Layla

Derek and the Dominoes.jpg

I do love my iPod. In preparing for my trip to the Romania and Bulgaria, I’ve figured out how to download music (in addition to lots of books from Audible.com), and just downloaded the greatest rock and roll song ever produced, Layla by Derek and the Dominoes, which features Eric Clapton’s sublime guitar. It’s a shame it only lasts 7 minutes.



6 Responses to “Layla”

  1. Tom G. Palmer

    I apologize that I accidentally deleted a comment from Lawrence Cinammon asking about a particular version of Layla. (I’m trying to access my account from Bulgaria, and the internet connection is iffy, which, combined with jet lag, led me to accidentally delete a few comments when I was deleting all of the internet pharmacy ads.) The answer is…I’m not knowledgeable enough to know the different versions.

  2. Bruce is right, sort of. There are lots of guitar parts in that song. But that whole session was dragging until Duane asked someone in Eric’s camp if he could sit in a corner and watch. He was invited to plug in, and he transformed the whole project. It was Duane who cooked up the guitar line that we all recognize in “Layla” as soon as we hear it. Only the other night, I watched Greg describing this on CMT.

    Duane was — like Eric is — one of those off-worldly aliens who occasionally make guitarists like me think about ending the whole pretense with one swipe of a chainsaw across the fingers of my left hand.

  3. Tom G. Palmer

    Thanks for the background! I’ve always been astonished by that piece of music and have now been moved to do a bit more research. I’m in your debt.

  4. I have seen the riff of Layla being discribed as the greatest in rock music, its certinly clever but its far from being incomprehensable or unplayable to the average player it simple needs a minimum of two players. However the LP is in many places a gem of great playing, this really was where Erics heart was at least in his smack years. Duane’s loss was a great one sadly we will never know what his talent could have produced.