The first section was recorded in F (Dm) and the piano sections were recorded in C – however, the tape was sped up slightly to make the keys sound closer to F# (D#m), and C#.

The song opens with four bars of Allman's regal riff, doubled by Clapton. Entering with support at bar 5 are Gordon's drums and Radle, whose quarter-note-on-the-downbeat pattern anchors the soaring dual guitars.

With the electric guitars paring way back for the vocal entrance at the first verse, Radle ups his motion via double-time-implying funky syncopation. He then shows his keen melodic side starting at 00:33 with a harmonically astute ascending line through the chord changes that peaks at the high F#.

For the corresponding next two bars he descends via three jazzy drops – possibly the result of his being a fan of Ray Brown and Stanley Clarke. As Radle told Guitar Player in August 1976, when asked about his role with Clapton, “I'm doing both rhythm and countermelody at the same time. I consider myself the connection between, say, Eric and the drums. Melodically, I would listen to Eric, but my responsibility is really with the rhythm section.”

The solo piano at 03:11 initiates the song's second half, and with the band poised to re-enter at 03:34, Radle unleashes a slide-filled pentatonic pickup, perhaps a nod to the influence of Joe Osborn's smooth, slide-laden bass guitar style. For the next 16 bars he establishes a legato, melodic pace, heavy on tone and expressive phrasing.

At 04:10 (the B section of the piano coda), note how Radle matches the rhythm of the ascending melody exactly in the second half of the bar, while countering it with a descending line. Finally, the extended outro is boosted by the return of such subtleties as scoops and the long and short notes he used so effectively in the song's first half.

Radle likely played his Fender Precision Bass with a Jazz Bass neck, strung with Ernie Ball flatwounds and recorded direct and through a Fender Bassman amp, with mostly the direct signal used.

Since brothers Howard and Ron Albert transformed their Criteria Studios in Miami from a one-room recording booth into a premier destination for big artists, they’ve accumulated 40 gold and 30 platinum records.

Or so Howard reckons. Their resume includes Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa and more, which means he's probably right.

While their innovative multi-mic recording technique built their reputation, Ron says that’s not the only thing that made Criteria Studios special.

“What made it great was that we had several rooms,” he tells Guitar World. “We had a lot of camaraderie between acts.

“Someone was in one room and they’d come into the next studio, sit in on something, maybe help to do a guitar part. It would happen on so many records. Because of that, I couldn’t begin to tell you who played on what!”

While the Albert Brothers rubbed elbows with Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh, the best of their work probably came via Dickey Betts and Duane Allman, resulting in records like Eat a Peach – which Ron holds dear.

“That was finished after Duane died,” he says. “Though he played on some of the tracks, Dickey went and learned the slide part for Melissa. Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, this is Duane.’ But Duane wasn’t there; it’s Dickey Betts.”

The Albert Brothers sold Criteria Studios in 1983 and retired; but in 1987 they formed Vision Studios and Audio Vision Studios, which today focus on hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Lil John and Ludacris – a far cry from the guitar-drenched days of the ‘70s.

“We were sort of cheating the world because there were two of us,” Howard says.

“We had one standing in the control room while the other was moving mics. We could hear the change from location to location. We could get guitar sounds that no one else was getting then because we had two sets of ears.”

How did Criteria Studios form?

Howard: “It was originally started by Mack Emerman. He was recording jazz records at his house in Coconut Grove. His father had a piece of land nearby on which he was going to build a candy store. Mack convinced him to let him have the property, and we built the recording studio.”

Ron: “It was a one-room facility.”

Howard: “It kind of grew from there. When Ron and I started at Criteria, we started in that one room. It grew to a larger room called Studio A, and then there was Studio B, Studio C, Studio D and so on.”

You were innovators in how you recorded sound.

Ron: “As technology improved, we’d work on our skills. We’d come in late – everybody else would go home at six o’clock. We came up with our multi-mic technique for recording drums: we’d go overhead, have one mic on the kick and mics on every cymbal.

“Part of getting a good guitar sound was knowing the instrument. People will still behave like they’re on stage, and put a microphone straight on a guitar – but if you move the mic six inches to the left, or right, or down, suddenly the sound is so much different.”

Early on, you worked with Jimi Hendrix, who’s primarily known for working with Eddie Kramer. What was that like?

Ron: “Eddie was the chief engineer at Electric Lady, and I was the chief engineer at Criteria. We became friends. Eddie would stay at my house in Miami, and I would stay at his house if I was in New York.

“We were the Miami Pop Festival, which came before Woodstock – kind of a dry run. We had all our equipment in the truck, along with our custom console.

“Eddie came with Jimi; Jimi was on stage and Eddie came in the truck with us. Eddie says, ‘You tape it,’ because he didn’t know our setup.

“We recorded him there, and that became part of our resume, due to Eddie. He’s a good friend.”

How did you become involved with Derek and the Dominos?

Howard: “We were doing a lot of Atlantic Records acts, and they were one of the acts that came through. It was amazing to work with them because they were such amazing players and musicians. It was like a big jam session – which was good because we had a lot of good pieces to put together.”

What was it like working with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman?

Ron: “Eric was in England when they started rehearsing, then he decided to come to Miami. When we started the sessions they didn’t have a name, but it was a real band. I remember we set up Eric and Duane in the studio, so they were face-to-face about two feet apart.

“They could literally touch each other’s guitars if they wanted to; and, like Howard said, it was a good jam session. Eric’s playing was unbelievable because he was held up by Duane’s playing, and Duane was held up by Eric. The rest is history.”

Another big piece of your history is your relationship with the Allman Brothers Band.

Ron: “Duane, of course, gets all the credit – but there’s no Allman Brothers without Dickey Betts. Dickey came up with all the harmonies, and Duane played ‘em. Not unlike Eric and Duane, Dickey and Duane were on such a plane together.

“Dickey’s style was so unique in his harmony parts. We’d sit in the studio for hours, rewinding the tape to play it back for him.

“We knew we already had the track, but he’d work for hours getting those harmony parts together. He would show them to Duane, he’d play them, and what came out was Jessica or In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. That stuff doesn’t happen without Dickey.”

Howard: “Dickey had this way of playing; he matched what Duane did on slide, but he’d do it pretty much without a slide. It was pretty amazing what he’d come up with.”

Ron: “Duane died when he was 24 years old; but the thing was that, without people knowing it, Dickey had stepped into the leadership role.”

You also worked with Joe Walsh on The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get.

Howard: “That was an awe-inspiring guitar moment for us. We did that record with Joe in Studio C, and we kind of had him set up in the hallway. We went through the intro; he was playing and he had no idea we were actually recording it.

“As he was getting ready to say, ‘Okay, I’m ready,’ we called him in and said, ‘Now you’re done.’ Rocky Mountain Way was done in one take, so that was pretty good!”

What was it like working with the Rolling Stones on Goat's Head Soup?

Ron: “They were really great. They drove themselves to the studio in rented station wagons – they didn’t come in limousines. When they arrived, they took their guitars out of the cases and tuned up themselves. They were just like regular people.

“Keith Richards is a character, alright! But I think the one thing that stands out was when we came in one day, and they were hopping around like bunnies for the whole session!”

You also worked with Frank Zappa in the ‘70s.

Howard: “All these players come in with their own sound. Our job is to capture that sound. All these guys use Fender or Gibson guitars and whatever brand of amp, but Frank was a player with his own approach.

“I think that’s what gave him the sound, along with the ideas. And our job was to capture that sound; and again, that comes down to knowing where to place a mic. We really needed to listen to what Frank was playing and then figure out how to get it all to tape.”

You’re renowned for your drum sounds, but you greatly impacted the guitar landscape too. What are you most proud of at that end?

Howard: “Well, I’m proud we lived through it! But I don't know… we were in the right place at the right time. We had some talent and knew what we were doing, and that came out in the records. But we had an extremely high caliber of people that we worked with, and that certainly helped make something that lasts.”

In late 1968, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood had a conversation that would help define Clapton’s direction in the coming decade. 

“We discussed the philosophy of what we wanted to do,” Clapton recalled in his autobiography. “Steve said that for him, it was all about unskilled labor, where you just played with your friends and fit the music around that. It was the opposite of virtuosity, and it rang a bell with me because I was trying so hard to escape the pseudo-virtuoso image I had helped create for myself.”

Indeed, Clapton’s Sixties hadn’t been so much swinging as swashbuckling. From the Yardbirds to the Bluesbreakers to Cream to Blind Faith, he leapt from band to band, wielding Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, and 335s, while fanatics with spray-paint cans started a new three-word graffiti gospel across England – “Clapton is God.”

In the final days of Cream, the by-then reluctant messiah’s go-to escape for sanity was the Band’s 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. That, and the music of J.J. Cale, with its understatement, groove, and economy, became stylistic templates for Clapton, as did a brief tour in 1969 with Delaney & Bonnie, who encouraged him to focus on his singing and songwriting.

So began the transition from ‘God’ to ‘good all-rounder.’

Of course, it wasn’t just musical influences that were shaping him. He came into the decade with a developing addiction to heroin, which – after his first solo album – became so debilitating that it sidelined him for two and a half years. 

When he finally managed to get clean, it was only to trade one dependency for another. To read the chapters about the Seventies in Clapton’s autobiography is to almost feel contact drunkenness, so prevalent was his boozing. But like many alcoholics, he was high-functioning, and he continued to tour and make records. 

What follows is a roundup of those records and key moments, along with conversations with a few supporting players who were integral to Clapton’s Seventies.

Eric Clapton (1970)

Opening songs say so much. Released in August 1970, Eric Clapton, his first solo album, could have rung in the new decade with the heralding guitar chime of Let It Rain, the big brass gallop of After Midnight, or the kicked-down doors of Leon Russell’s Blues Power. 

Instead, he chose to slunk into the 11-song sequence with a funky instrumental jam called, well, Slunky. Led by Bobby Keys’ sax, it’s a minute-and-a-half before Clapton’s guitar appears, and even then, he’s mostly just idling on one note with wrist-shaking vibrato and repeating a six-note blues lick… So, what’s the message here? 

It’s very much about subverting, then redefining, Clapton’s guitar hero status. As he put it to Circus, “Until I’m either a great songwriter or a great singer, I shall carry on being embarrassed when people come on with that praise stuff about my guitar solos.”

To that end, this album really does make a steady move forward on those fronts. The lilting Easy Now, with its falsetto break melody and major-to-minor shifts, is an obvious nod to George Harrison (big strumming courtesy of “Ivan the Terrible,” Clapton’s beloved custom-made Tony Zemaitis 12-string guitar). 

