Layla, Derek and the Dominoes (1970)

If you’re like me, you need breaks this year to stay sane. I, for one, start my day with a great song and go alphabetically by song title (note: this doesn’t mean each letter is a single song). Predict the next song in the comments, let me know which song I skipped, or tell me why that was a terrible choice. Enjoy!

I’ll make this clear up front, LOL: As I’ve said before in this series and will no doubt say again, the decisions are completely independent of the artist’s politics and my personal feelings toward them.

”Eric came up with the middle of the song, the title and some lyrics. Duane wrote the introduction and Jim Gordon wrote the piano part with Rita Coolidge, who he was dating at the time. The strange thing was that the album didn’t sell very well at first and the song itself didn’t become a hit until a year and a half after the band broke up.

A college radio station picked up the extended album version with the piano coda and played it over and over. Duane was dead, everyone else was stoned and doing other things – and suddenly the song was something like the alternative national anthem.

At that point, nobody really knew who Derek And The Dominos were. The song just took on its own wings and flew on its own.” – Bobby Whitlock

Yesterday: Lie down, priestess