# Deep Tracks - Derek and the Dominos - "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs"



## Guest (Jul 20, 2018)

View attachment 105805


This is one of a series of polls in which you will be asked nothing more than to choose your favourite tunes from the artist in question.

Please *choose up to seven selections* for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves (when available) will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Derek and the Dominos - "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" -

""Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" is the only studio album by Anglo-American blues rock band Derek and the Dominos. Released in November 1970, the double album is best known for its title track, "Layla", and is often regarded as Eric Clapton's greatest musical achievement. The other band members were Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals, Jim Gordon on drums, Carl Radle on bass, and special guest performer Duane Allman on lead and slide guitar on 11 of the 14 songs.

In 2000, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2003, television network VH1 named Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs the 89th-greatest album of all time, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 117 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Critic Robert Christgau ranked Layla the third greatest album of the 1970s. In 2012, the Super Deluxe Edition of the record won a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album.

The source of the album's eventual centrepiece, "Layla", was rooted in Clapton's personal life; he had become infatuated with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend George Harrison, who had joined Clapton as a guitarist on Delaney & Bonnie's European tour in December 1969.

Since its initial reception, Layla has been acclaimed by critics and regarded as Clapton's greatest overall work.

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2018)

"I Looked Away" -






"Bell Bottom Blues" -






"Keep On Growing" -






"Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" -






"I Am Yours" -






"Anyday" -






"Key to the Highway" -






"Tell the Truth" -






"Why Does Love Got To Be So Bad?" -






"Have You Ever Loved A Woman" -






"Little Wing" -






"It's Too Late" -






"Layla" -






"Thorn Tree In The Garden" -


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

never have listened or know about this band.....


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Little wing...is that about a butterfly??


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

even if i am down and out dont know if i would crawl across the flooor...........


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2018)

Can someone please explain the meaning of "deep" tracks?


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2018)

MacLeod said:


> Can someone please explain the meaning of "deep" tracks?


Sure! - I'll volunteer! - I came of age in a time in which the album gradually superseded the single in relevance and importance.

Many of us would purchase an album based on the inclusion of a tune or two that we were familiar with after having heard them on the radio or having watched the performance on a television program or seen live in a performance.

Many of us would purchase an album without being familiar with even a single tune but we purchased it for reasons ranging from the looks of the cover to the name of the band itself.

But what did we listen to after hearing that with which we were familiar? - And why did we continue to listen? How did the album-only tracks often come to eventually supplant in relevance and importance those that led to the initial purchase?

"Deep Tracks" essentially means looking past the familiar and delving "deeper" into the album itself. We all know the tunes that are familiar but which of the others are those that have significance and are somehow of paramount relevance to one's life?

I find it interesting to see which of us shares the same tastes in selecting the tunes and each of the polls have been made public in the sense that if someone clicks on the number of votes next to any of the tunes they will be able to see the username of the voter and the selections chosen.

Take the polls - click on the links which lead to the tunes themselves - and perhaps write a line or two about what that album meant to you at the time and just why it was so important that there were times that you listened to nothing else but that particular LP - this is how we learn who we are and who we've become... These are the songs that our lives sang as we lived them.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I haven't listened to this album for decades so Bell Bottom Blues is the only one I remember along with Layla.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2018)

Sydney Nova Scotia said:


> "Deep Tracks" essentially means looking past the familiar and delving "deeper" into the album itself. We all know the tunes that are familiar but which of the others are those that have significance and are somehow of paramount relevance to one's life?


Ah, right, thanks.

I don't do polls, and I asked my question in this thread because it was the nearest to the top of the 'unread posts' list - but I only know Layla. I might dip into one of the others.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

This was Clapton's high water mark as far as I'm concerned. Apart from one or two tracks I always found his solo work really underwhelming. I never expected (nor wanted) Cream-style fireworks but at least he could have turned his amps up above two on occasion.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I am one who listens fairly regularly to this classic album. Thank you for bringing to our/my attention again. Clapton & Company's version of _Little Wing_ offers an example of guitar plangency and emotive power that puts it in my top rank of those songs that make Rock music so powerful at its best. Many of the other songs also convincingly display the raw emotional force of desire and love (usually unrequited, as often here). _I looked Away_ and _Anyday_ are two very strong songs also, along with the title track.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

coincidentally (and for no reason really!) I have spent the last few days with this album having not heard it for a while.....

remember in the early 70's that the NME regularly had this as one of the great albums in any poll etc and it always appeared to be enveloped by some kind of mythology....never bought it as a kid as it was a double and relatively expensive....

listening to it recently and it really does deserve recognition, not only for the obvious reasons and the obvious tracks...'I looked away' is a great opener and a model of concise and effective songwriting with a really considered arrangement.


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## KJ von NNJ (Oct 13, 2017)

The whole album is really good. Duane Allman was a catalyst for sure. All five band members were obviously inspired and they jelled together into one single, tight unit. It all clicked. The drugs had not gotten the best of them yet, so there is plenty of inspired energy.

Hendrix and Clapton had become good friends. This version of Hendrix's Little Wing is powerfully soulful. Coupled with great two part harmony vocals by Clapton and Bobby Whitlock, this track overwhelms the senses with spiritual power and urgency. It's white-hot emotion, beautiful and raw. Just nine days after Clapton and his band recorded this track, Hendrix died. I had to edit this part of my post. I always thought of this version of Little Wing to be Clapton's response to Jimi's death. It sure sounds like it. I corrected it as soon as I fact-checked my post. Sorry if I misled anyone.

My favorite deep tracks are Little Wing, Tell the Truth, It's Too Late, Anyday, Keep on Growing and I Looked Away. There is such joy and emotion on these tracks. They play their arses off. Lots of passion in the playing, the vocals and the arrangements.


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