Derek And The Dominos ( B6 )

Album release

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was issued in November 1970. According to Shapiro, relative to the band and Dowd’s high expectations, it was a „critical and commercial flop”. Clapton similarly describes Layla as having „died a death” on release.Although it received favourable reviews in Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, the album missed the top ten in the United States and failed to chart at all in the United Kingdom, until a reissue on CD resulted in a one-week stay at number 68 in 2011. It garnered little attention, partly as a result of a lack of promotion by Polydor, and partly due to the public’s ignorance of Clapton’s presence in the band.

„Layla” was included on The History of Eric Clapton in 1972, and Atlantic issued the song as a single in July that year. It became a hit, reaching number 10 in America and number 7 in Britain. The success of the title track in 1972 led to a reappraisal of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, and the album has since received widespread critical acclaim and has been ranked among the best albums of all time by VH1 (at number 89). and Rolling Stone (number 115).

Tragedy and dissolution

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.”

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