Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos (Rock of Ages)
Thank god for Bobby Whitlock. The keyboard player, second lead singer, and song coauthor of the short-lived, fondly remembered Derek and the Dominos comes from a long line of, as he says, "river rats, whores, and moonshiners," and as Reid's principal informant for this jolly rock-album history, he's a gold mine. He was raffish to the max, and his band mates weren't stiffs, either. Drummer Jim Gordon was already on the road to homicidal dementia, bassist Carl Radle was gigging with all the rising stars of southern rock, of whom guitarist Duane Allman was indisputably the biggest and brightest. And then there was the group's raison d'etre, archetypal rock guitar god Eric Clapton, sodden in love with best friend George Harrison's wife but at the top of his game on his ax. There isn't all that much about actually making the great record here, but the horror show of substance abuse and poor impulse control that Reid shows began, for most of the band's members, before they were born, is appallingly amusing.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved