Jim Gordon

American rock drummer.

Born: 14th July 1945 Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: 13th March 2023 Vacaville, California, USA

Note: Not to be confused with multi-instrumentalist Jim Gordon who was a later member of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, playing piano and organ on their 1970 album "To Bonnie From Delaney" after Jim Gordon had left the ensemble.

Jim Gordon began as a professional drummer with the Everly Brothers in 1963 and was a popular session drummer in Los Angeles, recording with Mason Williams on the hit "Classical Gas", "Pet Sounds" with The Beach Boys, "Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers" and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" with The Byrds in 1968. He was a member of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends during their 1969 tour, along with Eric Clapton. Gordon became widely known for his drumming in Eric Clapton's Derek & The Dominos band during the early 1970s, and for co-writing the band's hit single "Layla" with Clapton.

During much of the 1970s, Gordon remained a first-call studio musician in Los Angeles, appearing on albums by top-selling artists of the period including John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Seals & Crofts, Art Garfunkel, Bread, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Gordon Lightfoot, Carpenters, Daryl Hall & John Oates, and others.

He was featured on the 1973 recording "Apache" by The Incredible Bongo Band, which featured a long percussion break by Gordon that has been sampled countless times on rap, dance and hip-hop releases. During 1973, Gordon became the drummer for The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.

Gordon began to suffer serious mental health issues in the late 1970's. This included hearing voices in his head, part of what was later determined to be schizophrenia. He was also indulging heavily in alcohol and recreational drug-use, which exacerbated his poor mental health. Tragically, on June 3rd 1983, he killed his mother with a hammer, believing her to be some form of devil taking over his life. Gordon was sentenced to second-degree murder and given sixteen years to life in California's Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) in Atascadero, a town just north of San Luis Obispo. Gordon spent the rest of his life in mental health institutions, and died in March, 2023 in the California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville.