rockaction
Footballguy
Oh my, tim. Oh my.13. Derek and the Dominos “Layla” (from Layla and Assorted Love Songs)
https://youtu.be/TngViNw2pOo
I always get a creepy feeling whenever I hear this classic song. Not the first half; that’s just straight up rock and roll, one of Clapton’s very best efforts (his VH1 acoustic solo version from the early 90s is very good as well.)
No it’s the second half that unnerves me. It’s a beautiful piano and guitar instrumental which was featured in several movies, most famously (and bloody) in Goodfellas- some damn fine movie making there. This second half of the song was written by Jim Gordon, the drummer of the band and a paranoid schizophrenic. Only a few years after composing this masterpiece, Gordon began to hear voices in his head that urged him to murder his own mother. So he did so, first poisoning her and then decapitating her. Jim Gordon was promptly locked up in a mental institution in Northern California, where he has remained ever since. Is there a piano there? Does Gordon ever sit down and play the instrumental part of “Layla”? That’s just speculation on my part. But it’s why I get the creeps listening to it.
I never liked the song and found it to be wankery, but that's just massively sad.