Clapton's Layla Turning 40 in Style

01/25/2011
. Eric Clapton's classic Layla is turning 40. Universal is celebrating the milestone with the March 29, 2011 release of Derek and the Domino's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

The set will feature the original double-disc album in both digital and vinyl formats, expanded to include newly remastered tracks. Here is the official word with all the details: In the world of rock there are recordings that truly resonate in historical importance and continue to cast an enduring shadow of influence. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of the most steadfastly revered musical treasures of its era. Its famous title track is still hailed as an essential rock guitar anthem, a signature tune of rock's leading guitar hero, Eric Clapton.

Recorded in 1970 by Derek and the Dominos, the group was comprised of Clapton and top American session musicians. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs music offers a timeless blend of rock, electric blues and Southern gospel influences that has shaped generations of roots-oriented musicians.

Derek and the Dominos came together at a very special time and place � riding a late '60s wave of interest in roots music and blues-based rock and roll. In 1969, Clapton found inspiration playing in the loose, family-like structure of Delaney and Bonnie and Friends � an American, R&B-influenced entourage whose 1969 U.K. tour hit the British music scene with seismic proportion.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek, spontaneously chosen name, Derek and the Dominos represented a sincere effort to recreate the friendly, leaderless vibe and easy, groove-driven sound Clapton had enjoyed in '69. The foursome originally featured Delaney and Bonnie's rhythm section � keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon � plus Clapton on voice and guitars. They first came together in late spring of 1970, developing their sound while performing on George Harrison's breakthrough solo album, All Things Must Pass (their studio jams pushed the album to a three-disc package.) That June, Derek and the Dominos premiered publicly in London. By August they began recording their debut album at Criteria Studios in Miami, with legendary producer Tom Dowd in the control room.

Layla and Other Love Songs � the double-album that Derek and the Dominos recorded over the next 6 weeks showcased the creative singing and songwriting axis formed by Clapton and the Memphis-born Bobby Whitlock, who had grown up around the city's legendary Stax Studios. The confluence of their respective experiences � British blues-rock and Southern American R&B � generated a number of gospel-inflected tunes that featured their intertwined voices harmonizing much in the fashion of a rock-world Sam & Dave, and are among the most representative and covered tunes of that era: "Anyday," "Keep On Growing," "Tell the Truth," "I Looked Away" and "Why Does Love Got To Be So Bad."

The sessions also saw the rare coming together of Clapton and Duane Allman: two blues-rock specialists from different sides of the Atlantic. That happened when the Allman Brothers Band � then just breaking into mainstream popularity � performed in Miami on the second night of the recording sessions. The musical encounter resulted in a night full of studio jams, followed by the inclusion of Allman's guitar on most of the album, including standout duels on such blues numbers as "Key To The Highway" and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman?" and the double slide-guitar workout that defines the famous piano coda section of "Layla." Allman died only a few months later in a motorcycle accident.

Clapton's profound adoration of the American blues tradition � in all of its forms and styles � is one of the most prominent threads in the musical tapestry that is Layla and Other Love Songs. His choice of blues-based tunes to cover on the album stretches from "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (made famous by Bessie Smith in 1923) and "Key to the Highway" (associated with Big Bill Broonzy, from 1940) to Chuck Willis's plaintive R&B ballad "It's Too Late" (1956), Freddie King's "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" (1960), and Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" (1967).

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs achieved gold-album status within months of its release in late 1970, was entered into the Grammy� Hall of Fame in 2000, and today remains a ubiquitous entry in various "Top 100" and "All-Time Greatest" polls, and "Must Hear" lists. To be released March 29, 2011, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is a multi-format collection offering an appropriately comprehensive salute to this iconic album and the band that created it. The set will feature the original double-disc album in both digital and vinyl formats, expanded to include newly remastered tracks, and a treasure trove of music.

THE 2CD DELUXE EDITION features:

* Six exciting performances from what was to be Derek and the Dominos' second album, all remixed by the original session engineer, Andy Johns. The highlight of the six tracks is "Got To Get Better In A Little While" � the group's last recording � presented in this collection both as a mesmerizing jam version and as the first-ever release of the fully produced studio version, finally completed by founding member Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals.

* All four audio performances from Derek and the Domino's sole, historic television appearance on The Johnny Cash Show, November 9, 1970 � including Clapton's famous jam on "Matchbox Blues" with Cash and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins.

