The 500 - #117 - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominos

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album #:117
Album Title: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Artist: Derek and the Dominos
Genre: Blues Rock
Recorded: Criteria Studios (Miami, Florida)

Released: November, 1970
My age at release: 5
How familiar was I with it before this week: Quite well
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #226, dropping 109 spots

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Layla

In a way, the story of this record, the only release from British blues rock sextet Derek and The Dominos, begins in the west Arabian Peninsula during the 7th Century.

Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Moullawwah was just a boy tending flocks of sheep with his cousin, Layla. The pair belonged to the Banu Amir tribe, and their early bonding blossomed into a deep, but forbidden love as they became adults. Their relationship gave rise to a legend and then a poem titled majnūn laylā, sometimes anglicized to Layla and Majnun, but better translated to Layla's Mad Lover.

A modern sketch of al-Moullawwah by
Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran.

As the story goes, when al-Moullawwah and Layla fell in love as adolescents, he began composing poems about his feelings for her – feelings which became obsessive. Some locals began calling him "Majnun" -- which translates to "mentally unhinged".

Undaunted, al-Moullawwah asked for her hand in marriage. Her father refused and, shortly after, forcibly married her off to a noble and rich merchant of the Thaqif tribe in the city of Ta'if -- a city that still exists in Saudi Arabia.

When word of her marriage reached Majnun, he fled the tribal camp and vanished into the desert. His family, despairing of his return, left food for him among the rocks and scrub. Those who passed through the wilderness claimed they saw him wandering alone, reciting poetry aloud or carving verses in the sand with a slender stick.

Majnun in the Wilderness -- unknown artist.

Layla moved to a place in Northern Arabia with her husband, where she became ill and died. In some versions, she dies of heartbreak from not being able to see her beloved. Majnun was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 AD, near Layla's grave. He had, reportedly, carved three verses of poetry on a rock nearby They are the last three verses attributed to him.

Part of a poem composed after Layla's
marriage and before Majnun's descent
into madness.

The story of Layla and Majnun has inspired more than a thousand years of artistic creation across cultures, languages and art forms. Originating in 7th‑century Arabic poetry, it was transformed into one of the great masterpieces of Persian literature by Nizami Ganjavi and went on to influence poets from India to the Ottoman world.

The legend has been adapted into operas, ballets, plays, films, miniature paintings and modern dance works, and it continues to shape contemporary storytelling. In Western culture, its theme echoes in works such as Romeo and Juliet and in other stories, including the ill-fated Abelard and Heloise.

In particular, the theme is incorporated in modern popular music, most famously by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, whose composition, Layla, appears on this week's record by Derek and the Dominos. Across time and geography, the story endures as a powerful symbol of forbidden love, artistic obsession, and the idea that love itself can become a form of mad devotion.

Layla single album jacket,

Derek and the Dominos were a short‑lived but hugely influential blues‑rock band formed in spring,1970, by Eric Clapton, alongside Bobby Whitlock (keyboards, vocals), Carl Radle (bass), and Jim Gordon (drums). All four musicians had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, a touring soul‑rock ensemble that Clapton joined after the breakup of his high‑profile supergroup Blind Faith.

Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett were an American husband
and wife duo who performed soul, rock, blues and country music.

Wanting to escape the pressure and celebrity attached to his name, Clapton adopted the alias “Derek” so the group could function as a more anonymous, collaborative band rather than a star‑led project. The group solidified while backing George Harrison on sessions for All Things Must Pass (#433 on The 500) and soon began recording their own music in Miami with guest guitarists Duane Allman and Dave Mason.

Clapton (left) with Allman in 1970.

The band released just one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which is now regarded as one of the greatest albums in rock history. Despite the creative success, Derek and the Dominos fell apart in 1971, less than a year after forming. The breakup was driven by a combination of factors: severe drug addiction (especially Clapton’s heroin use), internal tensions, exhaustion from touring, and emotional strain following Duane Allman’s death, which happened within a year of this release. Attempts to record a second album collapsed, and the group quietly dissolved without a formal announcement. Although brief, Derek and the Dominos left a lasting legacy, defined by raw emotional intensity and a single monumental recording.

