Latest / DISGRACELAND / Derek & The Dominos: Clapton, A Christmas Shooting, Cocaine, and a Motorcycle Crash

Transcript

Derek & The Dominos: Clapton, A Christmas Shooting, Cocaine, and a Motorcycle Crash · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.
0:17
Speaker 2: The stories about Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominoes are insane.
0:22
Speaker 2: They involved murder, a deadly motorcycle accident, in devastating heartbreak
0:27
Speaker 2: and scandal. Eric Clapton was a one of a kind guitarist,
0:31
Speaker 2: seemingly hell bent on self destruction. He was heavily addicted
0:35
Speaker 2: to heroin cocaine, and throughout his stint in Derek and
0:38
Speaker 2: the Dominoes attempted to snort his way through unrequited love,
0:43
Speaker 2: and in doing so, came out on the other end
0:45
Speaker 2: with one of rock's most recognizable guitar riffs. And only
0:49
Speaker 2: one year after Clapton's Derek and the Dominoes got together,
0:52
Speaker 2: the group disbanded, but a year was all they needed
0:55
Speaker 2: to introduce the world to their white hot strain of blues,
0:59
Speaker 2: which they nailed on their one and only studio album.
1:02
Speaker 2: Because when Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Duwayne Allman, Bobby Whitlock,
1:05
Speaker 2: and Carl Rattle were in the same room, they made
1:08
Speaker 2: great music. That music you heard at the top of
1:11
Speaker 2: the show that wasn't great music. That was a preset
1:15
Speaker 2: loop from my melotron called Palisade Sache MK one. I
1:21
Speaker 2: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
1:24
Speaker 2: to The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles. And
1:27
Speaker 2: why would I play you that slice of last gasp
1:29
Speaker 2: of collective creativity cheese?
1:31
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the.
1:34
Speaker 2: Number one song in America on June fourteenth, nineteen seventy
1:39
Speaker 2: And that was the day that Derek and the Dominoes
1:41
Speaker 2: made their live debut and began to make their indelible.
1:45
Speaker 1: Contribution to rock and roll.
1:48
Speaker 2: On this episode Murder Motorcyclist, Unrecorded Love and Eric Clapton's.
1:53
Speaker 1: Derek and the Dominoes.
1:55
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Christmas nineteen twenty nine, Germantown,
2:26
Speaker 2: North Carolina, Charlie Lawson had a lot to be grateful
2:30
Speaker 2: for that holiday season. Aside from the death of his
2:33
Speaker 2: third son, William, back in nineteen twenty the Lawsons lived
2:37
Speaker 2: a good life all things considered. Their sharecropper neighbors considered
2:42
Speaker 2: them well to do. Two years prior, Charlie Lawson bought
2:46
Speaker 2: the family a tobacco farm out on Brook Cove Road,
2:49
Speaker 2: and they lived off of that farm. If not handsomely
2:52
Speaker 2: then in relative comfort. Charlie Lawson and his wife Fanny,
2:56
Speaker 2: and their seven children, Marie seventeen, Arthur, Carrie twelve, Mabel seven,
3:02
Speaker 2: James four, Raymond iiO and Mary Lou just four months
3:06
Speaker 2: were envied for their new clothing they wore when they
3:08
Speaker 2: made their trips into town, and there was a rumor
3:11
Speaker 2: going around that their father, Charlie, had even sprung for
3:14
Speaker 2: the cost of a family portrait, a blatant act of
3:16
Speaker 2: ostentation if there ever was one for a modest, god
3:20
Speaker 2: fearing family of farmers. Back in nineteen twenty nine German town.
3:24
Speaker 2: There was a depression on after all, hadn't the Lossons heard?
3:28
Speaker 2: Charlie was hearing a lot whispers, then full on voices.
3:33
Speaker 2: They told him about the rumors they knew, others knew.
3:37
Speaker 2: Peace was impossible with the voices. They weren't always there,
3:41
Speaker 2: but when they were, they weren't to be ignored. Listening
3:45
Speaker 2: to them was the only option. Ignoring them only made
3:48
Speaker 2: them louder. Charlie answered them in hushed tones under his breath. Fanny,
3:53
Speaker 2: his wife, at first thought Charlie was praying, talking to himself,
3:57
Speaker 2: sermonizing to himself to pass the time.
4:00
Speaker 1: I'm working the farm.
4:01
Speaker 2: But Charlie's muttering eventually made it into their home, random
4:05
Speaker 2: sharp shouts to himself out of nowhere in the company
4:08
Speaker 2: of the children, once at the dinner table, and then
4:12
Speaker 2: incredibly in public on a Sunday, seated in their usual
4:15
Speaker 2: pew at church. No one noticed. Everyone thought it was
4:19
Speaker 2: just another touched soul convening with the holy ghost. But
4:23
Speaker 2: Fanny noticed something was not right with her husband. He
4:27
Speaker 2: doated on the children as of late, an act that
4:29
Speaker 2: would be welcomed by most wives and mothers if it
4:32
Speaker 2: wasn't so out of character for Charlie Lawson, the stern,
4:36
Speaker 2: hard line tobacco farmer, who seldom expressed himself emotionally, perhaps
4:41
Speaker 2: a smile for his wife on Sunday, sitting in their
4:43
Speaker 2: pew taking stock of their family, but hardly anything else.
4:48
Speaker 2: The small act of pride he allowed himself was just
4:50
Speaker 2: another reminder that he sinned like everybody else. Fanny relished
4:55
Speaker 2: those moments. She was downright petrified by what.