Bottle of Red Wine shuffles with searing, less-is-more blues licks. Lonesome and a Long Way from Home features one of Clapton’s most soulful, confident vocals. And even though he’d later complain that his voice sounded “too young” on this record, he strikes a balance between the grit and laid-back phrasing that would define his style. 

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970) 

Released just three months after his self-titled debut, Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs marked the last of the five legendary bands that Clapton would join or lead before officially going solo. 

With classics like the title track, Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?, Bell Bottom Blues and his blazing cover of Freddie King’s Have You Ever Loved a Woman, the record was an exorcism for Clapton, working through his tortured love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of George Harrison. Because Clapton’s name and image was absent from the sleeve (the label later added stickers explaining that “Derek is Eric!”), the record initially didn’t sell. 

Friendly Gunslinger: An interview with Chuck Kirkpatrick

Engineer Chuck Kirkpatrick – one of the last surviving members of the team behind Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs – spoke to us about his impressions of Clapton’s playing and his “friendly gunslinger” competition with Duane Allman.

What was your impression of Eric Clapton in 1970?

“From day one, he just wanted to play the blues, in a pure sense. He was trying to escape all that ‘Clapton is God’ stuff. He just wanted to be in a band. Because he was the most famous, he was the bandleader. But he didn’t dictate.”

How did Eric and Duane meet?

“We all went to see the Allman Brothers perform in Miami, and afterwards, Eric invited Duane back to Criteria Studios. At midnight, Duane walks in. Moments later, they were sitting down with guitars, laughing and trading licks.”

Were they competitive? 

“Well, I remember the session for Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? Duane and Eric came in to overdub solos. Eric went out, while Duane stayed in the control room, and he played a great solo. Then Tom Dowd said, ‘Now, Duane, you go out there and do one.’ So Duane played a great solo, came back, and Eric says, ‘Well, I want to do mine again!’ This went on for at least an hour or two. [Laughs] It was a gunfight, but a friendly one.”

What gear did Clapton use? 

“His ‘Brownie’ Stratocaster into a Fender Champ. He would crank it all the way up, and that was the sound he liked. It was very easy to record because it really didn’t make all that much noise in the room. He also used a blonde Fender Bandmaster for cleaner, fatter rhythm parts. But all the solos are played through the Champ, with no effects.” 

Did you have the sense during the making of this record that it was going to be as successful as it eventually became?

“When it came out, Atlantic either didn’t get behind it, or people were confused by the band name. The record didn’t take off until a few years later. What I thought then is what I still think – it’s one of the greatest guitar records ever made.”

1971 to 1973: I Looked Away

From 1971 to ’73, Clapton was in “self-imposed exile,” as he slipped deeper into heroin addiction. He admitted that, initially, he was swayed by the drug’s romantic mythology, surrounding the lives of musical heroes Charlie Parker and Ray Charles. 

“But addiction doesn’t negotiate, and it gradually crept up on me, like a fog,” Clapton said. He half-heartedly tried clinics and therapies, but mostly spent his days “eating junk food, lying on the couch, and watching TV.” 

His guitar skills atrophied. There were only two musical interludes during this period – George Harrison’s August 1971 Concert for Bangladesh in New York and a January 13, 1973, concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre, which was basically a rescue mission led by Steve Winwood and Pete Townshend “to prop Eric up and teach him how to play again.” 

Finally, a stint on the family farm of his then-girlfriend, Alice Ormsby-Gore, helped Clapton “trade isolation for gregarious living” and rediscover the guitar and music. While he admitted that he traded one abusable substance for another, Clapton said he left the farm “fit, clean, and buzzing with excitement at the possibilities ahead.” 

461 Ocean Boulevard (1974)

The title of 461 Ocean Boulevard represents the oceanside Miami address where Clapton started redefining himself musically. At Clapton’s request, Derek and the Dominos bassist Carl Radle had put together a core band, including Tulsa-based drummer Jamie Oldaker and pianist Dick Sims.

They were joined by local session guitarist George Terry, keyboardist Albhy Galuten and backing vocalist Yvonne Elliman (Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar) at Criteria, with Tom Dowd in the producer’s chair.

For three weeks, working mostly through the wee hours, Clapton and the band jammed on blues covers by Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon and worked up three originals. There were a few extroverted moments, especially on Mainline Florida and Motherless Children, which retooled a 1927 gospel standard into a steamrolling romp. But mostly, the record sustains a slow-burn intensity – much influenced by J.J. Cale – especially on Give Me Strength, I Can’t Hold Out, and the gospel-esque Let It Grow. 

The set’s surprise hit came via a cover of Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff, which Clapton fought to leave off the record, but which helped make said record a Number 1 platinum-seller. Re-learning to play, his guitar solos are tasteful and simple throughout, more melodic than the “gymnastic playing” he’d come to resist. Clapton said, “I knew I could still play from the heart, and no matter how primitive or sloppy it sounded, it would be real. That was my strength.”

The Turning Point: An interview with Albhy Galuten

Best known for co-producing the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Albhy Galuten also worked with Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, and Jellyfish. 

Starting as Tom Dowd’s assistant on the Derek and the Dominos record, Galuten joined Clapton’s studio band as keyboardist for 461 Ocean Boulevard, remaining part of the team for the rest of the decade. He also co-wrote Slowhand’s closing track, Peaches and Diesel, with Clapton.

Why was 461 Ocean Boulevard such an important album for Clapton? 