Allman died following a motorcycle crash, he was 24.

In tracing the arc from the ancient Arabic poem to Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the connection becomes more than a clever literary reference: it becomes a shared emotional architecture. The legend of Layla and Majnun is not simply a story about romance, but about love that cannot be acted upon, love that survives only through expression. Majnun’s devotion is rendered through poetry whispered to himself, traced in desert sand and finally, painfully, carved into stone. Centuries later, Eric Clapton encountered this same emotional aching in his own life when he fell in love with model Pattie Boyd who was married to his best mate and Beatle, George Harrison.

Boyd in a photo shoot - 1968.

The song Layla functions as a direct emotional translation of the poem rather than a retelling of its plot. Its urgent opening riff captures obsession and desperation, while its famous coda slows into resignation and longing, perhaps mirroring the two emotional states of Majnun’s journey from pursuit to acceptance. Across the album, Clapton and the Dominos repeatedly circle the same themes found in the Arabic tradition. Love is represented as fixation, suffering and, ultimately, something that can reshape identity rather than resolve itself.

George Harrison and Pattie Boyd wedding (1966).

In both stories, the beloved Layla is not fully possessed, yet becomes immortal through art. Ultimately, the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs demonstrates how ancient stories persist not only because they have been preserved, but because they are perpetually re‑felt.

Clapton did not borrow the name Layla to decorate a song. Instead, he recognized himself in Majnun’s condition. In a way, the album stands as proof that across cultures, centuries and languages, the same truth about love unfulfilled. If it cannot be lived, it can be preserved in poetry, visual art and music. It can become something that outlasts the emotions that inspired it. In that sense, the poetry scratched into shifting desert sands and a 1970 rock album are doing the same work. Both are bearing witness to a love that could not be resolved.

CODA

Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979. However, that marriage lasted only a decade. In 1991, she met property developer Ron Weston, whom she married in 2015. They are still together.

There are seven Harrison and Clapton songs specifically written about Boyd (Listed below). Every one of them is on an album that is on The 500 list. I wonder if Weston has any on his playlists?

I Need You - The Beatles (1965)

If I Needed Someone - The Beatles (1965)

Something - The Beatles (1969)

For You Blue - The Beatles (1970)

Layla - Derek and the Dominos (1970)

Bell Bottom Blues - Derek and the Dominos (1970)

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton (1977)

The 500 - #307 - A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 307

Album Title: A Hard Day's Night

Artist: The Beatles

Genre: Pop-Rock, Rock, Beat

Recorded: EMI, London, UK & Pathe Marconi, Paris, France

Released: July, 1964

My age at release: Not Yet Born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, 263 (Moving up 44 places)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: And I Love Her

A Hard Day's Night was the third record by The Beatles. It was released in England at the height of Beatlemania on July 10, 1964, exactly one year and a day before I was born. It was released two weeks earlier in the U.S., with a slightly different track listing (including four instrumentals).

Album cover for the US release

There is a part of me that wishes I could have experienced Beatlemania – that wild period of anything goes and “I’m all right, Jack” that gripped the Western world between 1963 and 1966. It was a cultural upheaval and music revolution of a kind that might never happen again.

In the mid-90s, my beer league hockey team won the unlikely chance of playing at the renowned Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Before taking on our competitors we were given a guided tour by a local historian who shared fascinating stories about the famous building.

The iconic Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario

At a loading area at the back of the building the guide told us about the first time The Beatles played in the arena in 1964. It was where the group had been shuttled in a heavy-duty police van for protection. Earlier in the week, their limousine had been set upon by hundreds of female devotees who, seemingly against the laws of physics, managed to claw their fingers into the seams of the doors and rip them open. The four pop idols had their shirts torn from their bodies before escaping with the help of police.

