Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

music sucks but he fucked george harrison's wife. 4 stars

there was an hour and a quarter of this shit. we know Clapton is a massive bell end but that is some serious self love to release over an hour of you wanking off on your guitar just to get all the middle aged white blokes in stonewashed jeans to get a moist crotch from feeling like they know 'the blues'. it takes a cunt of claptons proportions to take the blues and switch it from heartfelt songs of woe and turn it into an excuse to make everyone look at how good you are on the guitar. that bit form goodfellas is good though.

Oh the irony of someone that is openly racist building a career on piss poor blues rip-offs. Fuck racist, rapist, anti-vax Clapton.

Uninspired trash over basic blues backing. If I wanted to listen to this, I can go to a local dive bar on a Tuesday evening show with a bunch of aging rockers who believe in conservative fiscal policy.

If someone asked me for the most generic piece of classic rock music I could think of, I now know where to point them to.

“Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos (1970) It will be hard to focus on this as an album, since it contains one of the best rock songs of all time, “Layla”. Another thing that makes this a challenge is that it features two of the top rock/blues guitarists of all time, Eric Clapton and Duane Allman (d. 1971). Indeed, the music of this album is best heard as an electric guitar duet between these two. The serious listener may thus be distracted by the temptation to spend too much attention to distinguishing their contributions on each song. And rock aficionados may be surprised that many of the dominant guitar lines are performed not by Clapton (right channel dominant, with heavy fretted bends) but by Allman (usually hanging out on the left channel, and recognized by ultra high slide). Also, on “Keep On Growing” and “Thorn Tree in the Garden”, the lead vocal is not Clapton, but Bobby Whitlock. The lyrics are beautiful expressions of love, found (“Keep on Growing”), lost (“I Looked Away”), requited (“Little Wing”) or not (“Layla”). Love, longing, pain, passion. No politics. No philosophy. No pretense. Musically, the compositions are exquisite, experimental (This is 1970), and performed with technical excellence and soul. A classic fusion of rock and blues, with the most fitting acoustic final track ever. Clapton’s dominant voice (admittedly strained) is helped by quality backing vocals. Solid rhythm section, but listen, listen, listen to the guitars. This a great album. No argument. 5/5

My two year old son died in the same way Eric Clapton's son died. For inspiration.

A classic, but some of these songs go on a bit long. I like Clapton but there's a bit too much noodling for me at certain points

I get the feeling that the only reason this is on this list is because of the hit song Layla.

The title sums this album up perfectly. Competent music, but for a collection of love songs it feels cold and perfunctory. Perhaps Clapton would have been better suited to a collection of assorted hate songs? 2/5

A few decent songs. Plenty of bland twaddle. And Clapton is a racist piece of shit, so I won't listen again

I need a slowed-down, soul-free version of Little Wing like I need another hole in my head. Diet blues.

I'll be honest, I find Clapton's solo stuff massively overrated, but I often like him when he's constrained by a band around him, so curious to see how this lands. The first song is actually alright. And Bell Bottom Blues is good too. I'm gonna credit Duane Allman. Kind of gets a bit boring for a while after that....Yeah, okay this has fallen off into the worst of Clapton-y endless blues noodling. Even the version of Little Wing, a usually amazing song, isn't totally doing it for me. Okay, but Layla is a banger, no denying Kinda digging One More Chance

My first ever one star for this overrated, racist old bore. Pedestrian songs and one hour 16 minutes. He can shove his dominos up his arse.

I deeply hate Eric Clapton, both as a person and as a musician. I did not want to listen to this album. However, l decided that I should at least give it a go considering that I still hold a lot of Kanye West's music very close to my heart and I should probably extend the same courtesy that I expect from some of the more Kanye-averse users on this site giving his music a fair shot to Clapton. That being said, this album was pretty dull, but of course Layla is an unimpeachable track.

What a great sound, fast paced songs and howling guitars, every song has class - what's not to like?

