Tom Dowd was a music engineer and producer at the famous Atlantic Records, and his early career is associated with a number of popular recording artists: Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk.
In his later career, he worked with a group of incredible pop artists including Eric Clapton, Lynard Skynard, Derek and the Dominoes, Rod Stewart, and many more.
The song "Layla," produced by Dowd and written by Eric Clapton & Jim Gordon, was performed by Clapton & Gordon's group Derek and the Dominoes. The song itself is about a desparate singer pleading with a woman named Layla to reconsider their relationship, and references some conflict with her father.
Musically the song is structured as follows:
- Starts with guitars only
- Layers in additional guitars and percussion
- Mood changes, softens, guitars take a backseat to vocals for first verse of pleading
- This is punctuated with choruses of shouting "Layla"
- This contrast between pleading to Layla and then shouting her name (soft then loud) continues throughout the song
Tom Dowd
Derek & the Dominoes
"Layla"
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