4:58
Speaker 1: She was seeing.
4:59
Speaker 2: As of late, Charlie laughing with the kids. He even
5:03
Speaker 2: took to telling jokes he'd heard retold in town by
5:05
Speaker 2: a vaudeville stage hand. The joke was clean, but Charlie
5:09
Speaker 2: was blue inside, Fanny could tell. Particularly telling was the
5:13
Speaker 2: extra attention and affection he was paying their seventeen year
5:16
Speaker 2: old daughter Marie. Most nights. The day's hard farm work
5:21
Speaker 2: set Charlie asleep like a rock. He seldom stirred. From
5:26
Speaker 2: eight pm to four am, Fanny Lawson's husband lay on
5:29
Speaker 2: his back in the small twin bed aside hers, stone
5:33
Speaker 2: cold to sleep. But on that night before Christmas, what
5:36
Speaker 2: Fanny saw when she awoke in the middle of the
5:38
Speaker 2: night took her breath away with the fear of the
5:41
Speaker 2: devil himself. There at the edge of his bed, sitting
5:45
Speaker 2: up in his pajamas, rubbing his calloused hands together, was
5:47
Speaker 2: her normally RESTful husband, muttering.
5:50
Speaker 1: To her horror.
5:51
Speaker 2: Yes, I will be good. I promise, I won't no more,
5:54
Speaker 2: I will be better. I will be good. But you
5:57
Speaker 2: have to stop. You have to stop, and so will I. Yes, Yes, I.
6:00
Speaker 1: Promise, I promise.
6:02
Speaker 2: Fanny didn't know what scared her more the subservient tone
6:06
Speaker 2: in her normally strong husband's voice, or the fact that
6:09
Speaker 2: he was carrying on a full conversation with himself at
6:11
Speaker 2: the edge of his bed in the middle of the night.
6:14
Speaker 2: She stood up, walked over to his bed, placed her
6:16
Speaker 2: hand on his shoulder, and shocked him back into reality.
6:20
Speaker 2: He ignored her, stood left the room, and didn't return
6:22
Speaker 2: for the rest of the night. The Voices were in
6:25
Speaker 2: control now and they would remain so well into the
6:28
Speaker 2: next day. Charlie Lawson enjoyed watching his family, especially on
6:34
Speaker 2: that Christmas morning, admiring them, seeing them open their presence
6:38
Speaker 2: and play with their toys, it seemed to make all
6:41
Speaker 2: the hard work worth it. Later that afternoon, he sat
6:45
Speaker 2: out by the tobacco barn, enjoying the clear winter's day,
6:48
Speaker 2: and he watched his daughter's carry and Mabel run across
6:51
Speaker 2: the field and they were off to their aunt and
6:53
Speaker 2: uncle's house down the way. Charlie asked them to go,
6:57
Speaker 2: and they were delighted to do so. From where he
7:00
Speaker 2: at that moment, watching them, they weren't too far. He
7:03
Speaker 2: could see the different colors on the scarves and mittens
7:06
Speaker 2: Fanny had knitted them.
7:07
Speaker 1: He could see the.
7:08
Speaker 2: Smiles on their faces, the excitement and anticipation for more
7:12
Speaker 2: presence from their relatives and a Christmas feast before the
7:15
Speaker 2: day's end. Charlie saw all this as the voices in
7:18
Speaker 2: his head told him at the time was now Charlie
7:22
Speaker 2: did when he was told, he lifted his twelve gage shotgun,
7:27
Speaker 2: aimed and put a bullet through his daughter Carrie, and
7:30
Speaker 2: then another through his daughter Maybelle. The snare drum blasted
7:41
Speaker 2: out like an old Remington drummer. Jim Gordon sat at
7:44
Speaker 2: his kit listening to the voice in his headphones. It
7:48
Speaker 2: was a voice he knew well, even if he didn't
7:50
Speaker 2: know its owner that well personally. It was a famous voice,
7:53
Speaker 2: the voice of a beetle Beetle George Harrison. George was
7:58
Speaker 2: instructing him on the field he was looking for on
8:00
Speaker 2: this new track they were recording. It was George Harrison's
8:03
Speaker 2: first foray into the studio as a solo artist.
8:06
Speaker 1: Post Beatles.
8:08
Speaker 2: Work had commenced on what would become George's masterpiece, All
8:11
Speaker 2: Things Must Pass, and Jim Gordon found himself in the
8:15
Speaker 2: enviable position of drummer in George's new studio band. As
8:19
Speaker 2: Jim listened to George, George kept his finger pressed on
8:22
Speaker 2: the talkback button and continued conversing with another voice in
8:26
Speaker 2: the control room. Jim knew this voice or it was
8:30
Speaker 2: the voice of God. The voice of Eric Clapton in
8:35
Speaker 2: nineteen sixties London. For young guitar enthusiasts, believing that Clapton
8:40
Speaker 2: is God was practically the eleventh commandment. Eric Clapton had
8:44
Speaker 2: perpetually blown mind since he first hit the scene with
8:47
Speaker 2: the Yardbirds and then inexcusably quit the successful UK Bot
8:51
Speaker 2: band in search of something more creatively fulfilling. He later
8:54
Speaker 2: took up with John Mayle's Blues Breakers and proceeded to
8:57
Speaker 2: turn the London rock scene on its ear with his
8:59
Speaker 2: ear genius application of the stylings of Chicago bluesman Muddy
9:03
Speaker 2: Waters's harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs through the strings of
9:07
Speaker 2: his gibs in Less Paul electric guitar. The result was
9:11
Speaker 2: a big, fat tone that was also wildly expressive and
9:15
Speaker 2: heretofore are unheard of in rock music. Eric Clapton added
9:19
Speaker 2: psychedelia to his sonic palette with his late sixties projects
9:22
Speaker 2: Cream and Blind Faith, blowing minds all the way up
9:25
Speaker 2: the charts in both groups. But like most great bluesmen,
9:29
Speaker 2: Eric just couldn't be satisfied, and by nineteen seventy was
9:33
Speaker 2: casting about for a new group to lend his big,
9:35
Speaker 2: sticky blue tone too. He found that group in Delaney
9:39
Speaker 2: and Bonnie's band, The American singer songwriter duo, fronted a white,
9:43
Speaker 2: hot rock and soul review that was lighting up stages
9:46
Speaker 2: across the US and Europe as an opener for Blind Faith.
