The best song written about Pattie Boyd, according to Pattie Boyd
Pattie Boyd is one of the most defining faces of the 1960s. As a model and actor she became instantly recognisable, but as the supermuse to George Harrison and Eric Clapton, she became a phenomenon. With so many anthems written about her or dedicated to her love, it must be tough to choose a favourite.
“I find the concept of being a muse understandable when you think of all the great painters, poets, and photographers who usually have had one or two,” Boyd said in a conversation with Taylor Swift for Harpers Bazaar, “The artist absorbs an element from their muse that has nothing to do with words, just the purity of their essence”.
When it comes to Boyd that essence must have been powerful and endlessly inspiring as the men in her life didn’t just pen her love songs, but penned her some of the most beloved love songs in history. Harrison wrote ‘Something’ in dedication to his wife, leading Frank Sinatra to deem it “the greatest love song of the past 50 years”.
But when it comes to Boyd’s favourite song written in her honour, or the one she considers to be the best, it opens up the entire tumultuous love triangle that she was wrapped up in.
“What I wish to ask you is if you still love your husband or if you have another lover?” Boyd read in a letter in 1970. Initially, she thought it was from an obsessed fan. However, in fact, the lovelorn address was set by Eric Clapton, one of her husband’s closest friends. “If you want me, take me, I am yours. If you don’t want me, please break the spell that binds me,” he wrote in another letter. Each one is addressed to a simple and now infamous name: Layla.
Out of all the songs written about her, ‘Layla’ stands out to Boyd, perhaps down to its outright audacity. “When I first heard ‘Layla’ it was immensely flattering and slightly embarrassing because it was about me, and he was being so loving and passionate in his lyrics,” she remembered, “I couldn’t believe that someone could feel that way about me, or write those kind of lyrics.”
However, the song also came along with a fearful thrill. “He played it to me on a cassette and said to me, ‘You know why I wrote that…’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, really? This is a little public… and I’m married to George’,” Boyd remembered. Clapton wrote the lustful love song about a man begging for the love of forbidden women as his muse was still married to his friend, the Beatles.
“I wanted it to go away although I loved it at the same time,” Boyd said of the conflict the song caused. “It caused huge storms in my head. I thought Eric was incredibly attractive and sexy and he was great to talk to. I was going through a bad time with George, and Eric was a good listener.”
So many people dream of having songs written about them. The muses of rockstars hold a kind of mythological position in cultural fancy. With films like Almost Famous, or the writing of famous groupies like Pamela Des Barres, music fans remain fascinated with seeing behind the scenes of the situations and relationships that inspired rock anthems. For Boyd, inspiring George Harrison was one thing, but ‘Layla’ felt like something else entirely.
She said the track was “the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard.” Packed with so much desire, it was impossible to ignore. “The realisation that I had inspired such passion and creativity, the song got the better of me. I could resist no longer,” she admitted. ‘Layla’ was the start of the affair that would change the course of her life and remains a timeless anthem.
