Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Voices


Still serving, I think, his sixteen years-to-life sentence-with the possibility of parole, Jim Gordon, who upon hearing the voices, brutally murdered his mother with a hammer and butcher's knife.
James Beck "Jim" Gordon was mis-diagnosed and treated for alcohol abuse for years leading up to the event. It was during his 1984 trial that doctors finally diagnosed him with acute, paranoid
schizophrenia but it was too late for his attorneys to use the insanity defense.
He started his career in 1963 at age 17 backing the Everly Brothers. Then made a name for himself by taking L.A. studio kingpin, Hal Blaine's session overflow. Word soon spread from there to stints on the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman, The Mason Williams hit; Classical Gas and The Byrds' Notorious Byrd Brothers.
In 1969, as part of the touring package supporting Delaney&Bonnie, Gordon, with band leader Eric Clapton, Carl Radle on bass and keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, went on to form the nucleus for Clapton's first solo project and were the house band on George Harrison's triple disc: All Things Must Pass, and from that, Derek and the Dominos were born.
It was a short jump to the massive 1970 double album: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs that Jim Gordon cemented his credentials not only as a drummer but as co-author and keyboard player, contributing the plaintive, extended coda to the signature song and title track; Layla.
It figures that Jim Gordon didn't become a blip on my radar until after he played on an album from one of country rock's finest from 1973, The Souther/Hillman/Furay Band. And only then did I begin the task of backtracking and fact-finding into his gargantuan career.

News from Wikipedia, Drummerworld and About.com
Photo from Drummerworld

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