The Sad Tale of Jim “The Flash” Gordon

One of my favorite parts of “Layla” is the long piano coda, with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman trading blues guitar riffs as Jim Gordon plays those elegiac power chords on the grand piano. The piano part was originally to be a separate song that Jim Gordon was writing, but when Clapton heard him playing it in the Criteria Studio in Miami, where as Derek and the Dominos, they were in the midst of the sessions that produced the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, he talked Gordon into adding it to the end of “Layla.” As a result, Gordon is given joint credit with Clapton for having written “Layla.”

Derek and the Dominos was a transitory group Clapton formed after the breakup of Blind Faith. Clapton had developed a friendship with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, and he invited their group, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, to tour as the opening act for Blind Faith in 1969. During the tour, Clapton often appeared onstage with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and discovered he enjoyed playing with them more than he did with Blind Faith. Around the same time, Delaney and Bonnie were constantly bickering (their marriage would end a couple of years later), and the rest of their band, which included keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, were getting tired of it.

After the Blind Faith tour ended, Radle and Gordon left Delaney & Bonnie & Friends to tour with Joe Cocker and Leon Russell on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Meanwhile, Whitlock joined Clapton in England, where they began working on new songs together. They reunited with Radle and Gordon (and another Delaney & Bonnie & Friends alum, Dave Mason) to work on George Harrison’s huge album All Things Must Pass during the summer of 1970. During that time, they officially debuted together at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Originally, they had planned to perform as Eric Clapton and Friends, but became convinced they needed another name. When announced to the crowd at the Lyceum Theatre as Derek and the Dominos, they went onstage to polite applause, until the crowd figured it out and went wild.

That was the only time Dave Mason played with Derek and the Dominos, but in August 1970, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon assembled in Miami to begin work on their studio album. The first few days of the session were uninspired, and their producer, Tom Dowd, who was simultaneously producing the album Idlewild South for the Allman Brothers Band, took Clapton to see the Brothers play an outdoor concert in Miami. The next day, Duane Allman showed up at Criteria Studios where he and Clapton jammed for hours. Afterwards, Allman was invited to become the fifth and final member of Derek and the Dominos.

When they finished the studio sessions in October 1970, Derek and the Dominos prepared to go on tour, but without Duane Allman, who returned to the Allman Brothers Band.

Jim Gordon had been something of a straight arrow in the music business. He had gotten an early start, playing with the Everly Brothers in 1963, when he was only 17. However, after years of touring, including the tour with Derek and the Dominos in 1970-71, which was reputedly noted for an excess of drugs, Gordon was a cocaine and heroin user. In his case, this was a catastrophe, as he was an as yet undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. He continued to be one of the most sought out sessions drummers in the rock world for several more years. (Click here to see a partial list of the artists he played with, either in the studio, or on tour, or both.)

By the late 1970s, however, Gordon complained of hearing voices, including that of his mother, who he apparently believed to be a demon. His musical career crumbled, due to his mental instability. Then, in 1983, he murdered his own mother, thinking it would stop the voices in his head. Because California law had been changed to limit the use of the insanity defense, Gordon was tried and convicted of 2^nd degree murder, and has been held in California prisons or mental facilities ever since. Though he has served more than the minimum number of years of his sentence, it seems unlikely that he will ever be released. Reportedly, he did not even apply when he was last eligible for parole.

Some who have stayed in touch with Jim Gordon report that he is fairly content. He is said to be a model prisoner. He has described himself as “institutionalized,” which reminds me of Morgan Freeman’s narration in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption.” After years in prison, he says, a man becomes institutionalized, and loses his ability to cope with all the challenges of the world at large. What with his history of severe mental illness, in addition to more than 20 years in custody, I imagine the world today would be a pretty scary proposition for Jim. While it’s sad, it probably is best that he remain institutionalized, for his own well being, as much as anything else.

In addition to Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and All Things Must Pass, Jim Gordon contributed his considerable skills on drums and percussion to a remarkable number of truly classic tracks and albums.