“When Eric came back, he was clean, more relaxed and done with wanting to be famous. 461 was a turning point. He was leaving the bombast behind him. It was more like, ‘I just want to play with my friends in a band and make a nice record. We’re not going to worry about hits.’ He even said to me, ‘If I knew what hits were, then all blues records would be hits.’ Even though the album is laid-back, there’s an intensity to it, and that came out of his history of very emotional situations in his life.”

You’d worked with Clapton a few years earlier. How had his guitar playing changed? 

“When he was younger, I think he was trying to impress people. Then as he got older, he was just trying to play the song. Eric put in his 10,000 hours to get his technique to where it was flawless. And then once he let it go, he was like Oscar Peterson or Ella Fitzgerald, where your instrument is second nature. He could play whatever he thought of.”

How did you come to write Peaches and Diesel with him? 

“I had this little riff on a guitar and Eric liked it. He was very generous to develop it with me and give me a co-writing credit. But then, he’s always been that way. Years later, he’d make sure his producers got paid royalties from SoundExchange when most big artists never bothered.”

What do you think of those Seventies Clapton albums now?

“They stand up – for their realness and their humanity.”

And your lasting impression of Eric during that period?

“The main thing about Eric is he always loves playing. That’s his whole reason for being.”

E.C. Was Here (1975)

“C’mon, Eric, do some Cream!” yelled a disgruntled fan at a show in 1974. Such catcalls weren’t uncommon in the Seventies, and they got under Clapton’s skin. 

Clapton admitted that his 1975 live album, E.C. Was Here, was a way of “filling that space that people were complaining about.” Of the six tracks, four are straight-ahead blues, and the other two from Blind Faith. Most top out over seven minutes long.

Robert Johnson’s Rambling On My Mind, more than any, proved that Clapton was still an inspired architect. For three-and-half minutes, over four separate key modulations, Clapton leans into Blackie with deep bends and a fiery abandon that recalls the Bluesbreakers’ “Beano” album from nine years earlier. 

There’s One In Every Crowd (1975)

Clapton wanted to call 461’s sequel E.C. Is God: There’s One in Every Crowd, but his label failed to see the humor. Returning to Miami’s Criteria Studio with the same creative team and his road band well-tightened would have seemed to ensure success. 

But despite a couple of memorable songs – the sinewy Singin’ the Blues and the buoyant, Allmans-like High, with Clapton and George Terry on tandem leads – the material doesn’t measure up. Both Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Don’t Blame Me try to replicate the reggae vibe of I Shot the Sheriff, while Opposites and Better Make It Through Today meander without quite arriving.

No Reason to Cry (1976) 

Clapton told Crawdaddy in 1975, “I think I’ve explored the possibilities of that laid-back feel. The next studio album will be stronger, with stage numbers.”

And was it? Well, sort of. Upping stakes to the West Coast of the U.S.A., No Reason to Cry included a sprawling cast of contributors, including Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston, and the Band. But Clapton didn’t leave much room for himself, sounding more like a guest than the confident leader (his bandmates called him “Captain Clapton”) he was on the previous two albums. 

On the Dylan-penned Sign Language, the two share lead vocals, though it sounds like neither claims the mic; meanwhile, the Band’s Robbie Robertson plays the (bizarre) guitar solo while his Band-mate, Rick Danko, sings lead on All Our Past Times. Newcomer vocalist Marcy Levy gets the most spotlight here, doing her best Linda Ronstadt on Innocent Times and Hungry. Overall, it’s an album that goes by pleasantly enough, but hardly invites repeated listens. 

Slowhand (1977)

The front-loaded Slowhand is the purest distillation of everything Clapton was aiming for in the Seventies. His spirit guide, J.J. Cale, resides in the cover of Cocaine and the slippery country-blues groove of Lay Down Sally. And there’s the happy-ever-after sequel to Layla, the gentle Wonderful Tonight. 

Apparently written in frustration while he was waiting for Pattie Boyd to get dressed for a party, Clapton delivers it in dewy tones, both vocally and with his Strat. As a contrast to the lean economy of Side 1, polished by new producer Glyn Johns, Clapton stretches out for The Core, an eight-minute response to all those frustrated fans who missed his extended solos.

The other highlight is John Martyn’s May You Never, which is one of Clapton’s warmest, most affecting vocals from any of his albums. Glyn Johns wrote in his autobiography, “It was like falling off a log working with this lot. Because they had been on the road for a few weeks, Eric and the band were in great form. There [was] a camaraderie between them socially as well as musically, Eric’s sense of humor was leading the way.”

Backless (1978)

“For most of the Seventies, I was content to lie back and do what I had to do with the least amount of effort,” Clapton said. “I was very grateful to be alive.” Clapton’s final studio album of the decade, Backless, brims with that feeling as it returns to the winning formula of Slowhand, with Glyn Johns producing 10 easy-to-like songs. 

There’s a J.J. Cale cover (I’ll Make Love to You Anytime), a Marcy Levy duet (Roll It), a Lay Down Sally sequel (Watch Out for Lucy), two Dylan tunes and an eight-minute traditional blues that gives Clapton and George Terry room to stretch out on solos (Early in the Morning). 

But it’s the final song that’s most memorable, a rocking tribute to the musical city that influenced so much of Clapton’s Seventies work – Tulsa Time. 