9:49
Speaker 1: By the turn of the decade, Eric.
9:52
Speaker 2: Clapton glombed on and, to the delight of concertgoers, sat
9:55
Speaker 2: in with Delaney and Bonnie on some shows and elevated
9:58
Speaker 2: their sets to new heights. When the tour ended, Delaney
10:02
Speaker 2: and Bonnie's keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Raddle, and drummer
10:06
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon Americans all retired to Eric Surrey Estate to
10:10
Speaker 2: get some downtime.
10:11
Speaker 1: Downtime for musicians of.
10:13
Speaker 2: This caliber, however, meant constant jamming, blues, blues and more blues,
10:18
Speaker 2: powered by cocaine mandrex in some sort of deep seated
10:22
Speaker 2: heartache that was propelling Eric Clapton. When George Harrison called
10:26
Speaker 2: Eric Clapton to come down to Abbey Road to play
10:28
Speaker 2: on his new album, Eric showed up with a fully
10:31
Speaker 2: formed band spoiling for a session, and they did not disappoint.
10:35
Speaker 2: All Things Must Pass was the first ex Beatle record
10:38
Speaker 2: to fully connect with audiences, allowing George to step out
10:42
Speaker 2: of the shadow of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in
10:44
Speaker 2: the process. All Things Must Pass sat atop the charts
10:48
Speaker 2: in the US for seven weeks and in the UK
10:51
Speaker 2: for eight weeks, far out selling McCartney and John Lennon.
10:55
Speaker 2: Plasticg Ono Band, the first LP solo efforts by his
10:58
Speaker 2: former bandmates. Eric Clapton couldn't ignore the power of the band.
11:03
Speaker 2: They quickly played a show, a benefit they were asked
11:06
Speaker 2: to contribute to, and they needed a name. Someone suggested
11:10
Speaker 2: maybe it was George, and who the hell knows why,
11:12
Speaker 2: at literally the last minute, like moments before they were
11:15
Speaker 2: to go on stage, that they call themselves Derek and
11:18
Speaker 2: the Dominoes.
11:19
Speaker 1: Sounded good enough to them.
11:20
Speaker 2: So Eric Clapton's new band was born, and Jim Gordon
11:25
Speaker 2: was in a group, Derek and the Dominoes, and on stage,
11:29
Speaker 2: not in the studio listening to the voices in his headphones,
11:32
Speaker 2: but instead to that voice in his head, the one
11:35
Speaker 2: that told them he could do better. Jim, you can
11:39
Speaker 2: always do better. But it was hard for Jim Gordon
11:42
Speaker 2: to do better. He was literally the best. Try finding
11:46
Speaker 2: a rock drummer up until nineteen seventy they played with
11:49
Speaker 2: more groups of consequence than Jim Gordon, and you'll be
11:52
Speaker 2: looking for a long time because there simply isn't one.
11:55
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon's list of credits is long and mighty impressive.
11:59
Speaker 2: By the time he had hooked up with Eric Clapton,
12:01
Speaker 2: he had already drummed for The Everly Brothers, The Righteous Brothers,
12:04
Speaker 2: The Birds On The Notorious Bird Brothers, Judy Collins, Gordon Lightfoot,
12:08
Speaker 2: Glenn Campbell on Wichita Lineman, The Beach Boys on Pet Sounds,
12:12
Speaker 2: and the list went on. In the future, he'd performed
12:15
Speaker 2: with Joe Cocker, Dave Mason Traffic, Frank zappas Steely Dan,
12:18
Speaker 2: Alice Cooper, and on Carly Simons You're So Vain, and
12:21
Speaker 2: on John Lennon's Imagine. To give you some idea of
12:24
Speaker 2: how prevalent Jim Gordon was as a working professional drummer.
12:28
Speaker 1: You know that amazing scene from Martin.
12:30
Speaker 2: Scorsese's Goodfellas, The one where Ray Liota's character Henry Hill
12:33
Speaker 2: has coped out of his mind and paranoid trying to
12:35
Speaker 2: outrun helicopters, The one with the incredible musical montage with
12:39
Speaker 2: back to back to back bangers, heightening the intensity of
12:42
Speaker 2: what is probably the greatest film of all time. Songs
12:44
Speaker 2: like the All Things Must Passtrack What Is Life by
12:47
Speaker 2: George Harrison and Harry Nilsen's Jumped to the Fire, which
12:50
Speaker 2: He's used three times, climaxing in Jim Gordon's drum Soul
12:54
Speaker 2: just as Henry Hill is about to be arrested. Of
12:56
Speaker 2: the eight music cues in that montage, Jim Gordon played
13:00
Speaker 2: on half of them. To give you some idea of
13:02
Speaker 2: how influential Jim Gordon was as a drummer. That's him
13:05
Speaker 2: playing on the incredible bongo bands Apache. You know the song.
