0004. Derek & The Dominos
Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

Layla? Clapton? 70's? Double LP? It's feels like the holy quadinity (is that even a word?) and after yesterdays disappointment looked like something I needed to get my faith back in the listmaking journalism crowd.

The title pretty much sums it up and explains it all - the album does contain Layla and other assorted love songs (fifteen others to be exact) and the others aren't as noteworthy as Layla (and that's why she gets to be in the title and you don't). That, however, doesn't mean they're bad tracks 'cause there's not a single bad song on the album.

Their rendition of Hendrix' Little Wing is almost as good as Jimi's, but since you can't compete with the Word of God (or rather the guitar) it's just a top notch song instead of one of the greatest of all time.

A couple of highs, a couple of mediums and then Layla - the monolithic icon of Awesomeness (that later on down the line got made into a slow jam by a frumpy old man who lost his electricity). It's pure Götterdammerung! If they'd put Leyla as the last track and cut it at the 3:10 mark listeners everywhere would have smashed their turntables to smite them for not continuing, but now we're eased down by a four-minute outro and then Thorn In The Garden, one of the mid-level tracks on the album.

If I'd heard this when it was first released it (apart from being a miracle since I wasn't born yet) would have been a definitive ear-opener into the world of incredibly-talented-white-guy-blues-based-rock.
It's one of the records you ought to get, and so will I, but I got to get the GotToGets first.