This is the second title in the new Rock of Ages seriesbooks that reveal a wealth of never-told or forgotten stories behind some of the greatest rock music ever recorded Rocksbackpages.com calls Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs "unquestionably one of the great compositions of the entire rock era." Amazon.com says "Layla stands as one of a handful of pillars of classic rock." Eric Clapton's rendition of the title song packs such a raw emotional wallop that Dave Marsh wrote in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll: "There are few moments in the repertoire of recorded rock where a singer or writer has reached so deeply into himself that the effect of hearing him is akin to witnessing a murder, or a suicide . . . To me, Layla is the greatest of them." The music may be timeless, but the lives of the tortured souls who produced this great album clearly were not; most were cut short by accident or substance abuse, while those who remain bear deep scars. And lead player Eric Clapton, despite a hugely successful career, has been shadowed by this album, which he knew at the time would be the defining high point of his career. Both casual and committed rock fans will be compelled by the heartbreaking and often lurid details surrounding the saga of Layla and Derek and the Dominoswhich has never been completely disclosed until now.

Jan Reid is a founding contributor and writer-at-large for Texas Monthly.