13:09
Speaker 2: Even if you don't know the song right now, trust me,
13:11
Speaker 2: you know the song because more than seven hundred hip
13:14
Speaker 2: hop songs have sampled it because of Jim Gordon's incredible drumming,
13:18
Speaker 2: Beginning in nineteen eighty one with the Sugarhill Gang and
13:20
Speaker 2: their hit also called Apache, Grandmaster Flash, Yellow Cool j
13:24
Speaker 2: nas Afex, Twin Missy Elliot, Kanye West and Jay Z
13:27
Speaker 2: and Cool Hirk himself who called it quote the national
13:30
Speaker 2: anthem of hip hop music and oh Yeah, drummer Jim
13:34
Speaker 2: Gordon co wrote Eric Clapton's most recognizable hit, Derek and
13:38
Speaker 2: the Dominoes Layla. Christmas morning rabbit hunting was a tradition
14:03
Speaker 2: in Germantown, North Carolina, which is in part why Charles
14:06
Speaker 2: Lawson sent his oldest son, sixteen year old Arthur, into
14:10
Speaker 2: town to purchase shotgun shells. The other reason was that
14:15
Speaker 2: he didn't want Arthur around. The voices in his head
14:18
Speaker 2: warned him that Arthur, being big for sixteen and bigger
14:22
Speaker 2: now than his father Charles, might stop.
14:24
Speaker 1: Him from doing what needed to be done.
14:28
Speaker 2: When the shots rang out from Charles's shotgun, the ones
14:31
Speaker 2: that he fired to kill his two daughters, Carrie and Maybell,
14:34
Speaker 2: they were heard, but no one, not Charles's neighbors, not
14:37
Speaker 2: the rest of his family and his home, thought anything
14:40
Speaker 2: of the sound of gunfire. And this was, after all,
14:43
Speaker 2: Christmas morning. This was Germantown, and this was Stokes County,
14:47
Speaker 2: which meant rabbits were being hunted and shot for sport,
14:49
Speaker 2: with shotguns blasting from all over, from Winston Salem to
14:53
Speaker 2: the county seat and Danbury. The sound of gunfire on
14:56
Speaker 2: that particular morning was not a surprise. In fact, it
15:00
Speaker 2: was to be expected. The sounds of screaming children. On
15:04
Speaker 2: the other hand, that wasn't to be expected, which is
15:07
Speaker 2: why Charles Lawson shot his daughters before bludgeoning them out
15:11
Speaker 2: in the field, where their prone bodies lay partially submerged
15:15
Speaker 2: in deep, freshly fallen snow. Charles Lawson gazed down at
15:19
Speaker 2: his dead daughter's and for a moment there was quiet
15:23
Speaker 2: at long last, No voices, no gunshots, just the wind,
15:29
Speaker 2: quietly moving across the field, gently sifting the top level
15:33
Speaker 2: of snow, but then burbling up from somewhere deep inside,
15:38
Speaker 2: rushing forward into his consciousness like a gathering storm. A
15:41
Speaker 2: tornado of whispers turned to a violent vortex of demands,
15:45
Speaker 2: and the voices all said.
15:47
Speaker 1: One thing, finished them. Charles pounced.
15:51
Speaker 2: Straddling Carrie's body, he raised his fist and pummeled, bashing.
15:54
Speaker 1: Her young face until it was unrecognizable. Though.
15:57
Speaker 2: When he was done, he moved over to Maybell and
15:59
Speaker 2: did the same. And then he grabbed both girls by
16:01
Speaker 2: the collars, won an each arm, and dragged their bodies
16:04
Speaker 2: toward the tobacco barn. The voices were quieter, but no
16:08
Speaker 2: less insistent.
16:09
Speaker 1: Finished them.
16:10
Speaker 2: Charles moved on from the tobacco farm toward the house,
16:14
Speaker 2: shotgun in hand, trudging heavily through the snow. His wife, Fanny,
16:18
Speaker 2: was on their porch. She saw Charles walking toward her.
16:21
Speaker 2: Immediately she knew something was very wrong. His gait was
16:25
Speaker 2: all off. His head was hung low, chinned down, pressed
16:28
Speaker 2: to his chest, his eyes pitched up to his brow,
16:31
Speaker 2: his shoulders hunched.
16:32
Speaker 1: He was lumbering.
16:33
Speaker 2: He was determined, He was all menace. The shotgun at
16:36
Speaker 2: his side was not a good sign. Fanny feared the worst.
16:40
Speaker 2: Charles saw the look, the recognition, the fucking judgment in
16:43
Speaker 2: her eyes, and the voices wouldn't allow it. Charles raised
16:47
Speaker 2: his shotgun, took quick game, and blasted his wife away
16:50
Speaker 2: with one shot. Immediately, with the sound of the shotgun
16:54
Speaker 2: from such close range, Charles Lawson's daughter, Marie, from inside
16:57
Speaker 2: the house.
16:58
Speaker 1: Let out of violence.
17:06
Speaker 2: Miami, nineteen seventy Criteria Studios. Derek and the Dominoes were stuck.