Look. You know why this album is on the list, I know why the album is on the list. Just give it a 3 and move on

The blues numbers are great, but I can't ignore his many flaws as a human being (a racist anti-vaxxer) so won't listen to his music any more.

bleck

The cover of Little Wing is unlistenable, especially the grating refrain they added. I never want to hear this album again.

Eric Clapton absolutely sucks

Slow hand does not disappoint. I had forgotten how much more than Layla they were. Great stuff

There's a lot of foreplay, some pleasurable some not, before Layla opens her legs for the good stuff. Oh, and Clapton is a cunt.

That was really really good. I’m surprised. I mean, Layla is a banger but there was so much good stuff on this album!

I've been really looking forward to this one since I first saw it on the History list a week ago (I'm a bit behind, OK?). Layla is a guitar classic masterpiece and I've had other songs off this album popping up on my Spotify playlists now and then. Eric Clapton's guitar-playing is at its absolute best on this album, with the backing band providing a great framework for it. Clapton's vocals could certainly be improved on, but that's not what we came here for. In the end it's all about the impeccable guitars. Admittedly, the album is on the long side and there is certainly some filler on here. It would be tighter and better as a whole by dropping the snoozers I Am Yours and It's Not Too Late and maybe 1 or 2 more as well as by shortening Key To The Highway, which seems to ramble. Nonetheless, most of the album is of such high quality, that its length and the few sleepy parts can be forgiven. Highlights: Layla, Little Wing

One of the greatest albums ever created, Eric Clapton at his absolute best. Leaving behind the psychedelia of Cream and the 60’s, Clapton puts together a blues rock masterpiece. The guitar playing on this album is mind blowing, with Clapton’s legendary guitar playing aided by the signature slide licks of Duane Allman. Everyone knows about Layla, one of the greatest rock and roll masterpieces ever composed, but every song on the album is a classic. “It’s too late” may be my favorite song of all time, and this may be my favorite album of all time. It’s that good.

Wow! This is one great guitar album! I thought “Layla” was the only song I knew from this. When “Bell Bottom Blues” came on I had a shock of recognition… I loved this song once long, long ago in a forgotten past… Hearing it now was quite startling. “Layla” is a masterpiece and it is not surprising this song is embedded into the vernacular of rock. But the rest is very, very strong and worthy of accompanying such a legendary song. I almost feel embarrassed that I have never listened to this before. Eric Clapton as a person provokes mixed emotions in me today. Still, I find it difficult to imagine how one might dismiss the quality of the playing on this album if listened to with any objectivity at all. This album is packed with incredible guitar work. Phenomenal!

I hate myself for giving this one 5 stars… Clapton is a huge wanker but man this is a good record… anything Duane Allman touched was gold I guess

Back when there were musicians.

Layla song is a straight ten out of ten. The complexity of these songs is great and I find it brings me happiness listening to this

This has a couple of favs and a classic 70s sound. Bell Bottom Blues❤️

Title track is a masterpiece, fiery guitar riffs galore and a young Eric singing his goddamn heart out for his mate's missus. He had a turn later, and found out the grass ain't that much greener. Still, prior to that sad domestic disillusion, he was drinkin' and smokin' and cokin' himself right silly, and he had the forethought to get that shit down on tape. Lo and behold, this album. Bell Bottom Blues is another great track, and his crack at Little Wing is alright too (no outdoing Sir Jimi though). Years later, Stevie Ray would demonstrate what a cover of Little Wing could be. I've listened to this album of bunch of times before - last time was about 3 weeks ago while grocery shopping. I forgot I was even listening to the music until it reached the title track and my ears zoomed back in on the sound coming through my headphones. This may be a sign that, while I appreciate the album's status as a classic, it's not some kind of Top Ten (hell, Top 100) album for me.