When E.C. was Livin’ on Tulsa Time

In 1978, Nashville-based songwriter Danny Flowers was playing guitar on the road with country star Don Williams. The band had a night off in Tulsa. “It was the middle of blizzard, and I wrote Tulsa Time, in about 30 minutes in my hotel room while watching The Rockford Files – like you do,” Flowers says with a laugh. “I was thinking about my musician friends who lived there – Jamie Oldaker and Dick Sims, who played with Eric – and the vibe of the place.”

The next day, at a rehearsal, the band started working up Flowers’ new song. Williams heard it and loved it. Flowers says, “He said, ‘Get me the lyric, I want to record it.’” A week later, they were opening a concert for Clapton in Nashville. Flowers says, “Eric used to come to our shows and was a big fan of Don’s.” Afterwards, Flowers was hanging out with Williams in Clapton’s hotel room. 

“We were playing guitars, and Don says, ‘Danny, play that new song.’ So I’m doing it, and Don’s playing rhythm and Eric’s playing Dobro. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. When I got through, Eric said, ‘I love that song and I want to record it right away.’ Don said, ‘No, you can’t record it. It’s mine!’ They were play-arguing. I said, ‘If you’re gonna fight, I’m not gonna let either one of you have it.’”

A few months later, Flowers bought a copy of Backless. “And there it was, my name on the back of a Clapton album,” he says. “It was a beautiful thing.”

Knowing that much of Clapton’s music in the Seventies felt like a tribute to Tulsa’s J.J. Cale, Flowers says, “One of the biggest compliments I ever got about Tulsa Time was somebody who knew J.J. asked him if he had written that song, and he said, ‘No, but I wish I had!’”

Jim Gordon, a legendary rock drummer who played in Derek and the Dominos, and co-wrote their legendary song, Layla, has died at the age of 77.

His death was confirmed by publicist Bob Merlis, who reported that the drummer died of natural causes. 

In the late '60s and early '70s, Gordon was one of the most in-demand drummers in rock, but his life and legacy came to be overshadowed by his battle with schizophrenia, a battle that culminated in him brutally murdering his 71-year-old mother in 1983 during a psychotic episode. Gordon spent the rest of his life in prison.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gordon took up the drums at a young age, and began his professional career just out of high school, with a gig with The Everly Brothers.

From there, he became a valued member of the loose collective of elite LA studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, playing on a wide variety of classic recordings. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Mason Williams' Classical Gas and Glen Campbell’s Gentle on My Mind all feature Gordon's playing, and helped Gordon land a touring gig – in 1969 – with soul/rock outfit Delaney & Bonnie.

That gig, in turn, brought him to the attention of Delaney & Bonnie associates – and electric guitar heroes – George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Gordon would form part of the backing band on Harrison's seminal proper solo debut, All Things Must Pass, and the core of Clapton's post-Cream and Blind Faith band, Derek and the Dominos.

Though short-lived, Derek and the Dominos – and their only album, 1970's Layla – helped establish Clapton as a songwriter, not just a guitar god. The album's climactic title track – at Clapton's request – came to prominently include a piano piece Gordon wrote with his then-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge.

“Jim and Rita had written this song called ‘Time,’ back in the Delaney & Bonnie days,” Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock told Guitar Player in 2020. “They wanted me to play piano on it, with Rita singing. But I told them, ‘I don’t feel this at all.’ And it turns out that Jim brought it to Eric after we’d already recorded the album [Layla], and Eric wanted to add it to the end of what we’d recorded for Layla [the song]."

It's a testament to the depth of Gordon's discography, though, that that part of Layla might not even be his most endearing contribution to the world of music.

That distinction most likely falls to his drum break from the Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache, which would go on to become a foundational hip-hop sample. 

Despite further session success in the early 1970s, Gordon's life took a sharp – and eventually tragic – downward turn afterwards due to his battle with alcoholism, drug addiction, and later, schizophrenia.

By the early 1980s, Gordon had grown increasingly isolated, and his mental state deteriorated. Finally, on June 3, 1983, Gordon – driven, he said, by dark inner voices – brutally murdered his mother with a hammer and butcher knife.

He was sentenced in to 16 years to life in prison in 1984, and was subsequently denied parole on several occasions.

Tedeschi Trucks Band have shared live footage of their performance of Derek & The Dominos’ Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, featuring Phish legend Trey Anastasio.

The live cut is notable for featuring exquisitely phrased solos from Anastasio and Derek Trucks, as well as longtime collaborator Doyle Bramhall II, while Susan Tedeschi handles rhythm and vocals.

Following Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad, it’s our second taste of forthcoming live album Layla Revisited (Live at LOCKN’), which captures a one-off performance of Derek & the Dominos’ iconic Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in its entirety at the LOCKN' Festival in Arrington, Virginia on August 24, 2019.

Tedeschi and Trucks’ connection to Layla, which features both Eric Clapton and Allman Brothers Band slide guitar great Duane Allman, runs deep: it was released on November 9, 1970, the same day Susan Tedeschi was born; Trucks’ parents were such fans of the record that they named Derek after the band; and Trucks spent 15 years as a member of the Allman Brothers Band and has toured extensively with Clapton.

Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN’) is out on July 16 via Fantasy Records, and available to preorder now.

Tedeschi Trucks Band, led by slide and electric guitar wizard Derek Trucks and guitarist and vocalist Susan Tedeschi have announced the release of Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN'), a one-off live recording of the seminal Derek & the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, performed in its entirety at the LOCKN' Festival in Arrington, Virginia on August 24, 2019.