17:13
Speaker 2: The blast of brief inspiration provided by the recent studio
17:17
Speaker 2: edition of Almon Brothers guitarists The Sublime Bluesman Dwayne Almon
17:21
Speaker 2: had momentarily come to a halt. The drugs had taken
17:24
Speaker 2: over cocaine, loads of it, and even more heroin, the
17:29
Speaker 2: band simply did not stop. Eric Clapton was lower than
17:34
Speaker 2: he'd ever been. He was completely and totally hung up
17:37
Speaker 2: on the wife of his best friend George Harrison and
17:40
Speaker 2: Patty Boyd. Harrison wasn't having it. A heartache was all
17:44
Speaker 2: consuming for Eric. He attempted to outrun it through his playing.
17:48
Speaker 2: When the inspiration dried up or plain old fatigue set in,
17:52
Speaker 2: the only plan B was drugs, and in Miami in
17:56
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy, the kind of drugs adult drugs at Eric
18:00
Speaker 2: Clapton needed were plentiful. When he didn't have a guitar
18:04
Speaker 2: in hand, he chopped up lines and leaned into the
18:06
Speaker 2: switchblade shoved under his nose, snorting cocaine and heroin, and
18:10
Speaker 2: then of course he and the rest of his band
18:12
Speaker 2: would nod out. Music making would stop, and the promise
18:16
Speaker 2: Derek and the Dominoes displayed in the studio with George
18:19
Speaker 2: Harrison had become a mess of drug induced false starts,
18:22
Speaker 2: brought to life momentarily by the outside influence of Dwayne Allman,
18:26
Speaker 2: who at the moment was losing to his own demons
18:28
Speaker 2: like the rest of the band, and to this point
18:31
Speaker 2: they had actually made decent progress on a blistering new track.
18:35
Speaker 2: Of course, another send up of unrequited love to Patty Harrison.
18:39
Speaker 2: This one based on a book by the Persian poet
18:42
Speaker 2: Nazami called the Story of Laila and Mashna. It is,
18:46
Speaker 2: of course, a tragic love story where the protagonist Majnum
18:49
Speaker 2: is destined to a loveless life of solitude after having
18:52
Speaker 2: Vien spurned by the love of his life Leila. Needless
18:56
Speaker 2: to say, Eric Clapton could relate and Dwayne Alman could
19:01
Speaker 2: relate to Eric Clapton. As guitar players, there were instant soulmates.
19:07
Speaker 2: Eric was introduced to Dwyane by producer Tom Dowd and
19:10
Speaker 2: Miami at an Alman Brothers concert. Duayane was soon after
19:14
Speaker 2: hurried to Criteria Studios to jam, and.
19:16
Speaker 1: The connection between the two.
19:18
Speaker 2: Guitarists was instant, inspiring and indelible. Duyne effortlessly drove Eric's
19:23
Speaker 2: already stellar playing in to new heights and set Eric
19:26
Speaker 2: off deeper into the depths of his depression to mind
19:29
Speaker 2: for lyrics that were raw and undeniably real. The story
19:32
Speaker 2: of Leila and Maajnum paired with Dwayne Almond's unforgettable seven
19:36
Speaker 2: note riff in Stellar Bottleneck slide playing became Eric Clapton's
19:40
Speaker 2: most memorable pop hit.
19:42
Speaker 1: Layla half of it anyway.
19:46
Speaker 2: In a separate room away from his bandmates, who were
19:49
Speaker 2: at the moment funked out on the floor knotted off
19:52
Speaker 2: after running into a wall with Layla unable to finish
19:55
Speaker 2: the song to bring it home, to make it anything
19:57
Speaker 2: more than a three minute verse chorus, verse romp with
19:59
Speaker 2: soaring sn slide. Guitar Derek and the Domino's drummer Jim
20:03
Speaker 2: Gordon was sitting at a piano. The riff he was
20:06
Speaker 2: playing was a melody he and his ex girlfriend Rita
20:09
Speaker 2: Coolidge used to mess with up in the John Garfield
20:11
Speaker 2: guesthouse they stayed at in Hollywood. It was moody, dramatic.
20:16
Speaker 2: Rita used to hum it and then play it on
20:18
Speaker 2: the upright in the guest house. It was an earworm
20:21
Speaker 2: of the highest magnitude in the best possible way. Jim
20:24
Speaker 2: taught himself the chords on the piano and added to
20:27
Speaker 2: the progression in melody and was now secretly off recording
20:30
Speaker 2: it in the studio's b room for what he hoped
20:32
Speaker 2: would be his solo record, while the rest of his
20:34
Speaker 2: drugged out bandmates slept off their dough pies. In those
20:38
Speaker 2: piano notes raying out. Eric Clapton heard them. He discovered
20:42
Speaker 2: his drummer at the piano. What he wanted to know
20:46
Speaker 2: was this. Jim Gordon told him it was his was
20:50
Speaker 2: going on his record, this riff, this melody, this piece
20:53
Speaker 2: was too good for any sideman hustle.
20:55
Speaker 1: Eric Clapton wanted the piano piece. He needed it.
20:59
Speaker 2: He made Jim play it for Dwayne Almond, and Dwayne
21:01
Speaker 2: nodded in agreement with Eric and called him producer Tom Dowd,
21:04
Speaker 2: who's jaw at the floor. And the rest of the
21:06
Speaker 2: band agreed they needed this piece and Jim didn't want
21:10
Speaker 2: to give it up. The band pleaded it was the
21:12
Speaker 2: missing piece, that the piece of music that would complete Layla,
21:16
Speaker 2: the piece of music that would make the song better.
21:19
Speaker 1: You can do better, Jim, That's what the voices always.
