Review Summary: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was fueled by Clapton’s destructive drug use and heartache.
It has been said, if you want to write anything of substance, you have to go out and do a little living first. And ‘living’ comes with every conceivable human emotion, from sublime ecstasy to gut wrenching sorrow, and everything in between. Often times, we’d like to forget the hardships, and the pain associated with such things as losing loved ones, either to death or break-ups. If you’ve become entrenched enough in any relationship, a break-up can feel the very same as losing someone to death. It would seem that, while no one actually leaves their mortal coil, the bond they created, the bond they cultivated dies a slow and agonizing death; a part of each individual seems to die a little too, leaving a hole that only time or perhaps, new companionship can fill.
So why is this pertinent? Why such heavy fodder for a rock ’n roll review? Because it’s exactly what Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is built upon. A love lost, a love that never was, a love that lived only in the mind of guitar God, Eric Clapton; a love that left him demolished, and very nearly killed him.
The Greeks would call this a tragedy, and, by all accounts, it was a modern day tragedy. As the story goes, George Harrison wanted to see how his chops lined up against a bonafide guitar hero; at the time there was simply no one more qualified than Eric Clapton, who had stints with the Yardbirds, the Bluesbreakers, and Cream, to test your ‘would-be’ guitar metal against. The two hit it off instantly, and became close friends. But it was the day of peace and love; a budding and thriving hippie movement had taken hold of the free-spirited youth, and free love was the order of the day. With Clapton’s friendship to Harrison came the ‘love’ of the superstar’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Eric Clapton fell hard for Mrs. Boyd; ninety-nine times out of one-hundred, Eric Clapton wins the girl, but he was up against a formidable foe; a foe the likes that popular music, the world had never seen before. He was up against a Beatle, and George Harrison would not be defeated.
The loss sent Clapton spiraling; he began experimenting with heroine, a road which most people don’t return from. Clapton remained stagnant, playing the dangerous game of intravenous drug use, and tumbling, careening towards a ‘flash in the pan,’ fate like that of Jimi Hendrix. But fate had other plans for Clapton; he teamed up with Duane Allman, the lead guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band. The two wrangled the skills of Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon, and formed Derek and the Dominos.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was fueled by Clapton’s destructive drug use and heartache. The record seems more organic, more genuine than anything he put out with the supergroup, Cream. Cream seemed to dance amongst the stars on a nightly basis; they proudly and impressively gallivanted about the cosmos, as they played thought-out, blues-based, Jazzy rock ’n roll. Layla was blusier, and played with just as much gusto with an impressive line-up in its own right. Clapton seemed to be questioning both love and his own existence, as if the long, drawn-out blues jams were therapy sessions, in which ‘Slowhand’ himself was the subject laying on the therapist’s couch, and pouring out his heart on every track.
The music is a blues rock 'n roll masterpiece; it features two bonafide legends in Eric 'Slowhand' Clapton, and Duane Allman, who was the foremost authority on slide guitar at the time. Highlights of the album include 'Keep on Growing,' an upbeat, gunslinger that shows both Clapton and Allman showing their guitar prowess as they trade one great lick after another. Also 'Key to the Highway,' is a long, drawn-out blues classic that goes on for nearly ten minutes. And then of course, 'Layla,' herself. It boasts a scorching opening riff that just builds from there. It's finished with one of the loveliest piano refrains that you're likely to hear. But the album, a double-album no less, has little filler, which is of course rare for a double pressing.
The album is strong all the way through, with the exception of ‘Thorn Tree in the Garden.’ This could, and probably should, have been a track that was thrown away. ‘Bell Bottom Blues,’ ‘Keep on Growing,’ ‘Key to the Highway,’ ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,’ ‘Why Does Love Have to be so Sad,’ and ‘Layla’ are the genuine article; well written, sometimes long, drawn-out blues rock ’n roll, in which Clapton exposes his heart and soul to everyone. The group covered, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing,’ and Little Walter’s ‘Key to the Highway,’ which give the album a nice depth, a fresh songwriting perspective that rounds out the record nicely.
The record is a bonafide classic. If for nothing else than story that goes with it; the heartbreaking fodder, that has gone down as legend, rock ’n roll folklore that leaves a lot to the imagination. We don’t know the whole truth, but those of us that have heard the story, or multiple versions of it, pick and choose the details we like, and take out those we don’t. We create our own colorful tale, that is just as beautiful, and perhaps, just as mystical as Layla’s now famous cover art. But the songs stand on their own today just as they did the day they were released. And they seem to speak to each of us that has done enough living to have had, at one time or another, our own hearts broken.
