Drums & demons The tragic journey of Jim Gordon

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Music critic Selvin (Sly & the Family Stone) delivers a sensitive account of the life and legacy of Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon (1945--2023), who suffered from schizophrenia and murdered his mother in 1983. Once deemed the "greatest drummer" in rock and roll by Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr, Gordon grew up in California and made a name for himself playing with the Everly Brothers as a teenager. Though troubled by "chatter inside his head" since childhood, Gordon found music to be therapeutic. "The drums anchored Jim's world," Selvin writes in one of the book's many immersive passages. "The rackety report resounding through his body, the fire bell clanging of the cymbals, the hypnotic, rhythmic entrainment of the all-powerful groove--they silenced his unquiet mind." But Gordon descended further into schizophrenia as his career accelerated in the late 1960s and '70s--accompanied by punishing concert tours, rampant drug and alcohol abuse, and rehab stints--and he began hearing voices demanding that he commit violent acts. A recent change in California state law deprived him of an insanity defense in his mother's killing, and he was convicted of second-degree murder and spent the rest of his life in prison. Without downplaying the gruesome details of Gordon's crime, Selvin gracefully portrays the musician as "more than his disease." He concludes with a heartrending scene from 1993, when Gordon learned in his prison cell that he'd won a Grammy for "Layla," which he cowrote with Clapton. This affecting account sheds new light on one of rock's most complicated figures. (Feb.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Prolific music critic Selvin (Arhoolie Records Down Home Music) has produced a long overdue biography of a key figure responsible for the popular music sound of the '60s and '70s. Jim Gordon (1945--2023) was legendary for his drumming ability and what he brought to the recording studio. For a 10-year period, the results of his genius could be heard nearly every hour on pop radio, and the songs remain a staple of classic rock today. From Mason Williams's "Classical Gas" to the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," from the Everly Brothers to Steely Dan and the Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat," Gordon gave recordings that extra drive that made them hits. He even snagged a cowriting credit on Eric Clapton's "Layla." Gordon was also beset by frightening voices. His undiagnosed schizophrenia culminated in a horrific outcome in 1983, when he brutally murdered his mother and was imprisoned until his death in 2023. It's a tribute to Selvin that he handles the contrasts and complexities of Gordon's life with sympathy here, while not shying away from the toll Gordon took on those around him. VERDICT This narrative of Gordon's life, hugely influential drumming, and legacy is consistently compelling from start to finish.--Bill Baars

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A biography of the famed drummer and convicted murderer. An in-demand session player in Hollywood, Jim Gordon (1945-2023) was one of music's golden players in the 1960s and '70s; he played on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," John Lennon's "Power to the People." Most famously, Gordon was one of the players Eric Clapton assembled for Derek and the Dominoes and the soaring hit "Layla." "No drummer had a greater career than Jim Gordon," writes Selvin, author of Altamont and Fare Thee Well. Yet Gordon suffered from severe mental illness, logging time in psychiatric wards until, in a psychotic break, he stabbed his mother to death. It was not his first bout of violence: He savagely beat a former wife, sure that she "was trying to bring evil spirits into their home." Selvin charts the course of Gordon's illness, which first began to manifest in the form of voices directing him to harm himself and others. Though a brilliant musician who was "capable of practically superhuman, heroic feats on the drums," he doubted his abilities and increasingly withdrew into himself. He also began to self-medicate, and it didn't help that at the "Layla" sessions there were enough drugs to fuel an army of hardcore users, a small matter for someone of Gordon's "Falstaffian" appetites. The voices in his head eventually merged in the voice of his mother, who, he imagined, directed him to discard his drums, an untenable command. After the murder, Gordon lived the rest of his life in prison, dying 40 years later at the age of 77. Selvin encourages readers to remember Gordon for more than the killing: "Jim Gordon was more than his disease, even though his life and disease were intertwined all along his path." A capable work of musical biography, with all its tragic consequences. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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