The artist who made Eric Clapton quit Derek and the Dominoes: “I walked out of the studio”
Eric Clapton never joined anything that he wouldn’t be happy with. Although there have been many twists and turns throughout his career, it always comes back to his love for the blues and playing with the kind of musicians who check their ego at the door and let the music do the talking. Despite being one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, one of his bandmates didn’t resonate with the musician, and it was enough for ‘Slowhand’ to completely give up on Derek and the Dominoes.
Then again, the whole reason Clapton created his supergroup was to overcome his emotional trauma. He had always wanted to express his feelings for Patti Boyd, and while he could write about his pain in ‘Layla,’ having a band jam around with him while he was wearing his heart on his sleeve made a bit more sense than releasing a solo record.
This wasn’t an impromptu jam session, either. Looking at the way that Duane Allman played off of Clapton, many would have sworn that they had been playing together for years, especially with Allman’s slide guitar playing beautifully off of Clapton’s signature guitar lick in the verses, which sounds like the instrument is crying out in pain.
When talking about Clapton’s track record with musicians, it’s not like he didn’t have a history with a few strange characters. Outside of the massive infighting between Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce in Cream, ‘Slowhand’ remembered not having the time for Jim Gordon when laying some of the basic tracks.
Although Gordon was only the drummer on the sessions, it’s not like he couldn’t serve the song. His contribution to the back half of ‘Layla’ is half the reason why the tune works so well, but when he started to tell Clapton how things were going to be, the guitarist was ready to bring an end to the supergroup then and there.
He had never liked the animosity within Cream, so to see it happening again was enough for Clapton to walk out on his own band, saying, “In the middle of a session when we were trying to do a second studio album, I said something about the rhythm being wrong for the song, and Jim said something like ‘Well, the Dixie Flyers are in town, You can get their drummer.’ I put my guitar down and walked out of the studio.”
While the band never made any other tunes outside of their one album, it was only a teaser to what Clapton would do in his solo career. He had let out all his aggression, and since he was getting into acts like The Band, 461 Ocean Boulevard brought everything back to the smooth singer-songwriter tunes that Clapton had grown to admire, with only a few touches of bluesy elements thrown in for good measure.’
Having a second Derek and the Dominoes might have been a great idea, but it might be for the best that it never got released. Since Clapton was entering a downward spiral before getting back up on his feet, throwing himself right back into the grind of a new album might have cost him his sanity.
