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Jim Gordon (Musician)James (Jim) Gordon was an American-born musician of the 1960s and 1970s. After backing the Everly Brothers in 1963 at age 17, he went to California, where Hal Blaine, L.A.'s famous top-ranking session drummer, began to send Gordon his overflow work and Gordon was soon one of the busiest session drummers in L.A. During this period, he performed on many famous recordings including Gene Clark with The Gosdin Brothers (Columbia Records, 1967) and The Notorious Byrd Brothers by The Byrds; he remained an in-demand session drummer well into the Seventies. In 1969-70 he toured as part of the backing band for the group Delaney & Bonnie, which at the time included Eric Clapton. Clapton subsequently took over the group's rhythm section -- Gordon, bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist-singer-songwriter Bobby Whitlock. They formed a new band which was eventually called Derek & The Dominos. Gordon played on the group's acclaimed 1971 double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and composed and played the elegiac piano coda for the title track. He also toured with the band on a subsequent US tour, but the group split in late 1971 before recording their second LP. In 1972 Gordon was part of the Joe Cocker's famous Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour. He worked with Chris Hillman again when he was the drummer in the Souther Hillman Furay Band from 1973 to 1975. During his career, Gordon played with (or for) a huge list of top musicians and producers, including Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, The Carpenters, Alice Cooper, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, John Denver, Neil Diamond, George Harrison, Dr John, Carole King, John Lennon, The Monkees, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Russell, Carly Simon (You're So Vain), Traffic and Frank Zappa. Though initially known for being 'straight-laced', Gordon began to use heroin and cocaine heavily during the short, drug-fueled career of the Dominos. In the early '70s he began to suffer psychological problems, and complained of hearing voices, especially that of his mother. By the late '70s his mental problems -- finally diagnosed as acute paranoid schizophrenia -- had ended his career. In 1983, while suffering a psychotic episode, Gordon brutally murdered his own mother by bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. He was tried for the killing and, because of changes to the insanity defense in California, he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1984 and sentenced to serve sixteen years to life in prison. Most of his time has been served in Atascadero State Hospital. He remains wealthy, thanks to royalties from "Layla" and a handful of other songs which he wrote or co-wrote. External links Gordon, Jim
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