I'm begging darling please

Shoutout to Germain maureau

In this article you'll find:

• Introduction
• Layla, The Review
• The writing process
• The Lyrics
• Legacy

You surely might have taken a look at a Top 10 Guitarists of all Time list more than once in your life, and according to the taste of each blogger, the names in there might vary, but something's certain: Clapton will always be there.

In Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists, Slowhand appears as a 2nd just behind the legend Jimi Hendrix, merit that he has won with haunting riffs and beautiful melodies that have created classics in his 60+ year career.

I have written about Eric Clapton's work in the past, where I review Tears in Heaven, a sad piece of music that showcases his talent as a songwriter. But here, we'll go over the young, wild side of "God", as many people call him.

Let's go over Layla, a track that can teach you a thing or two about stealing someone else's girl.

Layla, The Review

Shoutout to RockFM

Eric Clapton and George Harrison had a great friendship, one that dates back to the 60s, when the latter was a member of the cultural phenomenon "The Beatles".

In 1966, the then 23-year-old Harrison married Pattie Boyd, a beautiful Somerset model who became an object of love and desire for Clapton upon first sight.

This sparked Eric's artistic personality, who put his new-found love to good use in 1970, setting up to create an album with the band he formed along with Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, Dave Mason, and Carl Radle: Derek & The Dominoes, also crediting Duane Allman as a major part of the creative process.

This led to the creation of a 14-track romantic ode: Layla and Another Love Songs, of which number 13 became a legendary piece of music: Layla.

This song, whose title refers to the Persian poem Layla and Majnún by Nezâmí-ye Ganŷaví, the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful woman married to a man she didn't love, which served as the main inspiration for this track's theme.

Even If this song was initially a sleeper because Eric Clapton's name wasn't mentioned in Derek & the Dominoes, with time It would grow to top the Billboards, such as in 1972 and in 1984.

But perhaps the biggest feat of this song was foreshadowing the unavoidable. In 1977 Boyd divorced George, due to the latter excessive use of drugs and infidelities on both parts. This paved the way for Clapton who, in 1979 finally got married to Pattie.

The former Beatle and Slowhand remained friends until the time of Harrison's death, with the latter even attending the marriage. But what can't be denied is the impact that this love triangle would have in the music world.

The writing process:

Shoutout to Garcia's

You might think that this over 7 minute monster is filled with lyrics, but this is far from the case. The song is divided into two sections: The first one that spans for 3 minutes, a hard rock, energetic love cry and a beautiful, luscious piano that wraps up the track in the second half.

Of these two, It's the first one that contains all the lines in this song.

As for the structure, It's a pretty standard one for rock hits, with Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus, then followed by instrumental passages and an outro. Each verse is only 1 quartet (4 bars) long, which forced the composers to make the 8-bar chorus pop, a subject they passed with flying colors.

The Lyrics

Shoutout to Traditional Music Library

What'll you do when you get lonely
And nobody's waiting by your side?
You've been runnin' and hidin' much too long
You know it's just your foolish pride

Here, Eric asks "Layla" what she's doing when she's alone, referencing how much she has turned his advances by this point talking about It as just "foolish pride". As for the second verse:

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down
Like a fool, I fell in love with you
It turned my whole world upside down

In a self-explanatory fashion, he talks about how, upon finding out about her ex-husband's infidelities, she turned to Clapton for consolation. He also talks about the irony of the situation, calling himself a fool for pursuing what's taken and how that changed his life.

The third verse:

So make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane
Please, don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.

The ending of Majnún and Layla's story ends up with our protagonist becoming insane from not being able to marry his love, thing Clapton references here.

He tells Pattie not to call their union impossible, all while tying It up cleverly with the title of a blues song by Robert Johnson: Love in Vain.

And obviously, the most recognizable part of the song: The chorus:

Layla
You've got me on my knees
Layla
I'm begging, darling, please
Layla
Darling, won't you ease my worried mind?

Even after being turned down so many times, Eric's advances weren't given a definite answer, just mixed signals. This led him to become nearly crazy with the uncertainty of the subject.

LEGACY

Shoutout to Entertainment Era

Number 27 in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and being listed as the 61st most acclaimed song, Layla's spot as one of the songs that inspired rock and roll for years to come is secure, with no one that can deny It.

Whether It is your granny, your mom or your son, they'll all recognize that this is a pure jewel in the world of Rock, one with a quality that stands the test of time.

Halifax musician Ed Sheeran confessed during an interview with Howard Stern that Layla was the only song he could play on the guitar for a long time, this being the song that inspired him to become a musician.

The impact of this song goes way beyond that. In 2011, Clapton's love cry attained more than six million broadcasts on TV, radio and live appearances.

It even appeared in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, in a scene where the aftermath of the Lufthansa is shown while the second part of the song plays.

Exploding as a hit song many times in different decades, such as in 1992, when Layla's Acoustic version was released, Layla is a tribute to love and infatuation, showing us how a song can help us achieve things, even outside of music.

I hope this article could have been of help to you, providing you with some information as to why Layla is such a masterpiece of a track, with a riff that is universally recognizable and an impact that will last forever. Thank you for your support and good luck!

Sources:
https://entertainmentera.net/music/eric-clapton-legacy-in-music-and-culture/
https://www.rockfm.fm/anecdotas/noticias/dia-que-layla-compuso-triangulo-amoroso-detras-del-temas-20190810_476755
https://americansongwriter.com/layla-eric-clapton-behind-the-song/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton