Just got forwarded an email from someone who's working on a biography of the legendary drummer, Jim Gordon. Legendary because he co-wrote Layla with Eric Clapton and was the drummer in Derek and the Dominoes...but then the dark side, the drummer who murdered his own mother and (I think) died in an institution for the criminally insane.
Frazier wrote:
I'll forward this to someone who remembers everything. I do remember
that Jim forgot his drums and used an old junk set made up of assorted
drums and cymbals we found around the studio. He made them sound great.
The tunes...can be heard. Perhaps Brian remembers the url where some
live. BTW: One of the songs is called "Don't Forget Your
Mother"(somewhat ironic considering Jim's later actions) we beleive this
to be the last recording Jim has played on.
My response:
*****could that be? I just did a little web search myself and discovered that Jim was in Montreal playing with Frank Zappa (informally known as the "Petit Wazoo" Tour) October 27, 1972. It looks like that was the first date of the tour. As I recall, they arrived at the studio after that gig, Jim and Tom Malone (on bass) cut the rhythm tracks with me and I remember Jim as a rather dashing, clean-cut fellow who fit my pre-conceived idea of an L.A. session guy. He was very businesslike, but seemed a bit remote. I don't think he "got" the humour/tongue-in-cheek pathos of "Don't Forget Your Mother" - you don't suppose that's what put him over the edge, do you? I'd be interested to know the actual date of the crime. You can hear an mp3 of that tune at www.brian.blain.com. BrianB
A few months back there was a discussion on the folk listserve when Canadian folksinger James Gordon got confused with drummer Jim Gordon and I jumped in with my story. James Gordon is a busy touring artist and prolific writer - I finally got to hear him play at Winterfolk.