21:21
Speaker 2: Said, and they were right. He knew it, so he
21:24
Speaker 2: gave the piece up. Derek and the Dominoes quickly recorded
21:30
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon's and his ex girlfriend's majestic Melody on piano
21:34
Speaker 2: as the coda to Layla. Jim planked out the notes.
21:38
Speaker 2: Keyboardist Bobby Whitlock recorded his own track to Steady the Ship.
21:42
Speaker 2: Eric Clapton and Dwayne Alman went to work applying their
21:45
Speaker 2: dual guitar genius over the heavy emotional melody. But what
21:48
Speaker 2: they came up with is as close to symphonic as
21:51
Speaker 2: rock instrumentation can get. The finished piece directly resembles the
21:55
Speaker 2: heartbreaking emotion at the core of Eric Clapton's lyrics song Laila,
22:01
Speaker 2: Now with Jim Gordon's piano contribution, is, in a word,
22:05
Speaker 2: a masterpiece. Jim Gordon allowed himself a moment of satisfaction
22:10
Speaker 2: upon listening to the playback of Laila. Despite all this
22:14
Speaker 2: success to that point, he couldn't actually believe.
22:16
Speaker 1: Where he was at, what he was accomplishing. And this
22:19
Speaker 1: was different. This wasn't just drumming.
22:22
Speaker 2: This was composing, conducting a symphony with God himself or
22:25
Speaker 2: a Clapton and his disciple Dwayne Allman. But deep down
22:30
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon heard the whispers. He knew he wasn't done
22:33
Speaker 2: and they wouldn't let him finish. There was more for
22:36
Speaker 2: him to do, and the voice is kept telling him
22:39
Speaker 2: you can do better.
22:46
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. Were where where.
22:57
Speaker 2: The scream for Marie, Charles Lawson's daughter, cut through the
23:00
Speaker 2: tiny farmhouse. Her two younger brothers, James and Raymond, darted
23:04
Speaker 2: off to hide. Within seconds, their deranged father burst through
23:08
Speaker 2: the front door. Marie took one look at him and
23:11
Speaker 2: knew this was it. She was all too familiar with
23:14
Speaker 2: what her father, Charles Lawson, was capable of. Charles stood
23:18
Speaker 2: in the front of the doorway, frozen, his eyes fixed
23:21
Speaker 2: on his oldest, prettiest daughter. He clenched his lips, focased
23:25
Speaker 2: his eyes, waited for her to say something, waited for
23:28
Speaker 2: further instruction. Marie accepted what was about to happen. She
23:33
Speaker 2: put one hand on the bottom of her belly, breathed
23:36
Speaker 2: a sigh of relief, and there would be no more pain,
23:39
Speaker 2: no more shame. Loosened suddenly from these constantly oppressive twin emotions.
23:44
Speaker 2: Marie's body slackened as she began to walk to almost
23:48
Speaker 2: saunter slowly toward her father, who stood stone still, like
23:53
Speaker 2: a rabbit out in the field, caught in the sights
23:55
Speaker 2: of its hunter, frozen briefly before making its next move.
24:00
Speaker 2: Marie's approach taunted Charles like most everything, his attractive seventeen
24:04
Speaker 2: year old daughter did. And then the voices did what
24:08
Speaker 2: they always did. They rose up quick from within their
24:11
Speaker 2: host and gave Charles that familiar party line, do it.
24:15
Speaker 2: Charles quickly raised a shotgun and fired around off into
24:19
Speaker 2: Marie at close range. After the shot echoed out, Charles
24:24
Speaker 2: heard the whimpering. He quickly located his two hiding sons,
24:29
Speaker 2: James and Raymond, and pumped one boy to each of them.
24:32
Speaker 1: Then he heard the.
24:33
Speaker 2: Crying Mary Lou, his lone surviving daughter, just four months old.
24:39
Speaker 2: The voices in his head had gathered again, and they
24:42
Speaker 2: were screaming and following the lead of the loudest voice
24:44
Speaker 2: among them, the voice of a stern, domineering, judgmental woman,
24:48
Speaker 2: no loose ends.
24:50
Speaker 1: Finish the job. Be better.
24:53
Speaker 2: Charles Lawson murdered his baby girl on Christmas morning with
24:56
Speaker 2: his bare hands.
24:58
Speaker 1: Be better, be better, be better. It was all Charles
25:03
Speaker 1: Lawson heard.
25:05
Speaker 2: Five decades later, it was all Jim Gordon heard too.
25:11
Speaker 2: The voice of Jim's mother was in his head. His mother,
25:14
Speaker 2: who by all accounts was a loving mother, a maternity
25:17
Speaker 2: ward nurse who, along with his father, an accountant, raised
25:20
Speaker 2: Jim in Sherman Oaks, California, and what was an upper
25:23
Speaker 2: middle class upbringing. Her son, Jim Gordon, drummer for Eric
25:27
Speaker 2: Clapton's early seventies disappearing act Derek and the Dominoes, perhaps
25:32
Speaker 2: the greatest living professional drummer on the planet at the time,
25:35
Speaker 2: was caught in the grip of drug and alcohol abuse
25:38
Speaker 2: and undiagnosed schizophrenia and fast spinning out of control, just
25:42
Speaker 2: like the wheels on Dwayne Almonds nineteen seventy Harley Davidson sportster,
25:47
Speaker 2: spinning out of control down making George's Hillcrest Avenue.
25:52
Speaker 1: Dwayne's head was spinning too. Freedom was in the Southern Boys.
