(2020) Derek and The Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs [50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
Review:
…Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was celebrated back in 2011 with a deluxe, cross-format box set that featured the remastered original album (on CD, vinyl and in a 5.1 surround mix on DVD), 1973’s In Concert, and a disc of 13 bonus tracks, including new mixes of outtakes from the supergroup’s unfinished second album and a live set from The Johnny Cash Show. This new box strips things back somewhat, offering the half-speed mastered album and the 13 bonus cuts across two CDs. Miles Showell at Abbey Road has mastered the original album here. Layla was the end result of four members of Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett’s touring group – guitarist Eric Clapton (already well-known for work with Blind Faith, The Beatles and many more), singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon – coming together for a brief but fruitful series of sessions. (Their earliest session produced the briefly issued single “Tell the Truth,” produced by Phil Spector and featuring guitar work from Dave Mason and George Harrison.) The Layla sessions also featured scintillating guitar contributions from Duane Allman. Despite the album’s pedigree, the album never performed to expectations, and tragedy followed the group: Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971, Radle died in 1980 after years of drug abuse, and Gordon remains institutionalized after killing his mother during a schizophrenic episode in 1983. But gradually, Layla‘s title track took hold as one of Clapton’s crowning achievements: written about his insatiable infatuation with Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd (who indeed had a decade-long marriage with the guitarist after divorcing the Beatle), “Layla” became a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1972; in 1990, its Gordon-led piano outro scored a pivotal scene in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas – and three years later, a striking acoustic performance for MTV’s Unplugged won a Grammy Award.
Tracklist:
CD 1: Original album
01.I Looked Away
02.Bell Bottom Blues
03.Keep on Growing
04.Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
05.I Am Yours
06.Anyday
07.Key to the Highway
08.Tell the Truth
09.Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
10.Have You Ever Loved a Woman
11.Little Wing
12.It’s Too Late
13.Layla
14.Thorn Tree in the Garden
CD 2: Bonus material
01.Mean Old World
02.Roll It Over
03.Tell the Truth (Single Version)
04.It’s Too Late (live on The Johnny Cash TV Show, 5 November, 1970)
05.Got to Get Better in a Little While (live on The Johnny Cash TV Show, 5 November, 1970)
06.Matchbox with Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins (live on The Johnny Cash TV Show, 5 November, 1970)
07.Blues Power (live on The Johnny Cash TV Show, 5 November, 1970)
08.Snake Lake Blues (New Mix)
09.Evil (New Mix)
10.Mean Old Frisco (New Mix)
11.One More Chance (New Mix)
12.Got to Get Better in a Little While (Jam)
13.Got to Get Better in a Little While (New Mix)
Media Report:
Genre: blues, rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits