YMMV / Derek and the Dominos

• Adaptation Displacement: "Layla" vastly overshadows its inspiration, a twelfth-century poem by Nizami Ganjavi, in pop culture. In turn, Eric's solo Unplugged Version is better known to some younger listeners.
• Anvilicious: Listeners might...somehow get the impression the singer was in love with his best friend's wife.
• Awesome Music: The band's sole studio album is deservedly considered Clapton's masterpiece, and is also one of the highlights of Duane Allman's tragically short career. Live they were no slouches either.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Duane Allman, especially since he technically wasn't part of the ensemble.
• Epic Riff: You can hear Duane's "Layla" riff right now, can't you?
• Franchise Original Sin: Much of what would later fracture Clapton's fanbase - country and soul influence, soft sound, big pop choruses - is all over Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, even though the album itself is considered (with good reason) his masterpiece.
• Narm Charm: Eric Clapton is known as a guitar hero first and foremost for a reason - especially this early in his career - and Bobby Whitlock overdoes his verses, but much like punk vocalists they carry it off on sheer passion. They make even the Silly Love Songs affecting - even if you're just there for the guitar work.
• Refrain from Assuming: It's called "Bell Bottom Blues," not "I Don't Wanna Fade Away."
• Suspiciously Similar Song: There's much debate over the similarity of the second half of "Layla" and the song "Time," published in 1969 with words and music credited to fellow Delaney & Bonnie troupe member Rita Coolidge. Jim Gordon was romantically involved with Coolidge and collaborated on songs with her. But in this case it's not clear if he swiped the tune outright or if he contributed to it and thus considered it his property. Coolidge claims Eric Clapton had heard a demo of the song before recording Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, and outright states in her 2016 memoir Delta Lady that she wrote it and got cheated out of a songwriting credit. The released version of "Time" by Booker T and Priscilla Jones ^note Rita's sister is obviously the same melody, but it was recorded three years after "Layla", and they clearly modeled their arrangement on the Derek & The Dominos take.
• Tear Jerker: The last half of "Layla," followed by the album's closer, the stark acoustic ballad "Thorn Tree in the Garden."
  • The raw, bare passion of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, most notable in "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Little Wing."
  • Jim Gordon's descent into unchecked schizophrenia after the band's breakup to the point of not being able to sleep or play drums. He went to doctors to get help but they misdiagnosed and treated him for alcohol abuse, which was a symptom instead of the cause. He killed his mother in 1983 and has been locked away in a psychiatric facility ever since. At one parole hearing in 2005 he believed she was still alive.