In honor of Jim Gordon’s passing, our classic song of the day is “Layla,” by Derek and the Dominos. Released in September of 1970, it rose to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 early in 1971 and became an instant rock classic.
The song “Layla” was the next-to-last track (third of four tracks on the second side of the double-album’s second disc) on the album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. That album peaked at #16 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It wasn’t universally loved at the time, with reviewers panning the slower love songs and Eric Clapton’s often uninspiring vocals, but has since come to be seen as Clapton’s greatest work and, in one critic’s words, a “blues-rock guitar masterpiece.”
Derek and the Dominos, if you don’t know by now, consisted of Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals, Duane Allman on guitar, Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals, Carl Radle on bass, and the aforementioned Jim Gordon on drums. It was the stratospheric dueling guitars of Clapton and Allman that gave the music its distinctive sound and propelled “Layla” to heretofore unknown heights. It’s truly a masterpiece.
The song was co-written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon. Clapton wrote the first half, a heart-wrenching unrequited love song for George Harrison’s then-wife, Pattie Boyd, who later divorced the Beatle and married his best friend, Clapton. (Clapton and Boyd lasted about a decade, divorcing in 1989.) The unique-sounding guitar parts came from Clapton and Allman playing live together in the studio, plugged into two channels of the same Fender Champ amp. Overall, there were six guitar tracks recorded: one rhythm track by Clapton, three harmony tracks by Clapton, one solo track by Allman, and that final track with both Allman and Clapton trading solos. I haven’t heard anything like it before or since.
Jim Gordon wrote the second half of the song, the piano-focused part. That’s Jim himself playing the piano on that part of the track, and playing drums throughout. Bobby Whitlock claims that Gordon appropriated the piano riff from Gordon’s ex-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge, who had used it in a song she wrote with Gordon called “Time,” which itself ended up on a 1973 album by Booker T. and Priscilla Jones. (Yes, that’s Booker T. of Booker T. and the MG’s. There’s a lot of everybody knowing everybody else in the business in this story.)
“Layla’s” second movement, dubbed “The Piano Exit,” was recorded a week after the first part of the song. It wasn’t originally intended to be part of “Layla,” but Clapton heard Gordon playing it between sessions in the studio. Clapton convinced Gordon to tack it onto the end of the original song and then recorded it with Gordon on piano, Clapton on acoustic guitar and slide guitar, and Allman on electric guitar and bottleneck slide guitar. Engineer Tom Dowd spliced the two recordings together and the result is rock history.
Jim Gordon had a lot of history before he joined up with Misters Clapton and Allman. He started out in the L.A. studios, somewhat of a protégé to reigning studio kings Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer. Gordon became a full-fledged member of the Wrecking Crew, along with fellow young drummer Jim Keltner, taking dates that neither Hal or Earl could fit into their busy schedules. Hal commented about him, “When I didn’t have the time, I recommended Jim. He was one hell of a drummer. I thought he was one of the real comers.”
As a result, Jim played on a ton of hits in the later part of the ’60s and ’70s, including dates with the Beach Boys (he played on those Pet Sounds sessions that Hal couldn’t make), Stephen Bishop, Bread, Jackson Browne (he was one of the drummers on The Pretender), Cher, Joe Cocker, Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Art Garfunkel (he played on both Angel Clare and Breakaway), George Harrison, Carole King, John Lennon, Gordon Lightfoot, Maria Muldour (he played on the classic “Midnight at the Oasis”), Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Johnny Rivers, Leon Russell, Carly Simon (he was the drummer on “You’re So Vain”), Steely Dan (he played on almost all the Pretzel Logic album, including “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”), Tom Waits, and Frank Zappa. Yes, Jim Gordon played with both Bread and Frank Zappa, he had that kind of range.
Jim was one of the drummers (along with Jim Keltner and Chuck Blackwell) on Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and the subsequent live album. That led to his hooking up with Eric Clapton, which led to Derek and the Dominos, which led to “Layla.”
As great a musician as Jim was, he had his demons. He suffered from severe schizophrenia, possibly exacerbated by excessive alcohol and drug use, and began to hear voices in his head. He became increasingly violent, at one point punching his girlfriend Rita Coolidge while they were both on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Not surprisingly, Ms. Coolidge broke up with him over that. (She ended up doing okay, having several hits of her own and later marrying yet another musician, Kris Kristofferson.)
Unfortunately, Jim’s demons got stronger and one day in June of 1983 one of the voices in his head told him to kill his mother. Jim obeyed and attacked her with a hammer and then stabbed her with a butcher knife until she was dead. Osa Gordon was 71 years old.
On July 10, 1984, Jim Gordon was convicted of murder and sentenced to 16 years-to-life in prison. He never attended a parole hearing and never got parole. A deputy district attorney noted that the incarcerated Gordon was “seriously psychologically incapacitated” and “a danger when not taking his medication.”
Fellow drummer Hal Blaine kept up a correspondence with Jim throughout his years in prison. Hal tried to visit him once, had the whole thing lined up, but Jim called it off at the last minute. He didn’t want to see anybody any more, not even his old friend Hal.
Hal said this about Jim at the time:
“I still consider Jim Gordon a great talent who went down the wrong street due to mental illness. I started hiring him on dates. He was perfect for whatever we were recording. He learned quickly what not to play. Sometimes that takes players years to learn, and often the hard way. Jim was everybody’s friend, including mine, and still is.”
Jim Gordon never again saw the outside of the prison walls. He passed away on March 13, 2023, aged 77. His demons are no longer with him.