Goes on too long. First concert I went to was Clapton in the Albert Hall, as my dad is a fan back from the Yardbirds’s day. I might’ve only been 10, and was impressed as I was meant to be, but I remember feeling impatient for the big riffs, which seemed rare. My favourite song was “Sunshine of Your Love”, and I probably wondered why he didn’t play more of stuff that sounded like that, rather than the plod plod woo-hoo-yeah material that I let my legs dangle back and forth to. Later, the album “Journeyman” came out, which my dad got on tape, and I remember him rushing into a bedroom we kids had congregated in to play a segment of the song “No Alibis”, specifically a two second segment of a solo, which he happily described as classic Clapton. Even then, I felt this was poignant. Two seconds out of a 57 minute album! On heroin addiction, William Burroughs wrote that the addict could spend a whole day staring at the corner of his shoe. He might have added “or inconclusively guitar solo to “Key To The Highway”. Everything is clear and glints, all the many elements painstakingly balanced against each other. The back and forth between guitarists is evident, even if the subject of the conversation is mundane. How many of these songs are about nicking George’s wife? “Layla etc” is “No Alibi”’s dad, a shiny artifact that’s more soft than rock, but the rock that’s there is worth a linger if you like truck stops. But it is so long that a second listen through almost took me to the office sick bay for a lie-down during “Tell the Truth”. It has been a long year. (I ended up just sitting on the couch outside it, writing some of this review.) “Layla” is often said to be Clapton’s best song, but the riff is Duane Allman’s invention and the piano part is, allegedly, Rita Coolidge’s, pinched by her abusive drummer boyfriend Jim Gordon (he’d later murder his mum and spend most of his life in jail before his death this year). What I am getting to is that back then Clapton still had some good compositional taste! Far too long. Just now, I took out a headphone bud with an audible gasp of Jesus Christ. I am giving this 3, as it is an archetype, the platonic ideal of a kind of music that I find irredeemably lame, but with which I am sentimentally entangled. Having not heard it in decades, the intro to their cover of “Little Wing” stilled me. I prefer it to the original. Super epic. Followed by the dishwater blues of “It’s too late”. Can’t believe I’ve listened to this twice today. Am betting my partner in this endeavour will remedy this review with two lines and a score perhaps half that number. What was that song you taught me back in labs? “My old man said be an Arsenal fan…”

It's just alright until you hit Layla then it becomes amazing for a bit then goes back to just alright.

"Layla" the most known and best song on the album. Bluesy/Eric Clapton type music. 5/10.

Not even the slide-god Duane Allman can rescue Eric Clapton from his native bland blues-dad territory. Layla is a good song I never need to hear again, but otherwise the best tracks on here are like filler on an 80s ABB album - big broad major-key southern rock chord progressions, mildly funky basslines, and mostly aimless noodle. The best bits are the harmonized gual guitar leads and Duane's slide solos/fills. Clapton's vocals are flat and soulless and, Cream aside, I've never understood the hype around him as a guitar legend - he's just a technically proficient but very mechanical Buddy Guy/BB King impersonator with nothing special about his phrasing, tone, or anything. There are so many licks on here some are bound to be good, so every couple songs there's something ear-catching like a cool descending run, a minor pentatonic->mixolydian transition, or a big melodic line. It's all very mid, but hey, there's a lot of it - real discount bin stuff...

You know, when I first listened to this album I thought, "Guitar, guitar guitar guitarguitar, but guitar with guitar is guitartar." Then after a while, I found myself really soaking in and saying, "Guitarguitar on gui- guitar is guitar tar tar tar gui targuitar guitar!" And now after having heard it all the way through, I can confidently say, "Layla."

In the spirit of “separating the art from the artist”, I’d just like to say that this is decent record by a talented band that happened to be fronted by a massive douchebag. (Seriously, do yourself a favor and google “Eric Clapton $11 Lawsuit”)

Great material for one of those blues dad cover bands that meet up once a week to drink mediocre beer and ward off their incoming midlife crises. The music is well played, but it’s not really my thing and it doesn’t convince me to explore it further. However, it still has a certain vibe. Most tracks are very forgettable, and the album lacks cohesion. Notable tracks: "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" "Little Wing" "Layla" Favorite track: "Little Wing"

Fuck Eric Clapton.

