Derek and the Dominos
Origin London, England
Genres Blues rock, hard rock
Years active 1970–71
Labels Polydor, Atco, RSO
Derek and the Dominos were a blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. All four members had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during and after Clapton’s brief tenure with Blind Faith. Dave Mason supplied additional lead guitar on early studio sessions and played at their first live gig. Another participant at their first session as a band was George Harrison, the recording for whose album All Things Must Pass marked the formation of Derek and the Dominos.
The band released only one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, produced by Tom Dowd, which also featured notable contributions on slide guitar from Duane Allman. A double album, Layla went on to receive critical acclaim, but initially faltered in sales and in radio airplay. Although released in 1970 it was not until March 1972 that the album’s single “Layla” (a tale of unrequited love inspired by Clapton’s relationship with his friend Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd) made the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album is often considered to be the defining achievement of Clapton’s career.
Derek and the Dominos came about through its four members’ involvement in the American soul revue Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. The latter supported Blind Faith, Eric Clapton’s short-lived supergroup with Stevie Winwood, on a US tour in the summer of 1969, during which Clapton became increasingly drawn towards Delaney & Bonnie’s relative anonymity next to the fan worship afforded his own band. Together with his fellow future Dominos – Bobby Whitlock (vocals, keyboards), Carl Radle (bass) and Jim Gordon (drums) – Clapton toured Europe and the United States again between November 1969 and March 1970, this time as a member of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Clapton, recorded over the same period. Many of the members began to leave Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, as a result of disagreements over money. Whitlock later recalled other difficulties with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, citing the couple’s frequent fights and describing Delaney as a demanding band leader in the manner of James Brown. Gordon, Radle and other Friends personnel, including drummer Jim Keltner, immediately joined Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour with Leon Russell, but Whitlock remained with the Bramletts for a short time.
In April 1970, at the suggestion of his friend and mentor Steve Cropper, Whitlock travelled to England to visit Clapton. Whitlock subsequently lived in Hurtwood Edge, Clapton’s house in Surrey, where the two musicians would jam and, on acoustic guitars, began writing the bulk of the Dominos’ catalogue. Many of these songs reflected Clapton’s growing infatuation with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, who had joined Clapton as a guitarist on Delaney & Bonnie’s European tour in December 1969.
Soon after Whitlock’s arrival, he and Clapton were eager to form a new band[18] and contacted Radle and Gordon in the United States. Although their first choice for a drummer was Keltner – like Radle and Russell, a native of Tulsa – he was busy recording with jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó. Gordon, however, had been invited to London to work on Harrison’s post-Beatles solo album All Things Must Pass. In May that year, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon reunited in London at a session for P.P. Arnold, before going on to serve as the backing band on much of Harrison’s album. In a 1990 interview, Clapton said, “We made our bones, really, on that album with George”, since the four musicians had “no game plan” other than living at Hurtwood Edge, “getting stoned, and playing and semi-writing songs”.
Clapton biographer Harry Shapiro comments on the unprecedented aspect of Clapton’s bond with his new bandmates, in that from the Blind Faith tour onwards, the guitarist “had been able to build a working relationship in a slow and natural fashion” for the first time. Among the friendships formed before the group officially came into existence, Shapiro continues, “the empathy … outcropped most noticeably in Bobby Whitlock, in whom Eric found an accomplished and sympathetic songwriting partner and back-up vocalist.” Clapton and Whitlock considered adding the Delaney & Bonnie horn section to their new band, but this plan was abandoned. Whitlock later explained the ethos of Derek and the Dominos: “we didn’t want any horns, we didn’t want no chicks, we wanted a rock ‘n’ roll band. But my vocal concept was that we approach singing like Sam and Dave did: Clapton sings a line, I sing a line, we sing together.”
