imagine writing one of the greatest love

songs of all time for the wife of your

friend that’s exactly what Eric Clapton

did and the fallout it was just as

dramatic as the song

itself this is the story behind Leila

and the love triangle that fueled one of

the most iconic tracks of the 20th

century a story of obsession betrayal

and devotion you’re watching Behind the

Track

in 1964 young fashion model Patty Boyd

was cast in a Beatles film A Hard Day’s

Night i’m sorry miss you mustn’t

patronize with me prisoners prisoners

come in and transit that’s where she met

George Harrison they married two years

later she had already inspired one of

the most beautiful Beatles love songs

ever written

something at first George played koi he

once said “Everybody assumed it was

about Patty but actually I was just

thinking about something but years later

he admitted the truth.” What inspired

something maybe Patty probably really i

think I wrote it I wrote it at the time

when um we were making the last double

album and it’s just the first line

something in the way she moved which has

been in millions of songs it’s not a

special thing but it um does seem quite

apt patty herself confirmed it in an

interview george came back from the

studio one day and he played something

for me and he said we’ve just recorded

this i wrote it for you and it’s going

to be on a single i thought “Oh my god

this is so exciting i can’t believe it.”

And so I listened it and listened and

listened it and it was just the most

beautiful song and you know I just

thought it was fantastic and I was

deeply honored that he had written that

for me but behind the scenes things

weren’t perfect george had grown distant

diving into Eastern spirituality and

music a few years after that George

introduced Patty to his close friend a

rising blues guitarist named Eric

Clapton at first Clapton and Harrison

were inseparable writing music jamming

together and even trading

solos uh that unforgettable guitar on

While My Guitar Gently Weeps that’s

Clapton i was driving into London with

Eric and I said “Hey what are you doing

why don’t you come to the studio and re

you know play on this song for me?” And

he says “Oh no i can’t do that you know

nobody’s ever played on a Beatles record

and you know they the others wouldn’t

like that and I said “It’s nothing to do

with them it’s my song.” And so we we

came yeah we did my guitar journey but

behind the scenes something dangerous

was building clapton was falling deeply

in love with Patty the only problem she

was still married to George

george’s huge commitment to Indian

spirituality and how that would lead him

to be fairly dismissive of you know the

material things that we had all come to

enjoy you know and I had become bit by

bit more and more obsessed with his wife

Patty and was making amateur kind of

inroads into finding out what what was

going on and what what what was

happening to their relationship ship uh

and at the same time trying to balance

my relationship with him clapton became

obsessed he couldn’t sleep he couldn’t

write until one day a friend handed him

a book a 12th century Persian tale

called Leila and Majnoon written by Nami

Ganjavi it’s one of the most iconic

tales of unrequited love in world

literature

extremely personal dear friend of ours

gave us a book called Laya and Mash

which was a very beautiful delicate love

story about whom was married to

somebody he was another man was madly in

love with her and there was absolutely

nothing he could do so they could never

marry and he went raving mad split for

the desert and stayed hanging out with

the animals to the birds singing the

trees and

It just drove you totally crazy that was

my comment and she was Ila and I was

Mine you know

just the first few make you melt in the

story a young man named Kay falls deeply

in love with a girl named Ila but her

parents forbid their union heartbroken

and rejected Cay loses his mind

literally he becomes known as Majnoon

meaning madman in Arabic he wanders the

desert writing poetry for Ila consumed

by his obsession though she loves him

too they are never allowed to be

together in the end both die tragically

separated in life united only in death

and suddenly it all made sense he was

Majnun patty was his Leila for Clapton

it was the perfect metaphor he was

hopelessly in love with Patty Boyd

someone he couldn’t have like Majnoon he

turned his heartbreak into poetry so he

picked up his guitar and began writing

what would become his greatest song

leila wasn’t just a love song it was a

raw confession ila you got me on my

knees to bring it to life Clapton formed

a new band one of the finest musical

groups in the world welcome Bobby

Whitlock Jim Gordon Carl Rael and Eric

Clapton derek and the Dominoes derek and

the Dominoes in the summer of 1970 while

recording in Miami Clapton saw Dwayne

Alman of the Almond Brothers play live

that same night Dwayne walked into the

studio and the two began trading guitar

riffs like old friends producer Tom Dow

called it telepathy on tape eric and

Dwayne had a great deal of respect for

each other’s taste skill and

musicianship and there was never a

question that Dwayne was a fan of Eric’s

and Eric was a fan of Dwayne but Leila

didn’t just stand out for its guitar

riff or lyrics what truly elevated the

song what made it unforgettable was the

final two minutes that haunting piano

kod a moment of beauty so pure even

director Martin Scorsesi used it to

close his classic film Good Fellas the

piano part is credited to Jim Gordon the

band’s drummer jim Gordon was one of the

greatest session drummers of his era but

