Album Anniversaries: Derek and the Dominos Capture Pure Desire On ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’

Released Nov. 9, 1970, Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs serves as both a fascinating note in rock history and a timeless expression of the blues.

In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.

Written by David Koeller 

Photo courtesy of ATCO Records

Have you ever loved a woman

So much you tremble in pain?

And all the time you know, yeah

She bears another man's name

Layla and other Assorted Love Songs is an album about, well, love. In the famous classic rock love triangle, guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton became infatuated with model Pattie Boyd, who was married to Beatle George Harrison. He was obsessed with her — so much so that he started dating her sister, Paula Boyd, just so he could flirt with Pattie behind her back. Clapton’s  autobiography details his struggle with passion: one night, after a concert, he asked fellow bluesman Dr. John for a Voodoo love potion that would direct Pattie’s affections away from Harrison and toward Clapton himself. It succeeded in bringing the pair together for an affair, but Clapton wanted more. Hoping to win Pattie from Harrison for good, Clapton poured himself into his music and stepped out of the limelight.

After his prominent stints in Cream and Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos was meant to bring Clapton some anonymity. With Duane Allman on slide guitar and Bobby Whitlock writing alongside Clapton, Derek and the Dominos was more of a collaboration than any of Clapton’s previous groups. Yet the focus remains on him — Clapton’s unfiltered desire is the heartbeat of the album. 

In the album’s opening song, “I Looked Away,” Clapton sings of “loving another man’s woman” in a coarse, lovestruck voice. A thinly veiled address to Boyd, Clapton expresses loss and betrayal after she slips from his hands. The song plunges listeners into the emptiness of rejection and channels Clapton's hope to change Boyd’s mind. “Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you? Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?” Clapton howls to Boyd next, in “Bell Bottom Blues.” Clapton’s guitar, wailing and unrestrained, matches his voice in its expressiveness and fervor. It’s big, heavy, and personal —  this song wasn't meant to be analyzed for its metaphors or allusions, but played aloud and felt. Clapton is so consumed by his desire for Boyd that he begs her not to let him "fade away," unable to imagine himself without her presence in his life.

Later in the album, Clapton covers Freddie King’s “Have You Ever Loved a Woman,” which wasn’t, but could have been written by Clapton himself. If Derek and the Dominos was Clapton’s attempt at being "just one of the boys in the band," on this song he succeeded. The band breathes life into the blues standard as a plucky bass and lilting drums energize the track's rhythmic feel against Clapton's and Allman's dueling guitar solos. 

Bordering on kitschy, “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad” bluntly conveys Clapton's passion through straightforward lyrics and his sprinting six string work. The song's simplicity measures the depth of the infatuation it conveys. Tearing into the second verse, Clapton illustrates his muse's effect on him, leaving no room for interpretation: “Like a moth to a flame / Like a song without a name / I've never been the same since I met you.” Like all the best blues staples, "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad" is plain and raw, highlighting the essence of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

While Clapton may get all the credit, his connection with Allman was the spark that brought Derek and the Dominos together. The two met at an Allman Brothers concert, where they immediately hit it off. Clapton describes Allman as “the musical brother I’d never had but wished I did.” Nowhere is the two’s chemistry more apparent than on the song “Key to the Highway.”  A blues standard, the band overheard another artist recording his version of the song in the studio and decided on a whim to join in. Unprepared for the jam, producer Tom Dowd ran into the recording booth yelling “hit the goddamn machine,” prompting the song’s famous fade-in introduction. Allman and Clapton’s slide guitars play with this spontaneity and excitement as their yells of encouragement capture the thrill of escape on an open road. For one of the more upbeat songs of the album, Clapton’s sharp, overdriven playing complements Allman’s smoother guitar riffs. Clapton's vocals are rough and soulful, evoking the authenticity of legends like Freddie King and Muddy Waters. The power of the blues lies in its passion, not necessarily its polish, and this album is no exception.

Image courtesy of ATCO Records

At Layla's core, Derek and the Dominos sing about the powerlessness we feel in the face of love. The album’s inspiration came from the story of Layla and Majnun, a Persian love poem written by Nezami Ganjawi around 1188. In the story, a man becomes so deeply in love with Layla that he’s given the epithet “Majnun,” meaning 'possessed' or 'mad.' His manic love poems deter Layla’s parents, who forbid their marriage and give Layla to another man. Majnun flees to the desert, alone, with only his obsession for Layla. Their union was never meant to be. However, when Layla passes away, Majnun soon follows, purposeless and heartbroken.

Clapton was so inspired by this story he gave the poet Nezami songwriting credit for “I Am Yours,” a song whose verses are almost exact quotes from Nezami’s poem:

There sings no bird but calls your name to me

Each memory that has left its trace with me

Lingers forever as a part of me

In the track, Clapton sings of a love as single-minded as Majnun’s. One of the more restrained songs on the album, Allman’s slide guitar softly pleads against a soulful organ. Here, Clapton shows a tenderness that complements the force of the album’s other songs. His playing is lyrical and subtle, one of the few times the album chooses elegance over frankness.

The blues is not a timid genre. Its subscribers sing and play with unrestrained emotion, and the titular song “Layla” showcases this perfectly. Clapton begs for Pattie Boyd’s affection, his voice plain and helpless. Inspired again by Nezami’s poetry, the song’s narrator sings on his knees, hoping not to go insane. The lyrics are a plea to Boyd; they speak to a man whose only thoughts are of love. When the song ends with its famous piano coda, the band’s rough vocals and screaming guitar give way to a whole new melody; the unintelligible becomes harmonious and euphoric. Clapton and Allman dance over the piano and drums for minutes of ecstasy. Perhaps the coda is a fantasy in which Layla and Majnun (or Clapton and Pattie Boyd) become united after all. In its two parts, “Layla” conveys both the suffering and joy that comes with infatuation.

Following "Layla," "Thorn Tree in the Garden” is a fitting conclusion for the album. Clapton trades his electric guitar for an acoustic, making the song the most intimate on the record. In the final verse, Whitlock sings of his loss with sadness and despair: 

And if I never see her face again

I never hold her hand 

And if she's in somebody's arms 

I know I'll understand but I'll miss that girl

The vocals are soft and resigned —  a come down from the fantasy high of “Layla.” Accompanied by Allman's acoustic guitar and harmonious notes, the song is more pensive than blues. "Thorn Tree in the Garden" encourages listeners to reflect on the album, reminding them there's a tenderness beneath its passion. In the garden of desire, there’s a thorn tree of pain. Hope still has the final word, though, as Whitlock sings “maybe someday soon” while the two guitars fade into silence.

Much like Layla and Majnun, Derek and the Dominos ended in tragedy. The album sold poorly and was largely spurned by critics at the time; Pattie Boyd remained with Harrison, and Clapton turned to heroin to dull the simultaneous rejections. Derek and the Dominos was torn apart by drug use, and left a few incomplete masters of their attempted second album to gather dust. Perhaps the greatest loss, though, happened a year after the band’s breakup, when Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24. The album stands as one of the few places to see Allman’s slide guitar brilliance on full display. 

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs remains one of the greatest expressions of love in the blues tradition. The album is powerful and loud, and the chemistry of its two brilliant guitarists seizes listeners with an intensity unmatched by Clapton since. In touching the depths of desire, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs still rings true 50 years later.