Boring blues-rock that I've heard a million times by now. While Clapton is clearly talented, I can't stand this type of music. I understand he was a pioneer in his field, but even then, these songs were old by the time he stole them. 'Layla' has also aged terribly, dude's simping over someone else's wife. I guess Clapton could never be original in any facet in his life.

This is so boring. This album has no right being over an hour long. There's so much pointless noodling it makes me want to bash my head against a wall. The vocals are bad too. Why Does Love Gotta Be So Sad is a pretty good song though. I think if the songs ended sooner it would be a much better album.

Clapton is such an emotionally expressive soloist, but often the songs that are bolted onto them just aren't entertaining or original enough all the way through. It was only during the course of listening to this album that I discovered he was a racist and an Enoch Powell supporter. So fuck this guy. I can't listen to a double album through twice without that in the back of my mind all the time.

Christ, this was shit. Any hope I had faded when I saw the running time of 1 hour and 16 minutes. How many Atlantic soul singles could I fit into this timeframe? ALL winners, unlike the crap from the silly old racist doing his guitar shite on this album. I know, I'll wait until Layla, I thought. I could probably just about stomach this in a non-ironic Partridge strumming style. But it was the penultimate track. Even the Spotify ads for CEX were better than this shit. Bailed three songs in. Ahh - here comes Wilson Pickett. That's better.

The racist wanker ruins this for me. No thank you.

Fuck Eric "Keep Britain white" Clapton.

boring boomer music

A great accompaniment to this hot weather. Really wore me out

Uggghhhh, starting my morning by rolling Clapton on this one is not how I want to enter the day. Let's try to stay unbiased, despite my long running opinion of "fuck that guy". Jesus, this album is over an hour long? Cocaine really does make folks think ALL of their ideas are great ones, doesn't it? OK OK, hitting play... I feel like there has to be a correlation between the popularity of this album and the amount of lead paint in homes in America at the time. What an absolutely boring turd of a record. If this is one of the 1001 records I need to hear before I die, now that I've slogged through this I welcome the cold embrace of death. (Fine, credit where due, the song "Layla" is a ripper, albeit one that could've been edited down by like a full two minutes)

Absolute classic

Un 5.

love it

An incredible blues rock album with Clapton at his best

One of the best albums ever recorded. A masterpiece.

I would like to find a source for reading about the history of the albums meaking.

It was nice...I was tempted to give it 4 stars, but its about as good if not better than Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Masterpiece! Great Melodies. A shame I didn’t know it.

De Clapton no conocía más que ya su onda de adulto contemporáneo, con el Unplugged y el disco con B.B. King. Lamento que haya sido así porque disfruté muchísimo este disco que nunca había oído. En mi perspectiva es un perfecto disco de Rock de los setenta: con un toquecito de Folk y Psicodelia, mucho de Blues y algo de Hard Rock, muy buena batería y bajo, arreglos vocales rasposos y por supuesto guitarras… muchas guitarras. Incluso para lo largo que es, y considerando que las canciones más blueseras de pronto se parecen entre sí, me gustó todo y me alegra agregarlo a mi librería.

Great album some classic blues covers and originals

Classic, and quite bold considerings it's largely a love album to George Harrison's then-wife...

Excellent album.

Fantastic Clapton work

Bruh

Ah look, this is an absolute classic album for so many reasons. Can I deduct a star because Eric Clapton? Nah. Are there better tracks than Layla on this? Yup.

Brilliant

Big fat Blues jam. Loved it all, especially Key to the Highway. Great omen to get this album right before baby Layla is due to enter the world.

An all time classic, would give a 4.5 if possible. It does lag a bit 2/3 in but there's nothing higher than the highs.

Великолепно

Blues, rock, Clapton... ¡Vinilo!

Muito bom! Álbum repleto de bons solos de guitarra e com tons de serestas em algumas faixas. Só depois descobri que Eric Clapton havia fundado a banda. Tudo a ver o lance das incríveis guitarras em quase todas as canções.

Very “The Band” and “Beatles” esque.

I liked it right from the beginning. Didn't realize it was Clapton until Layla started and i read the Wikipedia entry.