25:55
Speaker 2: DNA, which meant he was not averse to rolling his
25:58
Speaker 2: powerful Harley down the lad Highway exactly as he wanted,
26:02
Speaker 2: at whatever speed he wanted, cruising down the road, his
26:05
Speaker 2: long hair trailing behind him, off into a blessed musical future,
26:10
Speaker 2: one that Dwayne Almond's youth, an immense talent, all but
26:13
Speaker 2: guarantee Eric Clapton's one time Domino, Jim Gordon's one time bandmate,
26:19
Speaker 2: had little to worry about. And then the flatbed semi
26:23
Speaker 2: tracked a trailer up ahead, stopped suddenly as it took
26:26
Speaker 2: a wide turn. Dwayne on his sportster, moving at top speed,
26:30
Speaker 2: swerved to avoid hitting the truck, but his.
26:32
Speaker 1: Reaction came too late.
26:34
Speaker 2: He hit the semi and was thrown from his bike
26:37
Speaker 2: and the momentum rocketed his body down the paved highway
26:40
Speaker 2: and the bike rocketed into the air upon impact with
26:42
Speaker 2: the truck, and when it came down, it came down hard.
26:46
Speaker 1: On top of Dwayne.
26:48
Speaker 2: The force and momentum of the bike dragged Dwayne underneath
26:51
Speaker 2: it on the pavement for a full fifty feet before
26:53
Speaker 2: coming to a stop. Dwayne Almond died later that evening
26:59
Speaker 2: at Middle Georgia Hospital of massive internal damage to his heart,
27:03
Speaker 2: liver and other organs from a collapsed chest. Upon hearing
27:07
Speaker 2: the news, Jim Gordon was sunk. Derek and the Dominoes
27:11
Speaker 2: had broken up earlier that year, in nineteen seventy one,
27:14
Speaker 2: but who was to say it was final. Jim half
27:17
Speaker 2: expected a reunion, but with Dwayne Allman, their part time
27:21
Speaker 2: lightning Rod of True Blues inspiration now gone, and Eric
27:24
Speaker 2: Clapton's drug alcohol and heartbreak free fall now speeded by
27:28
Speaker 2: grief over Dwayne's loss, any hopes of a reunion quickly faded.
27:35
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon, drummer for Derek and the Dominoes, co writer
27:38
Speaker 2: of God's Coda, Eric Clapton's Leyla, was sunk. He quickly
27:43
Speaker 2: spiraled into his own drug and alcohol funk. He tried
27:46
Speaker 2: playing through it on sessions with Jackson Brown, but by
27:49
Speaker 2: the time Bob Dylan came calling, Jim was in too
27:52
Speaker 2: rough a shape and had to pass. Throughout the seventies,
27:56
Speaker 2: Jim's behavior grew increasingly erratic, and for the first time
28:00
Speaker 2: in his professional life, the steadiness of his gigs started
28:03
Speaker 2: to slip, but the voices never dropped.
28:06
Speaker 1: The beak you could do better.
28:07
Speaker 2: The voices were steady. The voices get loud. The drugs
28:11
Speaker 2: and alcohol helped drown them out. Jim graduated from snorting
28:15
Speaker 2: heroin to shooting heroine. It was self medication for the
28:18
Speaker 2: undiagnosed schizophrenic because the voices were becoming unbearable. One in particular,
28:25
Speaker 2: with every day grew louder, more persistent, more insistent. It
28:29
Speaker 2: was a familiar voice, the voice of his mother, imploring
28:32
Speaker 2: him to always be better. But how could he? He tried,
28:36
Speaker 2: that he'd done that. There was no one better by
28:39
Speaker 2: any quantifiable standard. Jim Gordon was the best at his
28:42
Speaker 2: chosen profession, rock drummer, But his mother's voice in his
28:46
Speaker 2: head gave him no quarter, no credit, no relief.
28:49
Speaker 1: Day and night. Be better, be better, be better, be better.
28:54
Speaker 1: Something somewhat had to make the voice stop. You can
28:58
Speaker 1: do better.
29:26
Speaker 2: By the time Stokes County authorities had found the bodies,
29:29
Speaker 2: Charles Lawson was long gone, but not before he had
29:33
Speaker 2: arranged the bodies of the loss in children and their
29:35
Speaker 2: mother neatly within the blood soaked walls of the family home.
29:39
Speaker 2: Charles placed them gently on the floor, taking care to
29:42
Speaker 2: cross their arms and prop their heads up for eternal
29:45
Speaker 2: comfort by placing large rocks from his tobacco barn under
29:49
Speaker 2: their heads. Once the coda to the Christmas massacre was
29:53
Speaker 2: near complete, Charles Lawson set out to the woods. He
29:57
Speaker 2: stopped at a nearby creek to wash the blood from
29:59
Speaker 2: his hands. Clean hands were better than bloody hands, and
30:02
Speaker 2: there was always room to be better, And the source
30:06
Speaker 2: of his shame was now gone.
30:08
Speaker 1: His seventeen year old daughter would taunt him no.
30:10
Speaker 2: More, his other children would whisper about him no more,
30:13
Speaker 2: his judgmental wife would judge him no more.
30:16
Speaker 1: And the voices were at long last quiet.
30:19
Speaker 2: Charles Lawson paced around the poplar tree, satisfied now that
30:23
Speaker 2: he was free of the voices, and he sat down
30:26
Speaker 2: on the wooded ground and propped himself up against the
30:29
Speaker 2: poplar's trunk.
30:30
Speaker 1: He turned his shotgun toward his face, reached down and
30:34
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger.