Towards the end of the sessions for the basic tracks on All Things Must Pass, Dave Mason – another former guitarist with Delaney & Bonnie – joined the Dominos at Clapton’s home. With the lineup expanded to a five-piece band, Derek and the Dominos gave their debut live performance on 14 June 1970.[29] The event was a charity concert in aid of the Dr Spock Civil Liberties Legal Defence Fund, held at London’s Lyceum Theatre.
The group had been billed as “Eric Clapton and Friends”, but a discussion ensued backstage just before their appearance, with Harrison and pianist Tony Ashton among those involved, in an effort to find a proper band name. Clapton recalls that Ashton suggested “Del and the Dominos”, having taken to calling the guitarist “Derek” or “Del” since the Delaney & Bonnie tour the previous year. Whitlock maintains that “the Dynamics” was the name chosen and that Ashton mispronounced it when introducing the band, following his opening set with Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. Writing in 2013, Clapton and Whitlock biographer Marc Roberty quoted Jeff Dexter, the compere at the Lyceum show, who recalled that “Derek and the Dominos” had already been decided on before they went on stage. According to Dexter, Clapton was immediately taken with the name, but Whitlock, Radle and Gordon – all Americans – were concerned that they might be mistaken for a doo-wop act.
Everybody knew about Clapton’s infatuation with Pattie Boyd. George didn’t give a shit – but Eric didn’t know that.
– Bobby Whitlock, on the obsession that drove Clapton’s creativity in Derek and the Dominos
The reception afforded the band from critics and fans was mixed. Together with the unfavourable reviews for Clapton’s eponymous solo album, particularly in Britain, this reaction was reflective of a widespread reluctance to view Clapton as a singer and frontman, rather than as the virtuoso guitarist synonymous with his role in bands such as Cream and the Yardbirds. In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton wrote that his main recollection of the Lyceum show was consulting New Orleans–born musician Dr John, a self-styled practitioner of voodoo, and receiving a package made of straw that would serve as a means of winning Boyd’s affection.
In return for the Dominos’ assistance on All Things Must Pass, Clapton and Harrison had agreed that the latter’s co-producer, Phil Spector, would produce a single for the new group. On 18 June, the five band members, together with Harrison on guitar, took part in a session at the Beatles’ Apple Studio in central London. With Spector producing, two Clapton–Whitlock compositions were recorded that day – “Tell the Truth” and “Roll It Over” – along with two instrumental jams that would be included on the Apple Jam disc of Harrison’s triple album.
After this London session, Mason departed from the lineup; he later told Melody Maker that he was impatient to see the band start working full-time whereas Clapton was committed to helping Harrison complete All Things Must Pass. Clapton and Whitlock then contributed to the overdubbing phase of Harrison’s album, including adding backing vocals with Harrison (as “the George O’Hara-Smith Singers”) to tracks such as “All Things Must Pass” and “Awaiting on You All”. In addition, while continuing to rehearse at Hurtwood Edge, all four band members participated in London sessions for Dr John’s album The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971).
Tragedy dogged the group throughout its brief career. During the sessions, Clapton was devastated by the death of his friend and professional rival, Jimi Hendrix; eight days previously the band had cut a version of “Little Wing”, which was added to the album as a tribute. One year later Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Clapton wrote later in his autobiography that he and Allman were inseparable during the sessions in Florida; he talked about Allman as the “musical brother I’d never had but wished I did”. Adding to Clapton’s woes, the Layla album received only lukewarm reviews and weak album sales upon release; Clapton took this personally, and it accelerated his spiral into drug addiction and depression. In 1985 when talking about the band Clapton remarked, “We were a make-believe band. We were all hiding inside it. Derek and the Dominos—the whole thing … assumed. So it couldn’t last. I had to come out and admit that I was being me. I mean, being Derek was a cover for the fact that I was trying to steal someone else’s wife. That was one of the reasons for doing it, so that I could write the song, and even use another name for Pattie. So Derek and Layla—it wasn’t real at all.”