The set also finds TTB joined by Phish leader Trey Anastasio, as well as frequent collaborator Doyle Bramhall II.

You can check out a performance of Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad, featuring dual Trucks and Anastasio solos, above.

The Layla performance came as a surprise to fans in attendance at LOCKN' that night, with the set initially billed only as “Tedeschi Trucks Band featuring Trey Anastasio,” with no mention made of the album.

But Tedeschi and Trucks’ connection to Layla, which saw Clapton joined by Allman Brothers Band slide guitar great Duane Allman, ran deep: it was initially released on November 9, 1970, the same day Susan Tedeschi was born; Trucks’ parents were such fans of the record that they named Derek after the band; and Trucks spent 15 years as a member of the Allman Brothers Band and has toured extensively with Clapton.

“By the time that I started playing guitar, the sound of Duane Allman’s slide was almost an obsession,” Trucks said in a statement. “His playing on Layla is still one of the high-water marks for me. The spirit, the joy, the recklessness, and the inevitability of it. My dad would play that record for me and my brother to fall asleep to and further sear it into my DNA.”

Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN') will be released July 16 via Fantasy Records. It’s available for preorder now.

Tedeschi Trucks Band are also hitting the road for limited capacity shows as part of their Fireside LIVE tour. You can check out all the upcoming dates here.

We’ve seen some great quarantine video jams lately, and the latest in this category comes from Tel Aviv-based music producer Liz Barak, who arranged, produced, recorded and mixed an all-female electric guitar take on the Derek and the Dominos classic Layla.

As Barak explained to us, “there are 10 female E-guitarists playing here,” including Nili Brosh and Erja Lyytinen, as well as a female drummer, bass player, keyboardist and singer."

What’s more, they musicians vary in location from Helsinki, Nigeria, Israel and Italy to the US, Australia, Hungary and Mexico.

All revenues, Barak continues, will be donated to the fight in global warming.

You can check out the video above, and for more information, check out the Liz Barak Project.

2019's far from over, but it's already been a banner year for record-shattering electric guitar auctions.

Back in June, Pink Floyd legend David Gilmour rewrote the record books with his much-hyped personal guitar auction. Now, it has been revealed that Duane Allman's 1957 Gibson Les Paul, which he used to record Layla with Eric Clapton, has changed hands for an amazing $1.25 million. 

The guitar was Allman's main instrument in the early years of The Allman Brothers Band, and can be heard extensively on the band's first two albums - which include the original versions of songs like Whipping Post, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Midnight Rider - and Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

Shortly after the Layla sessions concluded, Allman traded the guitar for a 1959 cherry sunburst Les Paul owned by the Stone Balloon's Rick Stine. The guitar is said to have changed hands three more times before being acquired by its most recent owner in 1977. The guitar has since been refinished twice. 

The Les Paul had been on display at the Allman Brothers Band Museum in Macon, Georgia, and had been played in the intervening years by Billy Gibbons, Derek Trucks, Vince Gill and a number of other guitar legends. 

Last month, Allman's At Fillmore East Gibson SG sold for $591,000, instantly making it one of the 20 most valuable guitars ever sold.

We recently shared our story about Eric Clapton's isolated lead guitar track from the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

This, of course, reminded us of the equally fascinating lead guitar and vocal track from Derek and the Dominos' classic 1970 track, "Layla."

What you're actually hearing (in the YouTube player below) is a combination of tracks; there's a rhythm guitar track from the chorus, the lead in the verses and choruses, Duane Allman's manic slide solos, crystal-clear acoustic guitar at the end of the song—and another guitar that's filtered through a revolving Leslie speaker, a la "Badge."

You also get to hear Clapton's lead vocal, which is doubled on the choruses.

“The song and the whole album is definitely equal parts Eric and Duane,” says producer Tom Dowd, who introduced the two guitar titans, then sat back and watched them soar together.

“There had to be some sort of telepathy going on because I’ve never seen spontaneous inspiration happen at that rate and level. One of them would play something, and the other reacted instantaneously. Never once did either of them have to say, ‘Could you play that again, please?’ It was like two hands in a glove. And they got tremendously off on playing with each other.”

Nowhere was the interplay between Clapton and Allman more sublime than on “Layla,” which, says Dowd, features six tracks of overlapping guitar: “There’s an Eric rhythm part; three tracks of Eric playing harmony with himself on the main riff; one of Duane playing that beautiful bottleneck; and one of Duane and Eric locked up, playing countermelodies.”

Take note of the Leslie guitar, which kicks in at 5:25. Criteria Studios in Miami had one of the first guitar input devices for the Leslie that could vary the speed with a foot switch, and legend has it that Clapton was pretty fond of it. Enjoy!

Thirty-five years ago, a series of talent-heavy events, dubbed the ARMS Charity Concerts, helped raise large wads of cash for multiple sclerosis research. The first show took place September 20, 1983, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, followed by a few subsequent concerts, including three sold-out performances at northern California's Cow Palace on December 3.

But the original show at the Albert Hall was the most impressive, at least in terms of talent/fame per square inch. Take the clip above, for instance. It features Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck on stage at the same time, performing "Layla," an already-classic Derek and the Dominos tune written by Clapton and drummer Jim Gordon. The all-star band is rounded out by the Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, plus Kenney Jones, Paul Rodgers, Chris Stainton, Ray Cooper, Andy Fairweather Low and other luminaries (and a few semi-luminaries). And is that drummer Simon Phillips back there somewhere? I think it is...

