Prepare to be on your knees: details have been released for UMe’s upcoming 40th anniversary editions of Derek & The Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, due out March 8.
The result of a searing, bluesy collaboration between Eric Clapton, members of Delaney & Bonnie’s touring outfit and Duane Allman, Layla was a critical success but sold only moderately until the title track shot to the Top 10 some two years after the album was released. It became a multigenerational hit in the 1990s when the original recording was featured in the film Goodfellas (1990) and Clapton reworked the tune for his MTV Unplugged acoustic performance in 1992.
The album was previously remixed and reissued in 1990 with two discs of bonus material, but how does this new edition stack up against that set? Hit the jump to find out! The Layla Sessions box set included a disc of jams and another CD of outtakes. Only one of those outtakes, “Mean Old World,” is duplicated on the new deluxe edition. The bonus disc kicks off with some genuine rarities, namely both sides of a rare non-LP single produced by Phil Spector and the band’s complete performance on The Johnny Cash Show from November 1970 (featuring guest appearances from Cash and Carl Perkins on Perkins’ own “Matchbox”). The rest of the disc is devoted to sessions from the group’s aborted second LP, nearly all of which were previously released on the iconic Crossroads box set back in 1988. (Those outtakes are newly remixed for this box set.)
The super-deluxe box adds another set of nice treats for fans: the album on double vinyl, a DVD featuring 5.1 surround remixes of the album (plus “Mean Old World”), and another two discs encapsulating the band’s stand at The Fillmore East in the fall of 1970. (The original double album from these dates, 1973’s In Concert, form the groundwork for this part of the set, and each disc is augmented with four bonus songs first released on Live at The Fillmore, a 1994 live set that took different performances from those concerts.) The whole set will be housed in a box featuring pop-up artwork, reproduced swag and a new hardcover book.
The confusingly-worded press release issued through Clapton’s official site also mentions “digital exclusive” and iTunes LP versions, along with a single release of the bonus track “Got to Get Better in a Little While” through digital retailers and on 7″ vinyl (perhaps a Record Store Day treat?), with “Layla” as a B-side. (It also mentions a “treasure trove of music and video performances;” details for the latter of which have yet to be revealed.)
Pre-order links are available for the remaster on CD and vinyl, the double-disc edition and the super-deluxe box.
Derek & The Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: 40th Anniversary Edition (Polydor/UMe, 2011) Disc 1: Original LP (originally released as Polydor 2625 005 (U.K.)/Atco SD 2-704 (U.S.), 1970)
- I Looked Away
- Bell Bottom Blues
- Keep on Growing
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
- I Am Yours
- Anyday
- Key to the Highway
- Tell the Truth
- Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
- Have You Ever Loved a Woman
- Little Wing
- It’s Too Late
- Layla
- Thorn Tree in the Garden
Disc 2: Bonus material (deluxe and super-deluxe editions only)
- Mean Old World
- Roll It Over
- Tell the Truth
- It’s Too Late (Live on “The Johnny Cash Show” – 11/5/1970) *
- Got to Get Better in a Little While (Live on “The Johnny Cash Show” – 11/5/1970) *
- Matchbox (with Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins) (Live on “The Johnny Cash Show” – 11/5/1970) *
- Blues Power (Live on “The Johnny Cash Show” – 11/5/1970) *
- Snake Lake Blues (New Mix) **
- Evil (New Mix) **
- Mean Old Frisco (New Mix) **
- One More Chance (New Mix) **
- Got to Get Better in a Little While (Jam) *
- Got to Get Better in a Little While (New Mix) **
* previously unreleased recording ** newly remixed recording
Disc 2, Track 1 from The Layla Sessions (Polydor 847 083-2, 1990)
Disc 2, Tracks 2-3 from Atco single 45-6780 (U.K.), 1970
Disc 2, Tracks 8-11 and 13 originally released on Crossroads (Polydor 835 261-1, 1988)
Disc 3: DVD (super-deluxe edition only)
- DTS 5.1 and Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 mixes of the original LP plus “Mean Old World”
Discs 4-5: In Concert (originally released as RSO 2659 020 (U.K.)/SO 2-8800 (U.S.), 1973) (super-deluxe edition only)
- Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
- Got to Get Better in a Little While
- Let It Rain
- Presence of the Lord
- Key to the Highway *
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out *
- Tell the Truth
- Bottle of Red Wine
- Roll It Over
- Blues Power
- Have You Ever Loved a Woman
- Little Wing *
- Crossroads *
* subsequently released on Live at The Fillmore (Polydor 521 682-2, 1994)
LPs 1-2: Original album (available separately or in super-deluxe edition)
The bonus tracks are not really that rare. Considering how many more out-takes there are from the aborted 2nd LP, I am very disappointed they didn’t use some of those tracks as well to make the bonus CD far more interesting.
Most of these tracks were on the 4 CD Crossroads box set.
I’m going to stick to my bootlegs.
I bet the Tell the Truth/Roll it Over single will be the horrible remixed version from Crossroads instead of the stella original Phil Spector mix. 🙁
There’s also supposed to be a Derek Is Eric button thrown into the set and a print of the cover.
So if you’re not a fan of vinyl, or badges, or listening to music on an audio-only DVD, and you have Fillmore, you gain nothing of significance from the Super de Luxe Edition? Plain old De Luxe will do for me.
Why is it that these people screw with history and don’t remedy it.
Concerning both the IN CONCERT and FILLMORE CONCERTS, they don’t put the songs in the correct order on either set. Worse than that- there are NO pictures from the actual concerts- they use the shots Landy took in Hartford. I was at the 10/23/70 late night show and it was the BEST concert I ever saw to date. I noticed in the Deluxe booklet they have (I think) only ONE shot from the Fillmore and Whitlock is cropped OUT from that print. WHY??
I am a longtime fan of Layla and The Dominos that I consider one of the best guitar bands ever. Have several copies of Layla on vinyl and on CD and must say that i am really disappointed with this set. 25th anniversary was much better. I have several bootlegs that have vast selection of material, jams ,unreleased takes, complete second album, both Fillmore concerts in superb SBD quality and i just don’t understand why the people who put this together don’t officially release everything that is there. Packaging is superb of this “Super Deluxe” set, but the content ….just plain repackaging of the stuff already available.
If bands like Hot Tuna would release several nice box sets with 17-20 tracks from live concerts and 2 songs from studio, a booklet with 10-12 pictures, vol 1, 2, 3; they could have us happy and make some money. I understand, but do not think it is true because of Wolfgang.com, that Crossroads was originally 10 minutes long.
I would love to have some Fillmore or Academy of Music concerts.