The band disintegrated messily in London just before they could complete their second LP. Much later, in an interview with music critic Robert Palmer, Clapton said the second album “broke down halfway through because of the paranoia and tension. And the band just … dissolved.” Radle worked with Clapton for several more years, but Whitlock and Clapton did not work together again until they performed on the Jools Holland BBC show in 2000. Radle was not retained in Clapton’s band in 1979 and died in June 1980 of complications from a kidney infection associated with alcohol and drug use. Another tragic footnote was the fate of drummer Jim Gordon, who had undiagnosed schizophrenia and, years later, killed his mother with a hammer during a psychotic episode. He was confined to a mental institution in 1984, where he remains today.
After the dissolution, Clapton turned away from touring and recording to nurse an intense heroin addiction. Clapton’s three-year career hiatus was interrupted only by his participation in Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, along with a large cast of musicians, including Leon Russell, Keltner and Radle; a guest appearance at Russell’s December 1971 show at London’s Rainbow Theatre; and his own Rainbow Concert, in January 1973, which Pete Townshend of the Who organised to help Clapton kick the drug and build momentum for his return.
Song material from the group has been present on many of Clapton’s compilation albums (e.g., The History of Eric Clapton), and music from sessions for the cancelled second album was later released in a four-CD/cassette box set, Crossroads.
The group’s sole studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, although a critical and commercial flop in 1971, charted in 1972 and 1982 and now is not only considered one of Clapton’s most outstanding achievements, but also consistently appears in listings of the best rock albums ever recorded. It may have been the pinnacle of both Clapton’s and Whitlock’s careers. The band’s producer, Tom Dowd, said of it that he “felt it was the best … album I’d been involved with since The Genius of Ray Charles” and was disappointed at the lack of acclaim it garnered on its release.
Band members
Eric Clapton – vocals, guitars (1970-1971)
Bobby Whitlock – keyboards, vocals, guitar (on “Thorn Tree in the Garden”) (1970-1971)
Carl Radle – bass (1970-1971)
Jim Gordon – drums (piano on “Layla”) (1970-1971)
Dave Mason – guitar (1970) (at the band’s debut live show and on their first recording session)
Duane Allman – guitar (1970) (contributed to most of the tracks on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and performed twice with the band during their US tour)
External links below.
- Biography of Derek and the Dominos on VH1
- Eric Clapton “Slowhand” Tourography
- Review of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs from the Soul of Rock n’ Roll
- MusicChain – Derek & The Dominos
- Derek & the Dominos at AllMusic
Discography
Studio album
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
Live albums
In Concert (1973)
Live at the Fillmore (1994)
Other release
The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition (1990)
Singles
“Tell the Truth” / “Roll It Over” (Atco, 1970)
“Layla” / “Bell Bottom Blues” (Polydor, 1970)
“Layla” / “I Am Yours” (Atco, 1971)
“Bell Bottom Blues” / “Keep On Growing” (Polydor, 1971)
“Bell Bottom Blues” / “Little Wing” (RSO, 1973)
“Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?” [live] / “Presence of the Lord” [live] (RSO, 1973)
“Got to Get Better in a Little While” / “Layla” (Polydor, 2011)
Other songs recorded during 1st album’s sessions
“Mean Old World” (Eric & Duane duet)
“(When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too” & “Tender Love” (from Carl Radle tapes)
“Altar Rock” (a later version, “Gold Devils Roads”, was recorded at Clapton’s home in 1971, with vocals by Renee Armando)
various jams
Collaborations
“Matchbox” (live at the Johnny Cash Show with Cash & Carl Perkins, November 5, 1970)
Sessions for the 2nd album at Olympic Studios, April and May 1971
Some of these were officially released on various occasions. Others are available only as bootlegs.
“One More Chance”
“Mean Old Frisco
“High”
“Snake Lake Blues”
“Evil”
“Son of Apache”
“Moody Jam”
“Chocolate”
“I’ve Been All Day”
“Got to Get Better in a Little While”
“Sick at Heart”
“Is My Love”
“It’s Hard to Find a Friend”
“Till I See You Again”
“Yes, I Love You”