Below, you can watch Joe Cocker perform one of his 1968 singles, "With a Little Help from My Friends"; below that, you'll see Lane belting out "Goodnight, Irene" with Page (and his B-bender-equipped Telecaster), Beck, Clapton and Wood trading solos in New York City on December 9.

The idea for the concert was envisaged by Lane, former bassist for the Small Faces and the Faces, himself a casualty of multiple sclerosis.

In 1971, hot on the heels of their successful debut album, 1970's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, Derek and the Dominos returned to the studio to begin recording their followup disc. Sadly, those sessions fell apart—and the short-lived band's second album never materialized.

According to Eric Clapton, the 1971 sessions "broke down halfway through because of the paranoia and tension, and the band just...dissolved." Of course, the unexpected late-1971 death of part-time Domino guitarist Duane Allman certainly didn't help matters.

One particularly strong track from the doomed 1971 sessions, the rollicking, Clapton-penned "Got to Get Better in a Little While," was performed by the band during their 1970 tour and wound up on their live album, In Concert.

The studio version of the song also was released—along with several other orphaned 1971 Dominos recordings—on Clapton's career-spanning 1988 box set, Crossroads. However, the track was annoyingly incomplete. All of Clapton's parts were there, from the vocals to the emotive, wah-drenched guitar; Carl Radle's bass and Jim Gordon's drums were there too. It was, however, missing some vital input from Bobby Whitlock, the band's keyboardist and co-lead vocalist. I mean, a full verse was missing, as well as several all-important choruses. It was so incomplete, it was considered a "jam." You can hear it here:

And now for the interesting part: In 2010—just in time for the deluxe, 40th-anniversary edition of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs—Whitlock was asked to finally complete "Got to Get Better in a Little While" so it could be included on the expanded album.

So that's exactly what Whitlock did—and the results are incredible. Best of all, despite the passing of 39 years, Whitlock still sounds like, well, Whitlock. If someone didn't tell you his vocals were added 39 years later, you'd never know. And then there's the recording's incredibly crisp sound quality, which is actually pretty hard to believe, given its age and circumstances. You can check it out below.

In 2011, the whereseric.com crew asked Whitlock how he approached finishing the song. "With the gusto of 14 hound dogs in heat!" he said. "It is exactly the way I wanted to do it all those years ago. Only now it is even better because I have had 40 years to think about it."

Sure, it's not as historically significant as the time Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr added vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass and drums to two late-Seventies John Lennon demos, thus creating two new Beatles tracks in the mid-Nineties, but it's still noteworthy, especially to Clapton fans who had a difficult time dealing with the incomplete version of the song.

Since we're on the topic of "getting the ol' Dominos back together," check out this emotional April 2000 performance of Derek and the Dominos' "Bell Bottom Blues" by Whitlock and Clapton on Later ... With Jools Holland. The duo wrote the song—one of many incredible tracks from Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs—30 years earlier. Enjoy!

Tedeschi Trucks Band are releasing their second live album, Live from the Fox Oakland, March 17 through Concord/Fantasy.

The powerful 15-song CD/DVD gives fans an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the band's remarkable September 9, 2016, show at the historic northern California venue.

Speaking of "behind the scenes," check out our exclusive premiere of a portion of the onstage and off-stage footage that was shot that night. In the top clip below, music journalist David Fricke asks Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi about onstage competition and more; the clip also features plenty of six-string fireworks from the husband-and-wife team.

Below that, check out a clip of Tedeschi Trucks Band performing Derek and the Dominos' "Keep on Growing" from the same show. You'll find a complete track list below the videos.

Live from the Fox Oakland will be released as a CD/DVD combo, a CD/Blu-ray combo, vinyl only and CD only. It's available for preorder here.

For more about the album and the band, head to tedeschitrucksband.com.

Live from the Fox Oakland Track List:
Don’t Know What It Means
Keep On Growing
Bird On The Wire
Within You, Without You
Just As Strange
Crying Over You
These Walls (featuring Alam Khan)
Anyhow
Right On Time
Leavin’ Trunk
Don’t Drift Away
I Want More (Soul Sacrifice outro)
I Pity The Fool
Ali
Let Me Get By
Film Track ListDon’t Know What It Means
Keep On Growing
Bird On The Wire
Within You, Without You
Just As Strange
Crying Over You
Color Of The Blues
These Walls (featuring Alam Khan)
Leavin’ Trunk
I Pity The Fool
I Want More (Soul Sacrifice outro)
Let Me Get By
You Ain’t Going Nowhere

There can be no denying that pianist/guitarist Bobby Whitlock has made an immeasurable impact on rock history.

Whitlock is a co-founder—along with Eric Clapton—of Derek and the Dominos, whose 1970 album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, is a bona-fide rock masterpiece. He's also appeared on several other seminal albums, including George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (1970).

This month, Whitlock, along with wife and musical partner CoCo Carmel, will hit the road with the Just Us Tour. It's an intimate, 11-date run that features an all-acoustic set of material from Whitlock’s past, as well as the stories behind the songs.

Expect to hear classic Dominos songs, including “Bell Bottom Blues," “Tell the Truth,” “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad,” “I Looked Away,” “Keep on Growing” and “Thorn Tree in the Garden,” as well as newer songs co-written by Whitlock and Carmel.

