Four Decades Later, She’s Still Got Us on Our Knees

As reported by a whole bunch of sources, it looks like Universal will be reissuing Derek and The Dominos’ immortal album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs for its 40th anniversary.

Derek and The Dominos was Eric Clapton’s way of getting out of the limelight following his tenure in Cream and Blind Faith. The guitarist just wanted to play, rather than face the adulation he was getting from critics and fans (“CLAPTON IS GOD,” said the famous graffiti tag), and he joined up with organist Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Carl Radle – all members of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – to record a new album with producer Tom Dowd.

But it was a chance meeting with Duane Allman (Dowd was mixing The Allman Brothers’ Idlewild South) that kicked the sessions into high gear. Clapton promptly invited Allman to play, and he appears on nearly every track, including the searing “Layla,” inspired by Clapton’s unrequited affection for Patti Boyd, who was married to George Harrison at the time. (Clapton and Boyd would later marry and divorce.)

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was never a chart success but has gained fans in the ensuing decades. (The early 1990s were a notable period of revival, when Clapton tackled an acoustic version for his MTV Unplugged set and the original was featured in the film Goodfellas.) The album was remixed and reissued for its 20th anniversary in 1991, with an additional two discs of session material. It is estimated that some or of that material will make up the new 40th anniversary set, said to be released as its own single-disc remaster, a two-disc deluxe edition and (surprise!) a super-deluxe box containing four CDs, a DVD and the original album on a double-vinyl set.

After the jump, we’ve provided the track list of the original set and the 20th anniversary reissue for your perusal.

Derek and The Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Polydor 2625 005 (U.K.)/Atco SD 2-704 (U.S.), 1970. Current CD is an SACD hybrid on one disc – Polydor B0003640-36, 2004)

Disc 1

1. I Looked Away
2. Bell Bottom Blues
3. Keep on Growing
4. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
5. I Am Yours
6. Anyday
7. Key to the Highway

Disc 2

1. Tell the Truth
2. Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
3. Have You Ever Loved a Woman
4. Little Wing
5. It’s Too Late
6. Layla
7. Thorn Tree in the Garden

Derek and the Dominos, The Layla Sessions (Polydor 847 083-2, 1990)

Disc 1: Remixed version of original LP (same track list as above)

Disc 2

1. Jam I
2. Jam II
3. Jam III
4. Jam IV
5. Jam V

Disc 3

1. Have You Ever Loved a Woman (Alternate Master #1)
2. Have You Ever Loved a Woman (Alternate Master #2)
3. Tell the Truth (Jam #1)
4. Tell the Truth (Jam #2)
5. Mean Old World (Rehearsal)
6. Mean Old World (Band Version, Master Take)
7. Mean Old World (Duet Version, Master Take)
8. (When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too (Jam)
9. Tender Love (Incomplete Master)
10. It’s Too Late (Alternate Master)