Though timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the original Layla sessions, these releases really have more to do with the Dominos’ short history as a band. You know the deal: in 1970, Clapton, wrestling with the demons of fame and his love for Pattie Boyd (the wife of buddy George Harrison), built a bunker of music to burrow into with the help of some fellow Delaney & Bonnie “Friends”: Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle, and drummer Jim Gordon. The anonymously-named Derek and the Dominos had just begun laying down tracks built from the pieces of Clapton’s tortured heart and soul when they crossed paths with the Allman Brothers. Duane Allman was brought into the small circle and magic ensued over the next several weeks, resulting in what the outside world came to know as Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs . Duane rejoined the Allmans while the original core four Dominos hit the road for a short run of live performances. By spring of 1971, Derek and the Dominos began working on their second album, which was never completed. The combination of drugs, alcohol, money, egos, and heartbreak finally ignited. Clapton went into a smack-fueled self-imposed exile for the next couple of years and the Dominos went their separate ways. (Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971; Radle died of a kidney infection in 1980; Gordon was institutionalized for bludgeoning his mother to death with a hammer in ’83; and Whitlock rode a riches-to-rags roller coaster for the next several decades, as documented in his recently-released autiobiography.