behind the talent was a man battling

undiagnosed schizophrenia over the years

he struggled with addiction paranoia and

increasingly violent behavior in 1983

Gordon murdered his own mother he

claimed the voices in his head told him

to do it he was sentenced to life in

prison where he remained until his death

in 2023 he was 77 uh according to

multiple sources including Gordon’s

bandmate Bobby Whitlock and singer Rita

Culage herself the melody wasn’t

entirely his it was allegedly lifted

from a song Jim and Rita had written

together called Time

but when Leila was released only Clapton

and Gordon were credited when the track

was finished Clapton invited Patty over

he sat her down and played Ila for her

it was so beautiful and magical there

was such a passion and energy in in the

song i so flattered but I was also so

worried that George would work out why

Eric had written this song i heard it i

felt that he was I was being pushed into

leaving George and being with him and I

felt I wasn’t sure how I felt about it

but it’s a beautiful song it was a

musical cry of obsession patty listened

she was moved but she didn’t leave

george Clapton was crushed the song

appeared on the album Leila and other

assorted love songs by Derek and the

Dominoes so despite its emotional power

and legendary guitar work the album was

a commercial disappointment at the time

it didn’t chart high and Leila initially

failed to break through in the US or the

UK charts

part of the problem the band was new and

relatively

unknown the song was over 7 minutes long

too long for radio and Clapton didn’t

even put his name on the album cover he

wanted it to be about the music not the

fame but the song refused to die two

years later in 1972 Leila was

re-released as a single and this time it

caught fire it reached number 10 on the

US Billboard Hot 100 and slowly gained

recognition as a masterpiece

over time Leila became one of Clapton’s

signature songs and that iconic riff by

Dwayne Alman it’s considered one of the

greatest guitar lines ever recorded so

while Ila started as a commercial

underdog it ended up a rock and roll

legend eventually Patty did leave George

when we finally did start to act it out

I mean I went to George right away and

said “Look I think this is going to

happen and I think you know it is

already there’s the feelings there.” And

I I have to know what you what you feel

about that or I mean if you want it was

almost like well if you want me to stop

or go away I will you know but I need to

know what and he was very uh kind of

cavalier you said well take her she’s

yours kind of thing but in fact can I

have that we’ll swap you know I mean but

and and to be to be to be honest it had

kind of almost got to that before anyway

there was a lot of kind swapping going

on and a lot of fooling around and this

is you know 60s free love stuff you mean

so um and George’s attitude seemed to

have more wisdom in it than than anyone

else’s in that this is all material it’s

all mer it’s all irrelevant to the the

bigger picture doesn’t really matter in

other words she and Clapton married in

1979 and in a surreal twist of rock

history George Harrison came to the

wedding with Paul and Ringo the three

surviving Beatles jammed with Clapton at

the reception of a man who had stolen

one of their wives but the fairy tale

didn’t last the marriage crumbled under

the weight of alcohol infidelity and

distance in her memoir Wonderful Tonight

she opened up about the dark side of her

marriage with Clapton including his

struggles with addiction and infidelity

though the songs were beautiful the real

relationships were often chaotic and

painful but Leila wasn’t finished more

than two decades later in 1992 Clapton

did something

[Music]

unthinkable he stripped the song down no

wailing guitars no screaming vocals just

an acoustic guitar a steady rhythm and a

man who had lived through heartbreak

loss and redemption this new version of

Leila performed for MTV Unplugged showed

the song in a completely different light

slower softer more vulnerable gone was

the anguish in its place reflection

audiences were stunned the performance

helped Clapton reach a whole new

generation of listeners and it was a

massive success the Unplugged album went

on to sell over 26 million copies

winning six Grammy awards including

album of the year it became one of the

bestselling live albums of all time

decades later a young boy in England sat

on his couch watching TV it was The

Queen’s Golden Jubilee in

2002 and on stage appeared Eric Clapton

that boy was Ed Sheeran i was watching

the Queen’s Jubilee when I was 11 and he

came on and played the first um

the and I was like “Whoa what the hell

is that?” And then my dad’s like “Oh

that’s that’s that’s Leila.” And I uh

got the Derek and the Dominoes album i

got the the Eric Clapson greatest hits i

bought uh Eric Clapson unplugs and just

learned all these songs so Clapton was

one of your inspirations to even go into

music in other words you’re 11 years old

and then you pick up the guitar and you

start to work out Leila on your guitar

yeah it was the first and only thing

that I could play for a long time leila

was born out of a love triangle but it

became something much bigger a song that

captured the ache of wanting something

you can’t have and still echoes through

every generation that comes after

because sometimes Heartbreak writes the

perfect melody and sometimes it teaches

a kid to pick up a guitar and change the

world all over again well you do get

lonely

[Music]

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