From New York Post, 8-5-07

'LAYLA' BREAKS SILENCE


Model and "Layla" subject Pattie Boyd famously left husband George Harrison to be with '70s guitar god Eric Clapton.
SONG MUSE TELLS ALL ABOUT ERIC, GEORGE
By HASANI GITTENS


August 6, 2007 -- Maybe it's just her foolish pride.

Pattie Boyd, the blond model Eric Clapton stole from his Beatle friend George Harrison, in her first interview in 35 years, yesterday talked about why she's had three of the most famous love songs in rock history written for her.

Her dalliances with Clapton began in 1970 - four years after marrying Harrison - when Clapton first played her the song he wrote for her, "Layla."

London's Daily Mail interviewed Boyd and excerpted passages from her new autobiography, "Wonderful Today," in which she reveals what had the two men "on their knees, beggin' darlin' please."

"We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington," she said. "Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written. He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was 'Layla.' "

"My first thought was, 'Oh, God, everyone's going to know this is about me,' " Boyd said.

"Layla" was the second song written for Boyd. Harrison had penned "Something," his smash hit from the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album in 1969.

Then after stealing her away from Harrison, Clapton wrote "Wonderful Tonight" about Boyd in 1977.

The same night she heard "Layla" for the first time, Boyd, Harrison and Clapton were all at a party at the home of pop entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, who managed Clapton's group Cream and the Bee Gees.

Harrison "kept asking, 'Where's Pattie? But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric."

"George came over and demanded, 'What's going on?' To my horror, Eric said, 'I have to tell you, man, that I'm in love with your wife.'

"I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: 'Well, are you going with him or coming with me?' "

She went home with Harrison, but Clapton kept pursuing her.

At one point, Clapton, drunk on brandy, arrived at their house, and Harrison decided to have a duel for Boyd's love.

"George handed him a guitar and an amp - as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword - and for two hours, without a word, they dueled."

"At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn't allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable."

In 1974, she finally left Harrison, calling their life "ludicrous and hateful" and found solace in the guitar-holding arms of Clapton.

They married in 1979 - but once again a series of extramarital affairs, this time on Clapton's part, led to divorce in 1988

Link: [www.nypost.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2007-08-08 01:21 by schillid.

Isn't it amazing that George and Eric (appeared to) stay good friends after that?

Pattie was and is a very nice girl. She did not rush out to write a book but was thunderstruck to hear that Eric had made a big book deal to "tell all."
And without telling her. So the promise they had made each other not to talk about their life together publicly was off.

Men are rats!

I didn't know that Eric C did a book.
Is it out already? I imagine not... and that it might take "Slowhand" a while to write it.

stonesrule Wrote:
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> Pattie was and is a very nice girl. She did not
> rush out to write a book but was thunderstruck to
> hear that Eric had made a big book deal to "tell
> all."
> And without telling her. So the promise they had
> made each other not to talk about their life
> together publicly was off.
>
> Men are rats!

well the very nice girl scewed around on her husband with her husband's best friend. not so very nice. then she eventually got dumped by clapton for a series of newer models in return. not very nice. george ended up with olivia, a beautiful, truly spiritual woman who gave him Dhani and a lifetime of love and support and understanding and companionship. nice. last i ran into ec's crowd, say 7 or 8 years ago, he was mourning something awful over a young acress he had followed onto a set where she was shooting south of the border; she had very little time or interest in rockstar grandpaw and he had some major teenage blues goin' on somewhere in his late 50's i guess...

so, she might indeed be a specially nice girl, but when you cheat, you're getting a cheater, and that cheater's gonna dump you...i could care less about her book. or his actually.

stonesrule Wrote:
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> So the promise they had
> made each other not to talk about their life
> together publicly was off.

Promises end.

Rock guitar gods have different stadards of behavior and live different lives than you and me. George and Eric remained the best of friends, and Eric was the driving force in four major musical events in George's life -- the Concert for Bangla Desh, George's return to public performance on Carl Perkins' "rockabilly special", his appearance at the Prince's Trust Concert in 1987 and their joint tour of Japan in 1991. As for Patti and George, well, to me, this photo taken in 1995 says it all. [www.sfae.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-08-07 08:49 by drbryant.

Patti Boyd was Ronnie's muse for a while there too - she sure has inspired some beautiful music

"stole from his Beatle friend" - remember this expressions from
the teen mag's back then. Do people really steal people in such a case?
How useful is it for a ten year old young baboon to read such cr*p?

Clapton´s just a great guitar player but I never liked any of his written songs except for a very few (...), had also a relationship with Sheryl Crow but left her...anyway...´Mr Harrison was a pure gentleman and he knew as we know that all things must pass

Man, Patti must be the proud owner of "the Magic Clam" or something....

"Men are rats"? huh? I do believe some Rats are men but that's as far as it goes....

>well the very nice girl scewed around on her husband with her husband's best friend. not so very nice.

>so, she might indeed be a specially nice girl, but when you cheat, you're getting a cheater, and that cheater's gonna dump you...


