Drummer Jim Gordon has passed away at the age of 71. Gordon was a member of the famous group of LA session players known as The Wrecking Crew. During the '60s & '70s, he played with The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, George Harrison, Steely Dan, Alice Cooper, Traffic, Joe Cocker, John Lennon, BB King, Frank Zappa, and Hall & Oates... and that just barely scratches the surface. His most famous job, though, was as the drummer for Derek & The Dominos' Layla album. He's credited with having written the long piano coda on the title track, but that's since been disputed (it appears that he stole the bit from his then girlfriend Rita Coolidge).
During the '70s, Gordon began displaying some odd behavior and would often go days without sleeping and struggled to eat normally or take care of himself. Doctors diagnosed his problems as being caused by alcohol abuse, but it later became clear that he'd been suffering from schizophrenia. Eventually it rendered him unable to work as a drummer. In '83, he showed up at his mother's Hollywood home and used a hammer & butcher knife to kill her, claiming he'd heard voices telling him to do so.
Only after his arrest for murder was Gordon finally diagnosed with
schizophrenia. At his trial, the court accepted that he had acute schizophrenia, but he was not allowed to use an
insanity defense because of changes to California law due to the
Insanity Defense Reform Act. He remained incarcerated, mostly at medical facilities within the California penal system, ever since, being denied parole multiple times and deemed a danger if not properly medicated.
Gordon's life is a sad story. By all accounts, he was an extraordinarily talented musician and, before he became ill, a genuinely likeable, easy to work with guy. A decade of undiagnosed mental illness just destroyed his life and career, led him to commit a senseless murder, and then to spend most of his life in prison.
abcnews.go.com
