George Harrison’s opinion on Eric Clapton’s “Layla”

One of the most famous love triangles in Rock history involved George Harrison, Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton. She was first married to George, courted by Clapton while still married and after her separation from Harrison, she eventually married the guitarist, who had been one of George’s closest friends.

She was the inspiration behind “Something”, “Wonderful Tonight” and, of course, “Layla”, the song Eric wrote as a message to her while she was still married. Harrison’s friendship with Clapton did not end, unlike Eric and Pattie’s marriage. But what was George Harrison’s opinion on the hit “Layla”?

What was George Harrison’s opinion on Eric Clapton’s “Layla”

It was obviously not a song George Harrison listened to, but the late musician said that he didn’t have a problem with the song or with the fact that Clapton married Pattie, also saying that they remained friends and that he was happy for him. When asked by Sounds magazine if he had written a “musical rebuttal” to “Layla”, he said: “Pardon?! What do you mean, musical… what rebuttal?”

“That sounds nasty. Eric Clapton`s been a close friend for years. I`m very happy about it, I`m still very friendly with him.” The interviewer replied saying: “Seriously? How can you be happy about it?” George answered: “Because he’s great. I`d rather she was with him than with some dope,” the musician said in 1974.

A couple of years later, when asked by Crawdaddy if he suspected something was going on when “Layla” was released, George revealed that he had a sense of what was happening. “Well yeah, sort of (I knew about his love for Pattie when the song was released). The thing is, with Eric over the years, and you know we (George and Pattie Boyd) both loved Eric. Still do. And there were a few funny things.”

George Harrison continued:

“I pulled his chick once. That’s happened, and now you’d think he was trying to get his own back on me. (laughs) But much later, when all that thing was going on, when I split from Pattie, you know… Pattie and he got together after we’d really split. And actually we’d been splitting up for years.”

“That was the funny thing, you know. I thought that was the best thing to do, for us to split. We should’ve just done it much sooner. But I didn’t have any problem about it– Eric had the problem. Everytime I’d go and see him, and stuff, he’d be really hung up about it. I was saying, ‘F*ck it, man. Don’t be apologizing,’ and he didn’t believe me. I was saying, ‘I don’t care,'” George Harrison said.

In an interview in the late 80s, when asked how he first met Eric he joked saying “we shared the same wife” (laughs). “I’ve been friends with Eric for years and I think I will always be. He is a lovely fella and I love him very dearly.”

Curiously, besides “Layla”, Pattie Boyd is credited as the inspiration for George Harrison’s Beatles song “Something” and Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”, two other major Rock and Roll classics. Among the three, her favorite track is “Layla”.

Eric felt uncomfortable playing the song at his shows when Harrison was in the audience

A worldwide hit, “Layla” became part of Eric Clapton’s setlists in the 1970s. Since he and George Harrison were friends, he sometimes played the song at shows when Harrison was in the audience. Clapton later said in his autobiography that he felt uncomfortable performing the track whenever the former Beatle was present.

“That’s always been a bone of contention. Every time I play it and he’s in the audience, I’ve always wondered what the hell goes through his mind. But I don’t know, we could play it. We’ve got a sense of humor about it,” Eric Clapton said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1991. That year when Clapton and George toured together in Japan the song was not part of their setlist.

Interestingly, George had originally been part of some sessions of songs which would later be part of “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs”. “They were the first sessions for Derek & the Dominos. In fact, during those sessions we actually recorded ‘Tell The Truth’ and ‘Roll It Over’. We did versions where I was playing on them. (I wasn’t credited) because they usually didn’t use those, and because Phil Spector was in the box doing my record when we did those takes.”

“So for some reasons when they went back and made their album, I don’t think those versions made their album. I don’t think those versions I was on came out until they did re-compilation albums later (In the late 80s),” George Harrison told Billboard in 2000.

Before marrying Pattie Boyd, Eric Clapton first dated her younger sister

Another unbelievable fact about this love triangle is that, while he was already secretly in love with Pattie, he met and dated her younger sister, Paula, who was with him when he recorded “Layla”. “In fact, in order to get closer to her, I had even taken up with her sister. The circumstances that led to this were curious and had happened a few months before, when Delaney & Bonnie played the Liverpool Empire, with George playing guitar.”

“Pattie had showed up, accompanied by her younger sister Paula. After the show, when we were all back at the hotel, George, who was motivated just as much by the flesh as he was by the spirit, had taken me aside. (He) suggested that I should spend the night with Pattie so that he could sleep with Paula. The suggestion didn’t shock me, because the prevailing morality of the time was that you just went for whatever you could get. But at the last moment, he lost his nerve and nothing happened. The end result was not the one George wanted, as I ended up spending the night with Paula instead of him.”

Eric Clapton continued:

“(…) In Alice’s absence (Former partner), Paula, a surrogate Pattie, moved into Hurtwood, where I was almost immediately involved in setting up another band. It was a stopgap relationship, and I think we both knew that, but she reminded me a lot of Pattie, and for the moment I had no qualms about that.”

Some time after that relationship began, Clapton was still in love with Pattie and repeatedly asked her, whenever he had the opportunity, to leave George and be with him. This eventually marked the end of his relationship with Paula, who later dated The Dominos’ keyboardist Bobby Whitlock.

Paula was with Eric Clapton when he recorded “Layla”

When Derek & The Dominos recorded “Layla”, Paul was with Clapton as Pattie recalled in her biography “Wonderful Tonight” (2007). “She had been with Eric in Miami when he was recording ‘Layla and Other Love Songs’. He had invited her into the studio to hear him sing ‘Layla,’ the last track to be laid down. The minute she heard it she realized it was about me. She had always had a nagging suspicion that he was only with her because she was the next best thing to me and I was unobtainable.”

“Hearing ‘Layla’ confirmed it. She packed her bags and took her broken heart home. She had been seriously in love with Eric, but he destroyed her pride, her self-esteem, and her confidence—which were already fragile. On top of that her big sister, traditionally the nurturer in the Boyd family, was the last person to whom she could turn for comfort,” Pattie Boyd said.