He played with such musicians as Eric Clapton, the Beach Boys and George Harrison, and is credited as a co-writer on Derek and the Dominos’ hit song “Layla.”
LOS ANGELES — Jim Gordon, the rock ‘n’ roll session drummer who played on classic records by Eric Clapton, George Harrison and The Beach Boys but suffered from growing mental health problems and spent the second half of his life in prison for killing his mother, has died at 77.
“When I didn’t have the time, I recommended Jim,” Blaine told Rolling Stone in 1985. “He was one hell of a drummer. I thought he was one of the real comers.” Their only studio album, the double record “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” has often been called the creative peak of Clapton’s career. He was tormented at the time by his unrequited love for Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, and channeled his despair into such anguished blues and hard rock jams as “Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad?”, “Bell Bottom Blues” and the seven-minute title track.
By the early 1970s, Gordon was already becoming a danger to others. Coolidge wrote in her memoir that the couple was touring with Joe Cocker when Gordon attacked her one night in a hotel hallway. Gordon hit her in the eye, she wrote, “so hard that I was lifted off the floor and slammed against the wall on the other side of the hallway.” She was briefly knocked unconscious.
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