Derek and the Dominoes: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Forged in sorrow and six-string swagger, this blues-rock gem is the ultimate break- up album. Fighting a heroin addiction, burned out with life as a guitar god, and hopelessly in love with George Harrison’s wife, Patti Boyd (whom he later married), Eric Clapton turned for solace to Southern rock in the form of the little-known band Delaney and Bonnie. In 1970, he teamed up with former members of that band and the ace session players Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon to create the slyly named Derek and the Dominoes. This reissue marks the 40th anniversary of the slow crawl up the US charts of the Grammy Hall of Fame album’s biggest hit, the tortured love song “Layla,” which was inspired by Boyd and features Clapton’s stinging axe duel with slide guitarist Duane Allman. Boyd’s presence also is felt in the original “Bell Bottom Blues” and covers of Freddie King’s lament “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” and Jimi Hendrix’s wistful “Little Wing.” The 40th Anniversary Edition comes in two versions: the two- CD set has a 13-track bonus disc with six tracks from the unfinished second album while the seven-disc Super Deluxe Edition adds a DVD and a double-LP of the UK masters with alternate mixes.