Jack Feeny reviews: Derek and the Dominos

	Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
	"I don't want to fade away"
	Best Tracks: I Looked Away, Bell Bottom Blues, Layla

For a couple of years, Eric Clapton was a really great guitarist. When he first emerged on the scene with the Yardbirds in 1964 and cemented himself on the London blues scene with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1966 he was the most forward-thinking, original, innovative, and straight-up brilliant guitarist in the western world. It is no small exaggeration to say without Clapton's influence Hendrix may well have spent his career bumming around as a sideman in R&B bands. Clapton was the first real star of the sixties to revolutionise the way people played guitar and, in effect, gave birth to rock music and all its subsequent incarnations, heavy metal et al. He then pissed it all away and swiftly went from being one of rock's most important players to being one its most pointless, regardless of his immense popularity. The first problem was when he decided he could sing. He can't sing. Or, at least, he sings everything in an irritating whiny blues voice, openly imitating 30s blues legend Robert Johnson who, for all his obvious talents, was never going to sound good fronting a seventies hard rock band. He also, of course, came to exemplify the very worst excesses of late-sixties and seventies rock music by trading almost solely on his reputation and assuming the greatest conceivable treat in the whole wide world was to hear him and his super-star cocaine blitzed buddies wanking off for half an a hour at a time over the same old blues chord progressions. Maybe I've developed a shorter attention span in my old age and I realise some of the earlier penned reviews on this site lavishly laud virtuoso electric guitar solos that last the average length of a sitcom but I just find the whole thing so boring. I just can't understand how people can listen to the 70 minutes plus of this mushy, intertwining, interminable guitar duelling and be enthralled and enraptured throughout. In fact, I doubt whether such people really exist or, at least, if they aren't being a little economical with the truth and really only listen to the first section of the title track, not even making it through the absolutely gorgeous extended play-out (as popularised by Martin Scorcese in Goodfellas during one of his many great 'gangster montage scene set to classic rock song' efforts). Clapton left Cream in '68 after three and a half albums of admittedly acceptable quality but before being brave enough to embark on his spectacularly prosaic and bland solo career he dabbled again in the supergroup marketplace, first with Blind Faith and then Derek and the Dominos, both short-lived enough to only produce one studio album apiece. The main star in the Dominos other than Eric is, of course, Duane Allman (of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame) and the almost entire purpose of the album is to hear the two of them play guitar together. Like I said, Clapton can't really sing and he knows this. Furthermore, he also can't really write songs so every single bloody effort is just a basic blues chord change with a few repeated lyrics yelped by Clapton's whiny white blues vocals with the remaining 90% of the song given over to endless, mindless, pointless guitar soloing. I'm not saying Clapton and Allman aren't great guitar players but their artistic endeavours on here pretty much amount to Ronaldinho and Rooney turning up to a football match only to spend the 90 minutes ball-juggling. We all know they can do it but wouldn't it be better if they actually concentrated their ability into some sort of meaningful product? Given this I am constantly amazed when I see this referred to as a classic album. As I always seemt to say, classic albums should really have classic songs on them. As far as I can tell, this has about three songs on it and then one very long guitar solo. Of course, in the right frame of mind you can kind of relax to the very endlessness of it all and I would be a hypocrite to not acknowledge the prima facie similarities with, say, Davis and Coltrane blowing away on their many bebop classics. Jazz may well just be a bit boring but, by God, so is this album. Anyone who really thinks it is a masterpiece should be forcibly made to listen to the Ramones' debut until they realise exactly what is wrong with this kind of thing. It isn't badly done but it should never have been bloody done in the first place. In short, it is the kind of album that appeals only to men who work in guitar shops. And, by the way, which one's Derek?

Bravo. Tearin' down overrated classics kicks arse, don't it?
(Still, I have to assume you were attempting humor with that 'Allman in Skynyrd' bit. Hopefully no one flames you over that. Hell, he died before the Skynyrd dudes were out of high school.)
Actually, I think the reason so many other folks think this album rules is because of the pathos--Eric letting his love-wrecked emotions run rampant for 78 minutes. That's the appeal, I guess--same reason people like Blood on the Tracks and Sea Change, except this is love-wrecked emotions with 'kickass guitars' or some crap.
Myself, I think about half the songs are alright, although the album as a whole doesn't measure up to its rep. "I Looked Away", "Why Does Love Have to etc." "Bell Bottom", the title track and "Keep on Growing" are okay in the "well-written song" sense, and "Key to the Highway" is pretty good in the "groovy endless wank-session" sense. The rest seems fairly aimless and poorly-produced, albeit well-played. Anyway, I'd give this a 7 1/2 overall, if only because that title track DOES blow almost everything else from 1970 away.

I gotta hand it to you bud... having been an avid admirer of your site for 3 or 4 years you really are placing your bollocks in the fire with this review. And you know what? Fair play to you....!!! I must admit, this is my favourite Clapton album (maybe with the exception of 461 Ocean Boulevard) but I am a guitarist so there is always bias in my mind. However I do believe that "Key to the Highway" is simply a jam that wen't on for too long and that some songs are a bit of a wankwest for the Clapton and Allman.
I would give this album at least a nine in your ranking scale but good on you for giving a fairly balanced report on this album. Even if you don't care for it much. Buy that Scouse bastard a drink...well just this one time.