Jim Gordon has Passed On...

@gregdude

Im 74+. I left home in 1966 at 17 (by 2 just months). My alcoholic mother would beat the crap  out of me for no cause other than she was an angry drunk. The night I left she was in my face (literally), screaming all manner of profanities. I finally snapped, and without realizing it, I pushed her into a corner with my hands around her neck, chocking her. Fortunately, I snapped out of it,pushed her away, grabbed my things and left. I lived out of my car for 30 days, bumming nights with friends. Never came back. I found similar aged boys on the streets with similar reasons, but mostly from alcoholic fathers

Derek and The Dominoes is one of the best Rock LPs in my opinion. Full of good music and great passion induced by talent, heart break, joy and lots of drugs. 
 Shortly after recording that album, the band toured. 
 Then, they broke up. Clapton went into hibernation and the band scattered. 
Jim Gordon went home to his mother’s house. Schizophrenia and drugs and lost in the universe, was a terrible place to be, especially after a year of hanging with The Dominoes (Bonnie and Delaney before that, who opened for Blind Faith. After that tour Clapton realized what a great band/family could be. Both bands broke up and The Dominoes came to be).
 I believe it was on that Blind Faith  tour that Clapton visited The Band at The Big Pink. He enjoyed the family vibe so much that Robbie Robertson jokes that he thought he was going to lose his job to Clapton. 
Skyscraper is right. 
 Jim Gordon was an excellent drummer musician. Never flashy. But always driving the song with tune, texture, finesse and time. 
bdp24, I feel you, man. I share your appreciation for such a wonderful musician. 
RIP Jim Gordon. 

Finally you get to rest in peace.  

@gregdude 

Well said Greg.  Illness is not an excuse to commit crimes, kill people, let alone your mother.  He was not found insane at trial. I don't understand why society praises and highlights POS people just because they are famous or had some success.  

From the article:  At times, he also would disappear on drug and alcohol binges.  

From what I’ve read, Jim’s drug use aggravated his mental illness, which had been long undiagnosed. According to Bobby Whitlock, Clapton and Jim did not get along, especially when they went on tour. After their first tour Whitlock remained in England (waiting for Clapton to come out of his own house---where he was shooting heroin---and start working on a second Derek & The Dominos album. When it bacame apparent to Bobby that that was not going to happen, he returned to the States, getting himself his own record deal.), living in one of Ringo’s houses.

Bobby and Keith Moon became drinking buddies, but when asked about playing music with Moon Whitlock said no, it was Bobby’s style of drumming that he preferred. Bobby had started out as a drummer, and loved that Southern "feel", also heard in the playing of Roger Hawkins, the drummer of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section/aka The Swampers.. To hear Roger’s drumming, listen to "Loan Me A Dime" by Boz Scaggs, Paul Simon’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon album, or any of the Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett albums on Atlantic Records (Atlantic record producer Jerry Wexler took both to Muscle Shoals expressly to record with The Swampers). A master’s class in drumming!

Did ya’ll know that Jim Gordon and Roger Hawkins were for a time the 2-drummer rhythm section (along with fellow Swamper David Hood on bass) of Traffic? Seeing Jim and Roger playing together? Daaaaamn!