Layla and other assorted love songs

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It is a beautiful package comprising as it does 4 CDs, including the full Fillmore East set, a DVD-Audio containing an unreleased 5. cannot be beaten; as other reviewers have suggested, it appears that unrequited love gave Clapton an extra boost that he could only express in his writing and his guitar on this album. In fact, Clapton chose "Derek and the Dominos" because he did not want his name and celebrity to get in the way of maintaining a "band" image.

Accompanied by keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bass player Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon and guest star Duane Allman on slide guitar, Clapton and the Dominos nonetheless recorded a spectacular set ranging from ferocious blues ('Have You Ever Loved A Woman'), joyous Southern boogie ('Keep On Growing', 'Anyday'), lovelorn romanticism ('I Looked Away', I Am Yours' and, of course, 'Layla'), and some sublime reinterpretations (a sky-scraping cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'). J. Cale recorded The Road to Escondido, on which Allman Brothers guitarist Derek Trucks played guitar. The LP was re-released on 180g vinyl by Simply Vinyl in the 1990s and re-mastered and re-released on 180g vinyl by Universal Music in 2008. In a more favourable review for Rolling Stone, Ed Leimbacher noted the album's " filler" material but added that "what remains is what you hoped for from the conjunction of Eric's developing style, the Delaney and Bonnie styled rhythm section, and the strengths of 'Skydog' Allman's session abilities. After that band also split up, a Friends alumnus, Bobby Whitlock, joined up with Clapton in Surrey, England.But let us draw a veil over that sorry time and move forward to February 2011, when a friend of mine recommended "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs".

The other band members were Bobby Whitlock (vocals, keyboard), Jim Gordon (drums, percussion), and Carl Radle (bass). Highlights are the quietly worshipful I Am Yours, the funky, fast-rapping Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? Nowadays we all know that "Derek is Eric", but back in late 1970 this wasn't as obvious to many, and so the double-album into which Eric Clapton and his new band had invested so much emotion and effort, which he released pseudonymously under the name Derek and The Dominos, failed to achieve the level of commercial success it deserved; Clapton's wish to refrain from the spotlight had proved detrimental. He wrote in conclusion that, "even though this one has the look of a greedy, lazy, slapdash studio session, I think it may be Eric Clapton's most consistent recording .

Layla stands not just head and shoulders above anything else here but much else in the rock canon, sounding as moving and anguished as a song that’s rooted in the agony of falling in unrequited love with the wife of a best friend should. According to Dowd, the recording of "Key to the Highway" was unplanned, triggered by the band hearing Sam Samudio performing the song for his album Hard and Heavy in another room at the studio.