You're conveniently ignoring the fact that George cheated on Patti with one of his best friend's wife, Maureen Starkey, prior to her dalliance w/Clapton. I find George's betrayal of Ringo more damning than Clapton's (I guess it's all the same but ... I expect more loyalty from George towards Ringo than from Clapton towards Harrison).

[www.dailymail.co.uk]

Shit happens, but at least they didn't play in the same band!

- Doxa

Women come and go, no need to fight, the world is full of them beauties ...

By the way, the guitar-duel thing sounds great baloni to me!

C

Men are rats!

Whoa, stonesrule, that's gonna piss off rats everywhere!

"No Anchovies, Please"

"By the way, the guitar-duel thing sounds great baloni to me!"

I agree-complete bullshit I reckon

Jerry Hall mentioned (I think in her bio) that Mick also had a huge crush on Patti in the 60's.

As far as Patti being a bad person for cheating... that's ridiculous. She married the guy, it wasn't a cheap fling. I've never read any Beatles bio's, but I would be very surprised if you told me George never took up with any of the Apple Scrubs while he was married to Patti.

She always seemed like a classy lady to me, and apparently most of our idols thought so as well.

Well said Cindy.

In those exuberant days all those boys acted like they were in a candy store, and a lot of women got hurt.

I have personal reasons to respect Clapton and Harrison but they -- and none of us -- are perfect. And a very nice girl, Patti possessed the class to not rush to write a book, turning down many opportunities. Eric should have spoken to her before he agreed to put their personal life up for sale.

"Layla" will remain a great song but...

Both their books will be published in October.

drbryant Wrote:
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> George and Eric remained the best of friends,

Very true. I mean, I was at the concert for george in 2001 (beautiful evening) and watching the dvd now, with the backstage footage, eric is clearly very saddened and he talks about mourning. They certainly were very close.



> Eric was the driving force in four major musical
> events in George's life -- the Concert for Bangla
> Desh, George's return to public performance on
> Carl Perkins' "rockabilly special", his appearance
> at the Prince's Trust Concert in 1987 and their
> joint tour of Japan in 1991.


I don't agree about the concert for bangla desh. I watched a good documentary about it a short while ago, and it seems that Ravi Shanker was the force for that, and according to interviews with george himself, he says that no-one was really sure if eric was going to be there, he was only 'on board' pretty late in the day, kind of last minute and he hadn't really rehearsed. George mentioned eric was in a bad way at the time with drink and drugs.

But Eric was certainly the one that got george out to japan in 1991, and he also organised the concert for george.

Interesting friendship.

_____________________________________________________

What's your favourite flavour?...........Cherry Red!!

Beelyboy Wrote:
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> [www.dailymail.co.uk]
> wbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=395799&in_page
> _id=1773

Interesting article. Clapton and Ronnie in a wife swap, huh? That Krissy Wood really got around, I remember something about her leaving Ronnie at one point for Jimmy Page (anybody remember the details) and also something about Ronnie's house getting busted for drugs and the police finding Krissy in bed with another woman. Ah, to be a rich, famouse rock star in the '70s, you got to have all kinds of fun. These books should be a good read and dish out some new dirt when they are released.

"It wasn't my fault ... liquors drunkened me!" Homer Simpson

Here's a link to a longer article on the subject. I didn't know Clapton also had a thing with Pattie's younger sister Paula. [www.dailymail.co.uk]

"It wasn't my fault ... liquors drunkened me!" Homer Simpson

ozstoner Wrote:
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> "By the way, the guitar-duel thing sounds great
> baloni to me!"

I think that part is made up too. Fun to imagine though. Was there a band with other players? Or just the two rock n roll god guitarists?

It's lucky that they didn't have Phil Spector to produce the jam.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-08-07 20:43 by schillid.

>> Clapton and Ronnie <<

Harrison and Ronnie

The 60s and 70s were so much more bout peace and love, man.

If the same thing happened today with two huge rap stars, one of them would shoot the other guy dead.

Well, books have to be sold don't they?....and newspapers......;-)

Rolling Stones Tribute

Play Rolling Stones

Some Girls....

I only wish I knew what special something Patti had because to be honest, I never could see it. It has to be a thing guys react to, perhaps she was very sexual, or a tease, or maybe she really was a great listener. It is obvious that she was aware of her allure and turned on her " love light" many times and she turned on alot of rockers. Lucky girl!

CindyC Wrote:
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> As far as Patti being a bad person for cheating...
> that's ridiculous. She married the guy, it
> wasn't a cheap fling...

I agree with you Cindy

> ...I would be very surprised if
> you told me George never took up with any of the
> Apple Scrubs

I think they called themselves "Apple Scruffs", BTW

schillid Wrote:
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...I would be very surprised if you told me George never took up with any of
> theApple Scrubs

I think they called themselves "Apple Scruffs", BTW


HAHAHAHA - I didn't even realized I typed that!!! thanks for the correction. That'll teach me not to make posts in the morning anymore!