How terrifying that someone who has made such beautiful works of art is also capable of committing acts of sheer inhumanity. Transcending the limits of the understandable, for better and for worse, is what he did James Beck ‘Jim’ Gordonone of the most acclaimed session musicians in American music history and drummer for the blues rock supergroup Derek and the Dominos, who has just passed away at a mental health facility for inmates in Vacaville, California at age 77.
Born in Los Angeles in 1945, he began playing drums at the age of six and was already a member of the Everly Brothers at eighteen, an experience that opened the doors to the Wrecking Crew, the legendary collective of Los Angeles-based session musicians. who recorded instrumentation for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’, Gene Clark’s ‘Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers’ and The Byrds’ ‘The Notorious Byrd Brothers’.
In 1969 he was in charge of the drums at the concerts of the Delaney & Bonnie tour, where Eric Clapton was a member, who shortly after would take the rhythm section of the band to form Derek and the Dominos together with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock and guitarist Duane Allman . It was then that Gordon composed the famous piano coda to the classic ‘Layla’ (on the album ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’), co-written by Clapton himself.
In 1970, he combined the Dominos with Joe Cocker’s band, which he accompanied on the ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ tour, and after the dissolution of Clapton’s supergroup, he collaborated with Traffic, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Souther -Hillman-Furay Band, The Incredible Bongo Band, Johnny Rivers, John Lennon, BB King, Art Garfunkel, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Alice Cooper, Glen Campbell, Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks or Seals & Crofts. Almost nothing.
“Clapton always praised Jim for what he used to call ‘the big filler,'” has said veteran rock critic Joel Selvin, whose biography of Gordon will be published next year. And Ringo Starr thought he was the greatest rock drummer of all time. It wasn’t just his surgical skill and his extraordinarily developed technique, but this intuitive element that elevated his drum part on every record he played.” Gordon was ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time despite his short career, and became an indirect essential figure in the rise of hip-hop after DJ Kool Herc began to inspiring Bronx dancers with his drumming on Bert Weedon’s (and popularized by The Shadows) version of ‘Apache’ that he recorded for the Incredible Bongo Band in 1973.
At the end of the decade, Gordon began to hear voices in his head but the doctors could not find the cause and only treated him for his alcoholism. A fatal mistake that ended in tragedy, since in 1983, guided by these voices, he murdered his mother with hammers and stabs. It was at the trial held the following year that a team of psychiatrists diagnosed him schizophrenia. “I had no interest in killing her. I just wanted to get away from her. And I had no choice. It was easy, because I looked like a zombie being led by someone,” Gordon told the judge. Later, in an interview with the Washington Post, he said, “When I remember the crime, it’s like a dream. I remember going through what happened in that space and time, and it seems a little distant, like I’m going through another plane. It didn’t seem real.”
Gordon was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison, and was not allowed to plead an insanity defense due to legislative changes in California due to the Insanity Defense Reform Act. After that time, he was a candidate for parole, but was denied because he never attended the hearings. In 2014, he again refused to attend another hearing and was denied parole until at least 2018. A Los Angeles assistant district attorney stated that he was still “severely psychologically disabled” and was “a danger” when he was not around. taking his medication, and in November 2017 he was rediagnosed with schizophrenia. On March 7, 2018, Gordon was denied parole for the tenth time.
His death has been revealed by publicist Bob Merlis, who has assured that he died on March 13 of natural causes “after a long imprisonment and a lifelong battle against mental illness.” He is survived by his daughter Amy, born in the first of his two marriages.