What makes the tour even more special is that a top-notch guitarist from each city on the tour will be joining Whitlock and Carmel on stage. The guitarists include Josh Roberts, Kelvin Holly, Moses Mo, Godfrey Townsend, Pat Harrington, Matt Hamann, Andy Argondizza, Angelo Santelli, Bob Wagner and Nicholas Tremulus, all of whom will add their own interpretations of these classic songs.

I recently spoke with Whitlock and Carmel about their tour and what it was like to be a member of Derek and the Dominos.

GUITAR WORLD: How did this new tour come together?

WHITLOCK: A few months ago, someone contacted me about checking out this amazing guitar player he knew. He said he already knew all of the songs and that we should get together. So I watched a video of the guy and sure enough, he was great! His name was Tolo Marton, and he’s one of the premier guitar players from Italy. So we had him come down to play a gig and it was just fantastic. He knew every song and could also improvise and do his own thing. It was around the same time we were putting together dates for this tour, and that’s when we decided to have a premier guitar player from each city come sit in with us.

What do you enjoy most about these intimate shows as opposed to ones with a full band?

CARMEL: For me, it’s natural and a more personal experience. It also gives Bobby the chance to really talk about the songs—how they came about and how it all went down in the studio. You can’t do that with a band.

WHITLOCK: It puts you closer to the audience and leaves things open for interpretation. I can also tell you stories like how Eric [Clapton] and I were sitting in his house one day. Eric’s got a guitar on his lap and was having heart pains over Patti Harrison. We were sitting there talking about our three favorite subjects—guitars, cars and women. After he got to the woman part of the conversation, Eric turns to me and says, “Why does love got to be so sad anyway, Bobby?” I said, “Why does that have to be such a long song title?” [laughs]. The song started right then.

How did you meet Eric Clapton?

WHITLOCK: I was working with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, and some tapes we had done had been sent to George Harrison. George liked it and turned us on to Eric, who was in Blind Faith at the time and doing a tour. Eric asked us to be the opening act for their American tour and the two of us became friends and started hanging out together. Our band was all about having a good time singing and playing, and Eric really wanted to be a part of that camaraderie. So he asked to be in the band.

That was such an amazing era for music. What was the vibe like back then?

WHITLOCK: Everyone felt like they were bullet proof. We were young guys playing music like we had been around for 18 lifetimes, and it was non-stop. But it was never about the money, the drugs or anything else. It was always about the music.

How did Derek and the Dominos get together?

WHITLOCK: It all started when George called Eric and asked us to put together the core band to record what would become All Things Must Pass. At the time, Eric and I were just hanging out and writing songs, but after the album was complete we started rehearsing and putting it all together. We did a few tours and then went to Miami to record.

How did Duane Allman become involved in those sessions?

WHITLOCK: While we were recording the album, we found out that the Allman Brothers Band were playing at a nearby convention center. So we all went down to see them and stood right in front of Duane. I remember when Duane looked down and saw Eric, he just stopped playing. He just couldn’t believe it! Then when Duane stopped, Dickey Betts looked over and saw Eric and he stopped playing too! [laughs]. After they had regained their composure, we waited until after their set and asked them to come over. We all went back to the studio and hung out all night jamming. That’s when Eric and Duane became friends and we asked him to play on the record with us.

What was the songwriting process like for Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs?

WHITLOCK: Before we recorded anything we would always jam. I remember the first song Eric and I wrote together was “I Looked Away." Then we were messing around with bluesy stuff and wrote "Bell Bottom Blues." The next thing we jammed on the following night had a funky, Latin feel that eventually became "Keep on Growing."

What are you looking forward to most about the Just Us Tour?

CARMEL: Everything! Bobby and I have never toured together. We love to travel and getting out there and meeting people. This is really all about Bobby and his legacy. I’m looking forward to playing these songs and seeing the excitement of the audience.

WHITLOCK: For me, it’s getting to play with all of these different guitar players. I’m excited to hear what someone else’s take is on a song that I wrote. To think that I was 22 when I recorded All Things Must Pass and Layla still blows me away. People have written to us saying they’ve waited nearly 40 years to hear all of these songs in one show. I know Eric has done one version or the other of “Layla” and maybe “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” a few different times, but no one has ever heard all of these songs together. We’re really looking forward to it.

For more about Whitlock, Carmel and their tour, visit bobbywhitlockandcococarmel.com.

The Just Us Tour:

• September 11 – Memphis, TN – The Warehouse w/ Josh Roberts
• September 12 – Nashville, TN – The City Winery w/ Kelvin Holly
• September 15 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic w/ Moses Mo (of Mother’s Finest)
• September 19 – New York, NY – B.B. King Blues Club w/ Godfrey Townsend
• September 20 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater w/ Pat Harrington
• September 22 – Fall River, MA – Narrows Center For The Arts – Matt Hamann
• September 23 – Somerville, MA – Johnny D’s w/ Andy Argondizza
• September 26 – Cleveland, OH – The Beachland Ballroom w/ Angelo Santelli
• September 27 – Rochester, NY – The Lovin’ Cup w/ Bob Wagner
• September 29 – Ferndale, MI – The Magic Bag w/ Angelo Santelli
• October 1 – Berwyn, IL – Fitzgerald’s w/ Nicolas Tremulus

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.