This is to cheer me up as much as the audience, as all the news today is dire.
I present yet another version of what I think is the best rock song of all time (not including the second slow part): “Layla” by Eric Clapton. (Jim Gordon, who died in prison, wrote that piano coda.) This version was presented at the Royal Albert Hall 33 years ago (!), and Slowhand is all decked out in a tux (sans cravat). He also has a cigarette burning on the fretboard. But it’s a great version, backed by an orchestra.
There are many reasons why I love this song, even though I think that, as a group, the Beatles were the best. The opening riff is both original and unmistakable, the real-life tale behind the song is heartbreaking, the words are comprehensible and tell the story, and the solo (here at 2:19) shows Clapton at his best.
Great version. Loved the rock musicians in tuxedos! And as you note, the back story is very interesting. Thanks!
ps, when is your web-dude going to get the Subscribe to this Post button back?
I don’t know if this is true or not, but Wikipedia says this about the piano coda:
“In later years, [keyboardist Bobby] Whitlock claimed that the coda was not actually written by Gordon: ‘Jim took that piano melody from his ex-girlfriend Rita Coolidge. I know because in the D&B [Delaney & Bonnie] days I lived in John Garfield’s old house in the Hollywood Hills and there was a guest house with an upright piano in it. Rita and Jim were up there in the guest house and invited me to join in on writing this song with them called “Time”. (Her sister Priscilla wound up recording it with Booker T. Jones) Jim took the melody from Rita’s song and didn’t give her credit for writing it. Her boyfriend ripped her off'”
If that is true, it just adds one more layer of drama to the song.
Hi Ken,
I finally finished the Moseler pdf book on Modern Monetary Theory. Sorry it took so long but life got in the way. Thanks. So as not to go off topic here I’ll drop a few lines on your original post which was 8 Jan. Didn’t know if you’d ever see it.
Thanks! I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts.
And many of us, at least, would like to know if Rita got / will get any part of Jim’s estate, including the royalties…
Simply extraordinary. Layla has got to be on everyone’s short list of the greatest rock songs. I love watching the audience get into it. And, of course, Clayton’s guitar work is first class.
Great song. The guitar riff, the vocal intensity. That said, I thought the slowed down Unplugged version with that shuffle beat was a travesty. It took that driving, adolescent intensity-fueled classic rock jam about a girl and castrated it into a tired, middle-aged, impotent strummer of a campfire lament. One of the worst remakes ever in my opinion.
Absolutely agree!
You beat me to it, re: the Unplugged version😵💫The original is great, as is this version with orchestra!
It’s all about that resolution – something about what happens in those few beats right before the resolution.
Duane Allman is also the missing link in what makes this song and the album as well, one of the greatest!
Concur! Allman’s guitar is what gives the piano coda its character and feel. I love it and, without meaning to sound mean, I think the coda would be boring without it.
Playing with a cigarette on the fretboard would be a really cool trick!
Great as he is, I find it hard to get over his anti-vax stupidity.
Not like Roger Waters, however, that’s another metric of dumb.
D.A.
NYC
Indeed. A popular and even great artist isn’t necessarily smart with regard to facts and science. I keep forgetting that about Clapton.
Chills run up and down my spine every time I listen to Layla, which is likewise my favorite rock song of all time.
A dissenting opinion: I used to like the song but I guess familiarity breeds boredom. The riff is obviously one of the great guitar riffs but the melody doesn’t do anything for me anymore.
Do we need this?
You sound uncertain on principle.
(Sorry!)
I would like to add that the so called claim by Bobby is not true, completely taken out of context.
The Coolidge camp keeps trying to pin this claim on everything they can to make it true.
According to Bobby the two did try and get him to play the correct chords to this song that Jim was playing with three fingers.
He did play a little piano, but wasn’t a piano player as such.
Rita had the lyrics in her hand while Jim played. (She wasn’t and has never been a musician).
Bobby wanted nothing to do with it at all.
Later Jim Gordon made a deal with Robert Stigwood and received a new drum kit and a car in exchange.
Eric had absolutely nothing to do with it at all. What Stiggy worked out behind closed doors with Jim is what added to the contention between the two as Jim was attempting to take Stigwood for himself and oust Eric as his main client.
It ultimately broke up the band.
The so called song went nowhere, it was Jim’s music her lyrics.
Rita went on to record the song (after the release of Layla) in which she left Jim’s name off the credits on the record but she did file it with BMI under the title Time with an alternate title ” coda to Layla” with the writers as Rita and Jim Beck Gordon.
So you see, she did release her own version of this song, it went nowhere.
Her publishing company would be responsible for getting her her royalties etc.
This is why it is stressed to copyright.
No one would be talking about it had it been copyrighted in the first place.
As for Layla, Eric wrote that song himself.
He should not have to share anything with anyone.
The deal between Stigwood and Jim was no doing of his.
If Rita wants anything she needs to address the Gordon Estate and cease pestering people.
In an 1988 interview she never once said a thing about writing the coda to Layla and also went on to gush about Eric.
She and her attorney tried to record Bobby on a phone call to admit to this ridiculous claim. We are tired of it, please stop making claims about Bobby.
What do you think about this:
https://youtu.be/_By3Rtuu6K0?si=yiGCRKTzWWUUsGlO