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Life

30th Mar 2015

JOE’s Classic Song of The Day : Eric Clapton – Layla

Happy 70th birthday Slowhand

Paul Moore

Happy 70th birthday Slowhand.

Artist, album and year: Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970

Why is it a classic? It takes a rare song to almost gain iconic status within 10 seconds but that opening riff has rightfully been heralded as one of the greatest in the history of rock music.

The tune gets better though.

All songs are deeply personal to their writers but the history of Layla is so intrinsically linked with Clapton’s own life that it needs to be fully explained in order to appreciate its legacy.

In 1966, George Harrison married Pattie Boyd as he and Clapton shared a collaborative friendship, both men worked on the others records with their respective bands, but Clapton soon fell in love with Boyd.

The title of the song was inspired by the story of Layla and Majnun, a 12th-century Persian poem about unrequited love and longing.

This explains the raw emotion and unflinching honesty in Clapton’s lyrics as you get the impression that he’s longing to be with the woman he wants.

The sad, melancholic and almost weeping guitar solo, that plays over the piano composition in the songs final three minutes, is probably the best reflection of this yearning and sadness.

A Rolling Stone critic named  Dave Marsh said, “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 them is akin to witnessing a murder or a suicide… to me ‘Layla’ is the greatest of them.”

It’s very hard to argue with that.

The recording process in the studio was incredibly complex, it was created in different sections, and it remains an absolute marvel of production.

The first section consisted of sixteen tracks of which six were guitar tracks including;

a rhythm track by Clapton, three tracks of harmonies that were all played by Clapton, solos by Allman and one recording with of Allman and Clapton playing duplicate solos.

The piano section was only added in after Clapton heard his producer playing the piece on his own. How different would the song have been had ‘Slowhand’ not been in the studio.

The song resonates equally as a rousing blues rock anthem but also as an acoustic heart-breaking lament, which was proven by Clapton’s wonderful MTV acoustic album in 1992.

Did you Know? : In 2004, “Layla” was ranked number 27 on Rolling Stone ’​s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and the acoustic version won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

The lyrical hook: “Please don’t say we’ll never find a way, and tell me all my love’s in vain.”