On the day they made their Gardens debut, 4,000 police officers and Mounties were assigned to clear a five-block area around the arena for 12 hours.

A Hard Day's Night became a milestone in the Beatles’ compendium of hits. In contrast with their first two releases, it contained songs exclusively written by the Fab Four  – mainly John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Its issue coincided with the opening in movie theatres of a musical-comedy film by the same name, in which they starred.

My favourite bit of trivia about the film is that it features a young Phil Collins as an uncredited extra. Collins would go on to become the drummer and eventually the singer for one of my favourite bands, Genesis. He would also enjoy a massively successful solo career. I remain a little frustrated that there are no records from Genesis or Collins on The 500 list. I think The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Selling England By The Pound have the artistic merit and Collins' No Jacket Required was a monster hit with smash singles that dominated the chart for most of 1985. Oh well -- as podcaster Josh Adam Meyers often says "we just accept the list....even when it's butt cheeks."

There are still seven more Beatles records on The 500 list, but we won't get to the next one until #53, Meet The Beatles. That's nearly five years I have to think of more things to say about the four Lads from Liverpool. No prob, mates.

The 500 - #392 - Let It Be - The Beatles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 392

Album Title: Let It Be
Artist: The Beatles
Genre:  Rock
Recorded: 1968-1970 Apple, EMI, Twickenham Studios
Released: May, 1970
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Two of Us 

Let It Be Album Cover - The Beatles (1970)

It is a testament to a band's greatness that a record forged in frustration, resentment, addiction, skepticism and even abandonment would find its way to The 500 Greatest Albums list. Such is the case with Let It Be, the twelfth and final studio release from The Beatles.  

In 1969, the glue that had kept the four Liverpool lads together for the previous nine years was beginning to come undone. Each member was now married, or in a relationship. They were exhausted from touring and, by 1967, had resigned themselves to be a "studio-only" band. Ringo and John were both battling addictions -- heroin for John and a combination of alcohol and cocaine for Ringo. 

Ringo with first wife, Maureen Cox  and
John with second wife, Yoko Ono (1969)

George had "left" the group, not formerly but certainly mentally and emotionally. A visit to the United States and time spent with Bob Dylan had helped him realize that music could be created communally. This was in contrast to the domineering style of Lennon and McCartney, who controlled most of the songwriting and the group's creative direction.

Harrison and Dylan (1968)

Additionally, the band had been rudderless since the suicide of their manager, Brian Epstein, two years earlier. Despite Paul's objection, Lennon had convinced the band to hire Allen Klein, who came with a tough, but dubious, reputation.

Allen Klein (center) signing The Beatles

In a final bid to help the band members bond again, Paul proposed that a film crew document their rehearsals and song-writing sessions. It was his hope that this would revive the positive energy of live performances without the tedium of touring. The experiment was short-lived and the experience was filled with acrimony. Harrison's suggestions were, again, ignored. Consequently, much of the material he wrote later appeared on his first solo album, All Things Must Pass (#433 on The 500 List). Clearly, this demonstrated that there was quality in Harrison's work.

Interestingly, many of the song ideas work-shopped by Lennon and McCartney would also appear on their solo efforts. It was clear that all of the members were in Beatle-break-up-mode. Lennon, deep in heroin addiction, was always flanked by his partner, Yoko Ono -- who is often blamed (unfairly) with breaking up The Beatles. Lennon was a shell of his former self and prone to loud arguments -- most often with Harrison.

John and Yoko (1969)

Ringo, who at the height of his addiction, consumed a staggering 16 bottles of wine a day. He was kept buoyant by what his former wife, Maureen, described as "mountains of cocaine". Ringo was unable to perform when drunk and unmotivated to perform when sober (which was seldom). It was a poorly kept secret that McCartney recorded some drum tracks himself. Ringo, also mired in addiction, pretended not to notice.

An uncompromising schedule and long hours in the studio began to take its toll on the four lads. It became apparent to filmmakers that they were documenting a band falling apart. The picture below, taken during these sessions and later parodied in an episode of The Simpsons, captured their emotional exhaustion.

The Beatles would not officially dissolve for another year due to financial obligations. The recordings from these sessions, and their live performance on the rooftop of Apple Studios, eventually found their way to sound engineer Phil Spector who overhauled the songs, adding his own orchestrations.

As Lennon put it: 

"Phil was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit, with a lousy feeling to it, and he made something of it."

Despite all of this, the record was a commercial hit, going to number one on the charts. However, critical reviews were mixed in 1970 but over time it has been acclaimed and several songs have become Beatles' classics. In 2003, McCartney remastered the record and released it under the moniker Let It Be...Naked. This alternative mix removed Spector's embellishments and captured, according to McCartney, "the stripped-down aesthetic" intended by the group.

Let it Be...Naked album cover (2003)

As a teenager, I owned a copy of the original LP on vinyl and was unaware of the backstory behind it. I knew it was their last release and, like many, blamed Yoko for the group's dissolution. It was easy to make her a scapegoat without understanding that group dynamics are complex, particularly when creative frustrations and addictions are involved. 

I had a tough time deciding what to put on my Spotify "The 500 Playlist". In the end, I settled on Two of Us because of a lyric that always makes me think of my wife. 

"The two of us have memories, longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

Like all great poetry, it is a line that resonates with me, creating powerful and conflicting emotions. I wistfully reflect on 34 years with a beautiful lady who adores me, while being reminded that we'll share a limited time on the road ahead.

The 500 - #433 - George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 433

Album Title: All Things Must Pass
Artist: George Harrison
Genre: Rock, Folk Rock
Recorded: May to October, 1970
Released: October, 1970
My age at release: 5
How familiar was I with it before this week: Fairly Well
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: What is Life?
Selected by my wife Angela, who tells me that the lyrics always make her think of me. (How lucky am I?)

"What I feel, I can't say
But my love is there for you, any time of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed
Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side?"

George Harrison has always been my favourite Beatle. I'm not sure if it started when I learned he was the youngest or that the fans called him The Quiet One. It might have been because he garnered the least attention. Paul and John were the principal songwriters and the frontmen. Ringo...well, he was called Ringo...and was The Funny One.  

I know that my affinity for George was galvanized in the late 70s when I learned that he was helping to finance the Monty Python film The Life of Brian. I was a massive Monty Python fan in my youth. I still am, but between the ages of 12 and 16 I found the comedy troupe intoxicatingly funny.

Left to Right: Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam & Michael Palin

In 1978, when Life of Brian was set to go into production, a sizeable chunk of the budget disappeared. It seems that Lord Delfont, chairman of the film's distribution firm EMI, had finally read the script and was appalled by the content. He immediately pulled the plug and the Pythons were short two million pounds. Cast member Eric Idle reached out to his wealthiest friend, George Harrison, with whom he had worked on the parody mockumentary The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash the previous year. 

Harrison agreed to help but went a step further by establishing his own production and distribution company: HandMade Films. Life of Brian was saved and, as Idle put it, became "the most anyone's paid for a cinema ticket in history." Twenty-six more films followed over the next decade, including cult classics Time Bandits, Withnail and I, and How to Get Ahead in Advertising. All of this is chronicled in the 2019 documentary An Accidental Studio.

The most memorable connection I have with All Things Must Pass is melancholy. George died from lung cancer on November 29, 2001. The next evening, I was in the studio at CHRW - Radio Western where I hosted a bi-weekly radio program. I opened the show with this album. I wasn't sure which track to play so, I put the needle down on side one and let it run to the end. As I sat in the broadcasting booth, headphones on, eyes fixed on the album cover, each song seemed to take on a deeper and more meaningful significance. I reflected on George - - again, my favourite Beatle - - who, after rescuing the Pythons, may actually have been The Funny One.