Eric Clapton that’s it

Awesome album. I love seeing the evolution of Clapton career. Layla is such a fantastic song

Un classiqe et un de mes albums preferées 5

love it..

And then it all goes downhill from here

Great blues album, enjoyed this quite a bit.

How've I only listened to the title track for going on 15 years and am just now listening through in its entirety? Clapton's masterpiece - he works best in this ensemble format (which, holy shit, this is the same band that recorded "All Things Must Past"?!?) Perfect coked-out, bluesy, romantic anguish. Fav Tracks: Keep On Growing, I Am Yours, Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?, Little Wing, Layla (obv), Thorn Tree in the Garden, Nobody Knows You

awesome

6/3 down goes the dominos

Just good old school rock, the only problem I found is the duration of the album it is just too long, however it never gets boring

Clapton is only good when someone else writes his songs. Consider this his all-time masterpiece.

5/5. A great collection of songs that I can choose from any and be satisfied. Just great songwriting and musicianship.

cool

itse asiassa aika vitun hyvä albumi... lyriikka... muistuttaa dustyä... tulee miinuspisteitä.. mutta melkeimpätukkoo jokainen biisinnyrikkä aivan vitun hyvä. tiiät että se espoon blues (meni konkkaan btw) ottaa sieluun mukavasti paras biisi noh tietenkin mainstream paskavittu layla mutta onhan se aika kova

Almost perfect

One of the truly great albums

baita som

So many of these are great and were totally new to me! Particularly enjoyed Tell The Truth as a new-to-me tune.

my man was down bad lmao whole album is just Eric Clapton wanting to fuck George Harrison’s wife still, despite the subject matter, this is a shockingly beautiful album actually, I guess it isn’t too surprising Clapton is Clapton; he’s a complete asshole irl, but he’s a damn talented one 10/10

This, objectively, a great album by a talented group of musicians. It’s also worthy of the list given they were one-and-done. Still, my gut tells me it’s still a 4. That might be because Clapton’s style is so familiar at this point that it’s hard to give this the appreciation that a fresh set of ears might have. Also, he kinda turned in to a crazy old man and I can’t get that part out of my head. Still, the album. The album is a 5.

Yeah, I mean, it's a banger. Even the Little Wing cover manages to justify its existence

I wasn't really awake when I put this album on this morning before hopping in the shower. As the hot water hit me and I started to finally wake up, I thought, "Dang. That sounds like Clapton. I thought it was Derek somebody..." Look, I said I wasn't awake yet. Yeah, it's Clapton. It's Clapton trying to be less of a cult icon which means it's largely missing the ego and it's just a guy wailing on his guitar like his life depends on it. He's clearly just enjoying making really good music and it's tasty as hell. Later in his career, as a solo artist, Clapton would become pretty cringey but here, at this point in the game, he's just fantastic. Maybe the top of his game. There's a reason he's a legend. And this album is a big part of it. On top of ALL that, I just enjoyed the hell out of it. No reservations. Full marks.

This was even better than I remember it being.

Been probably my fave album all time for a while. Love when Clapton gets into bluesier side. Also finally starts embracing himself as a vocalist here.

If you like rock and blues influenced guitar playing, I have the album for you. Here two of the GOATs united for one glorious celebration of the instruments and the songs are not bad either. Favorites: bell bottom Blues, keep on growing, why does love got to be so sad, and of course Layla. Clapton’s second best work (after Blind Faith).

I hadn’t listened to this all the way through for a long time. Was thinking I’d probably give it a 4. After listening again today, that would have been absolutely wrong. Definitely a 5. My favorite is the cover of Little Wing. Hard to imagine that this was panned when it came out.

This one is awesome and belongs on the list. It is a masterpiece that provides Clapton with a perfect showcase for his tremendous talents. Clapton was not in a great space, but that inspires incredible (and incredibly personal) music. The rest of the "group" is also up to the task - especially Bobby Whitlock. There may be some filler (the issue with most double albums), but the highlights give it the five stars.

The song writing on this album is just so good. Add the blues guitar shredding and you’ve got a fantastic album. Easy 5