There are co-written songs, and then there is Eric Clapton’s “Layla”, which might be one of the most star-studded collaborations of rock ‘n’ roll history. From the song’s literary and literal inspiration to the musicians who played a role in shaping the track to the (multiple) versions we know and love today, the song gave new meaning to the saying, “many hands make light work.”
Videos by American Songwriter
All that hard work clearly paid off, garnering Clapton a global Top 20 hit in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. And fortunately, there was no ill will between Clapton and his friend-slash-colleague, who had been married to the real-life inspiration for “Layla” before Clapton married her.
A 7th-Century Arab Love Story and Mod It Girl
Even before there were any arrangements to tweak and perfect, Eric Clapton was pulling from multiple sources of inspiration to write the song that would become his charting hit, “Layla”. Most notably, Clapton wrote the song about his friend George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, with whom Clapton had fallen in love even before she and Harrison in the late 1970s. Clapton married Boyd two years later. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no ill will between Clapton and Harrison, with the latter attending the nuptial celebrations of his long-time friend and recent ex-wife.
Clapton also used a 7th-century folk story about the Arabian poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah, who fell so madly in love with a woman named Layla bint Mahdi that he actually went insane. In the story, Layla’s father marries her off to a man she doesn’t love, contributing to al-Mulawwah’s madness. For Clapton, who had to watch the woman he loved married to one of his best friends in the industry, the story resonated with him on a deep level.
“Make the best of the situation ‘fore I finally go insane,” Clapton sings in the grooving love song. “Please don’t say we’ll never find a way. Tell me all my love’s in vain. Layla, got me on my knees, Layla. I’m begging, darling, please, Layla.”
Eric Clapton’s “Layla” Was a True Group Effort
In the years following Cream’s breakup, Eric Clapton tried his hand in various band placements before establishing Derek and the Dominos with Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon, all of whom Clapton had worked with as backing musicians for the husband-and-wife duo, Delaney & Bonnie. Clapton and Gordon wrote the bare bones of “Layla” as a ballad for the Dominos’ one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
Duane Allman of Allman Brothers Band fame joined Clapton and the rest of the band in the studio during the recording process for Layla. While there, Allman came up with the song’s signature guitar riff that would turn it from your standard heartbreak slow burn into a rousing rocker. Meanwhile, Gordon contributed the piano movement that splits the track into two distinct sections. But depending on who you ask, that part wasn’t Gordon’s to give away. It was his then-girlfriend Rita Coolidge’s.
“Jim took that piano melody from his ex-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge,” Whitlock revealed in a later interview. “I know because in the D&B days, I lived in John Garfield’s old house in the Hollywood Hills, and there was a guest house with an upright piano in it. Rita and Jim were up there in the guest house and invited me to join in on writing this song with them called “Time”. Jim took the melody from Rita’s song and didn’t give her credit for writing it. Her boyfriend ripped her off. I knew, but nobody would listen to or believe me.”
Jim Gordon, Duane Allman, Pattie Boyd, 7th-century poets, George Harrison, maybe Rita Coolidge—Eric Clapton’s “Layla” truly was a star-studded collaboration.
Photo by: Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.