* The two tracks produced by Phil Spector in early summer 1970 that amounted to the first release by Derek and the Dominos: "Tell the Truth" and "Roll It Over," the A- and B-side of a single that was quickly pulled from circulation by the group.

* The Layla session out-take "Mean Old World": the legendary acoustic duet performed by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman.

The SUPER DELUXE EDITION additionally includes:

* Newly remastered and expanded 2-CD set of Derek and the Dominos: In Concert, recorded at the Fillmore East and remastered from the original master tapes.

* Audio only DVD featuring DTS 5.1 and Dolby Surround 5.1 versions of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, mixed by legendary engineer Elliot Scheiner.

* High-fidelity, 180-gram reproduction of the original vinyl double album, remastered directly from the original UK album masters, featuring slightly alternate mixes of some songs.

* A hardcover book, artfully designed with rare and never-seen photographs, and featuring four meticulously researched essays by noted music historian and author Ashley Kahn fashioned from new interviews with Bobby Whitlock, Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, engineer Andy Johns, producer Albhy Galuten, guitarist Derek Trucks; plus historic interviews with Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, and producer Tom Dowd.

* Facsimiles of Derek and the Dominos concert tickets and various promotional items, including the famous "Derek is Eric" button created to assure fans of the identity of the group's lead singer and guitarist.

* Pop-up 3-D artwork and a high quality Layla art print based on the oil painting that graced the original album cover � "La Fille Au Bouquet" by Emile Theodore Frandsen de Schomberg � which has achieved cultural significance in its own right.

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition stands as the centerpiece of a series of releases paying tribute to the historic album. Many of the elements within the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions will be available separately, and in various formats � including a single-disc edition of the remastered Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs; a 2-LP remastered vinyl edition of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs; a 2-CD edition of Derek and the Dominos: In Concert; and downloadable editions of all configurations on iTunes. A full list of each configuration with respective release numbers follows:

1. Single-Disc Version/Digital Equivalent
2. 2CD Deluxe/Digital Equivalent
3. 4-CD / DVD / 2-LP Super Deluxe Edition
4. 2-LP Vinyl Reissue
5. Digital exclusive
6. iTunes LP
7. 7-inch vinyl single/Digital equivalent "Got To Get Better In A Little While" b/w "Layla"

TRACK LISTINGS OF ALL FORMATS

DISC ONE: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (ALL NEWLY REMASTERED)

1. I LOOKED AWAY (3:06)
2. BELL BOTTOM BLUES (5:05)
3. KEEP ON GROWING (6:23)
4. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT (4:58)
5. I AM YOURS (3:35)
6. ANYDAY (6:36)
7. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (9:38)
8. TELL THE TRUTH (6:40)
9. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (4:43)
10. HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN (6:54)
11. LITTLE WING (5:33)
12. IT'S TOO LATE (3:51)
13. LAYLA (7:05)
14. THORN TREE IN THE GARDEN (2:51)

DISC TWO: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (bonus CD)

1. MEAN OLD WORLD (3:52) Layla session out-take
2. ROLL IT OVER (4.31) Phil Spector produced single b-side
3. TELL THE TRUTH (3.23) Phil Spector produced single a-side
4. IT'S TOO LATE (4.11) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
5. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE (6.34) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
6. MATCHBOX (with Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins) (3:56) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
7. BLUES POWER (6.31) Live on The Johnny Cash Show, 5 November, 1970 ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
8. SNAKE LAKE BLUES (3.34) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
9. EVIL (4.34) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
10. MEAN OLD FRISCO (4.04) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
11. ONE MORE CHANCE (3.15) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX
12. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE JAM (3.45) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album * PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. GOT TO GET BETTER IN A LITTLE WHILE (6:05) From April/May 1971 sessions for the Dominos second album ** PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED NEW MIX

* previously unreleased recording ** newly remixed recording

DISC THREE (audio only DVD): Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

5.1 SURROUND SOUND DVD (DTS 5.1 and DOLBY SURROUND 5.1) by Elliot Scheiner (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 5.1 MIXES)

1. I LOOKED AWAY (3:06)

2. BELL BOTTOM BLUES (5:05)

3. KEEP ON GROWING (6:23)

4. NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT (4:58)

5. I AM YOURS (3:35)

6. ANYDAY (6:36)

7. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY (9:38)

8. TELL THE TRUTH (6:40)

9. WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD? (4:43)