30:38
Speaker 2: Fifty three years later, Jim Gordon, like Charles Lawson, had
30:42
Speaker 2: reached the end of his rope. Unlike Charles Lawson, Jim
30:46
Speaker 2: Gordon had no family. He had driven away two wives
30:49
Speaker 2: and a daughter with his career and then his erratic behavior.
30:53
Speaker 2: He wasn't closed for his older sibling, and his father
30:55
Speaker 2: had died in nineteen seventy three. Throughout his life, music,
31:00
Speaker 2: not family, centered him. The sessions, the tours, and even
31:04
Speaker 2: his brief stint in a band and Eric Clapton's Derek
31:07
Speaker 2: and the Dominoes.
31:08
Speaker 1: But now all of that was gone.
31:12
Speaker 2: Jim's state of mind was too shot to perform consistently,
31:15
Speaker 2: to work with others, and his addiction to alcohol and
31:18
Speaker 2: drugs to consuming, and by the time nineteen eighty three
31:22
Speaker 2: year rolled around, all Jim Gordon had was his seventy
31:25
Speaker 2: two year old mother. Jim's mother worried about her son
31:30
Speaker 2: and cared for him, helping him kick drugs and alcohol
31:33
Speaker 2: at various times, but Jim would always find his way
31:37
Speaker 2: back to his addictions, and then the voices would.
31:40
Speaker 1: Get real loud, admonishing him.
31:42
Speaker 2: For his vices, guilting him for squandering his talent, taunting
31:47
Speaker 2: him for his inability to live a normal life, pushing
31:50
Speaker 2: him always to do the impossible, to do what he'd
31:52
Speaker 2: been trying to do his whole life, to do what
31:55
Speaker 2: he knew he could not do, be better, destined to fail.
31:59
Speaker 2: The shame of it was unbearable. The voices, all of
32:02
Speaker 2: them a chorus of disapproval inside of his head, were
32:05
Speaker 2: conducted by the voice of his mother, the woman who
32:08
Speaker 2: in reality took care of him, who worried about him,
32:11
Speaker 2: who helped him get on the wagon when he tried
32:12
Speaker 2: to stop the drinking and drugs, who visited him those
32:15
Speaker 2: times when he checked himself into the hospital for when
32:18
Speaker 2: the voices were too much.
32:20
Speaker 1: His mother was the only one left in the world
32:22
Speaker 1: who actually cared about Jim Gordon. But that was reality.
32:26
Speaker 1: In his head.
32:27
Speaker 2: Jim Gordon knew there was no reality where he could
32:30
Speaker 2: actually be better, so his mother needed to be silenced.
32:34
Speaker 2: She wouldn't stop, she wouldn't shut the fuck up. She
32:38
Speaker 2: wanted to control him, She wanted to own him. She
32:40
Speaker 2: wanted him to be something he wasn't. Didn't she know
32:43
Speaker 2: he was a rock and roller in outlaw free spirit.
32:45
Speaker 2: There was no controlling him, there was no owning him,
32:48
Speaker 2: there was no making him be better.
32:50
Speaker 1: He was the best. He was Jim Gordon, and he
32:52
Speaker 1: had finally snapped.
32:56
Speaker 2: On June first, nineteen eighty three, Jim Gordon's mother answered
33:00
Speaker 2: her telephone. On the other end was her son. He
33:04
Speaker 2: told her, you're bugging me again. I'm going to kill you.
33:09
Speaker 2: Despite the warning. When Jim showed up at her apartment,
33:12
Speaker 2: his seventy two year old mother opened the door to
33:15
Speaker 2: let him in, most likely to calm him down, to
33:17
Speaker 2: do what mothers do for their children, to take care
33:20
Speaker 2: of him. But there was no taking care of Jim Gordon.
33:23
Speaker 2: Like Charles Lawson, the voices were in control. The voices
33:27
Speaker 2: in Charles's head had told him to kill but Jim
33:30
Speaker 2: was at war.
33:31
Speaker 1: With the voices in his head.
33:32
Speaker 2: When his mother opened her apartment door, her son brought
33:35
Speaker 2: a hammer down onto her head and bashed her skull open.
33:39
Speaker 2: He then grabbed a butcher's knife and savagely stabbed her,
33:42
Speaker 2: violently ending her life. The neighbors could hear her screaming,
33:46
Speaker 2: and the voices in Jim Gordon's head had gone silent
33:49
Speaker 2: for a moment anyway, but they'd be back. Jim Gordon murderer,
33:57
Speaker 2: undiagnosed schizophrenic, the best drummers of all time, drummer for
34:02
Speaker 2: Eric Claptons, Derek and the Dominoes, now spends his days
34:06
Speaker 2: rehearsing with the inmate band in California State Prison Medical Facility.
34:10
Speaker 2: Because one can always be better.
34:14
Speaker 3: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
34:32
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
34:35
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
34:38
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
34:42
Speaker 2: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
34:45
Speaker 2: you for supporting the show.
34:46
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it.
34:47
Speaker 2: And if not, you can become a member right now
34:50
Speaker 2: by going to disgracelamppod dot com Slash Membership members can
34:54
Speaker 2: listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free, plus you'll
34:58
Speaker 2: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted
35:03
Speaker 2: bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise
35:07
Speaker 2: and events. Visit disgrayslampod dot com slash membership.
35:11
Speaker 1: For details, Rate and review the.
35:13
Speaker 2: Show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook
35:16
Speaker 2: at disgraceslampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash
35:20
Speaker 2: at Disgraceslampod Rock a Roller, He
35:25
Speaker 1: The bed Don Man