Jim Gordon was one of the most renowned rock drummers of the early '70s and also one of the saddest cases in rock music. Born in California in 1945, Gordon began playing drums as a boy, and by the end of the '60s was one of the top drummers in Los Angeles, having worked with the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker, Andy Williams, and Glen Campbell, among others. He was one of the two busiest session drummers in Los Angeles, second only to the legendary Hal Blaine, when he found himself unexpectedly thrust into a regular band situation -- he was recruited into the Delaney & Bonnie band after their regular drummer, Jim Keltner, pulled out ahead of a tour. The Delaney & Bonnie tour paired him with veteran bassist Carl Radle, with whom Gordon became a musical double act over the next couple of years. Thanks to Eric Clapton's association with Delaney & Bonnie and his appreciation of their work, Gordon and Radle, along with keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, ended up on Clapton's first solo album and also played with Clapton on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. The latter album, in turn, paired him with Ringo Starr, then the most famous drummer in the world, and elevated him to star status before the public; his drumming became some of the most recognizable in the business, behind only to Blaine and perhaps Ringo. It was then a short jump -- growing out of the "Apple Jam" sessions on the Harrison album -- to the formation of Derek and the Dominos, the Eric Clapton band whose short-lived career generated the single "Layla" and the accompanying album, which became two of the biggest-selling records of the '70s. Gordon not only played on the album but also co-authored the title song with Clapton, contributing the extended instrumental finale. Over the next few years, Gordon was fully employed within the music business and highly visible, playing with everyone from Joan Baez to Frank Zappa. Behind his fame and success, however, there was a dark side to Gordon's persona that few listeners and few fellow musicians ever knew about -- a personality torn by serious psychological demons. As early as 1969, he would go off for days in spurts of bizarre, self-destructive private behavior. According to some accounts, he often heard a voice inside of his head that directed him at various times to act out. Whatever the particulars and the pathology, by 1981, he was unable to continue in music, and finally, in 1983, the voice told Gordon to kill his mother, which he did. He was sentenced in 1984 to a term of 16 years to life and diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. He was repeatedly denied parole and died in March of 2023 at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California at the age of 77. ~ Bruce Eder