Ultimate Smackdown!
"Something" by George Harrison & "Layla" by Derek & The Dominos - Blast from the Past Sunday
Come one, come all to view one of the most dramatic fights in rock and roll history! Gasp in shock as you witness a backstabbing involving one woman, two men, and two iconic songs! Wait until your empathetic minds get a hold of this one. You won’t know whether to follow your heart, your moral compass, or your ears!
To begin, we must set the scene. Take a moment to transport yourself to the late 1960s, a time in which the world seemed to be coming into more vibrant color than ever before. Hairstyles were getting higher, skirts were getting shorter, and the music scene was positively filled to the brim with cosmic new tunes that would alter the world forever! The psychedelic music movement prompted new bands to come on the scene, popping up on charts with eclectic names like Strawberry Alarm Clock and Captain Beefheart and His Magical Band. (Yes, those are real, I promise!) However, none seemed to be more popular than the band Cream, and because of their success guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton was catapulted to fame.
However, despite the psychedelic movement becoming more and more popular, one band still reigned supreme as the kings of the music industry at the time. The Beatles were the darlings of the charts, beloved by (nearly) all who came across them. As music evolved, they did as well. This is best seen in their successful transition from the teenybop pop music of their early days to the more sophisticated and experimental songs that began around their 1966 album Revolver, despite being most prominent in 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Either way, they too wanted in on this new style of music. And of course, while this was all happening, the two worlds of The Beatles and Cream began to collide. Eric Clapton of Cream became good friends with George Harrison of The Beatles, and even made his way into their history, playing the iconic guitar solo from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on 1968’s The Beatles. George Harrison had it made. He was finally being allowed to write his own songs to put on The Beatles’ albums, and he had made a great friend in Eric Clapton. Furthermore, he had a lovely wife named Pattie Boyd, who worked as a model and photographer. However, this wasn’t all she was. Pattie Boyd was one of THE It Girls of the 60s, and her iconic style influenced everyone she met. George and Pattie had met when they were young and she was an extra in the movie companion to The Beatles album A Hard Day’s Night, and they had been together ever since.
Pattie had quite a few iconic songs written about her, but one that stands out is “Something” on the Beatles second to last album Abbey Road. It’s widely considered to be one of the best love songs in history. I believe that the romance of the song isn’t very clear in the lyrics-- to me, it comes across in the instrumental, especially when it swells during the chorus. In the demo of “Something”, (available on The Beatles’ Anthology 3), George has a bit more passion than what is shown in the actual version. “How I LOVE that woman of mine” he cries out somewhere in the middle, “and I NEED her all of the time”. It’s a shame that those lines didn’t make it into the final cut of the song. Perhaps if Harrison hadn’t seemed so indecisive and vague with his lyrics to the final version of “Something”, Pattie Boyd wouldn’t have fallen in love with Eric Clapton.
What’s that you say? Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton? You mean Eric Clapton, guitarist/vocalist for the band Cream and George Harrison’s new friend?! Why yes, I did say that. Thank you for reiterating who he was! I know it took a while to get here, but I hope this little twist will keep you interested. Just to get it out of the way, I should make it clear that Eric Clapton didn’t become friends with George Harrison just to steal his wife. (Probably!) They bonded over music, first and foremost. But Eric slowly realized that he had a crush on George’s wife, which made getting together for brunch a little tough. (I don’t think they actually went out to brunch… wouldn’t that be funny though?!) Then, he realized that it wasn’t just a crush. This was love, a love like he had never felt before. So, he did what all musicians do with their feelings and channeled it into a song. How was he supposed to know that “Layla” was going to become so wildly popular?
One of the first things to note about the song is that it’s not released under the name Eric Clapton. No, “Layla” came onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere, from some random band called Derek and the Dominos. And yet, it had a hard rock feeling at it’s core, with guitar playing similar to Clapton’s signature style. Huh. The song came out in 1970, five years BEFORE Pattie Boyd and George Harrison’s divorce, mind you. With a fast tempo and strained vocals, you can feel the pain and desperation seeping through the groove of the guitars. “Layla/I’m begging darling please/Layla/Darling won’t you ease my worried mind” he cries, and it’s easy to visualize him squeezing his eyes shut tightly and praying that Layla (aka Pattie) would love him back. The song is a whopping seven minutes and three seconds long, and while it seems like it would be a lot of screeching guitars and cries for love, it’s actually not. You see, in the middle of the song, around the three minute mark, “Layla” suddenly turns into an instrumental with no explanation at all. The strangest thing about the song is that at least for me, the second part of “Layla”, the part with no words, conveys more emotion than what is heard when the lyrics are sung. It’s deeply emotional and tugs at your heartstrings, though you’re not even really sure why. If I was Pattie Boyd, the second part of the song would have sent me into a tailspin, as I would have understood right away that it sounded like real love.
“Layla” and “Something” are two drastically different songs, although they’re made by two very similar men for the exact same woman. I’d like to compare and contrast a few aspects of them to see which one will win this particular smackdown. For one thing, “Layla” wins in the Spotify streams category. It has almost 409,000,000 streams compared to the nearly 271,000,000 of “Something”. But, in terms of consistency, I’ll have to give it to “Something”. After all, a song that changes halfway through with no explanation is quite out of the ordinary. However, that second part of “Layla” is why I give it the point for portraying love. It is one of the most beautiful moments in music, and it really proves that romance is real. But “Something” has more love within it’s actual lyrics. Sorry Eric, but pointing out a woman’s “foolish pride” and basically yelling at her to fall in love with you is not going to cut it in the real world. Both songs have their strengths and weaknesses, so it’s hard to determine which would win the smackdown. In this case, I’d have to say it would end with both going the distance and neither one being seen as superior. For although Eric Clapton did end up marrying Pattie Boyd after she and George divorced, (he actually played at their wedding!), they ended up divorcing as well. At least the songs inspired by their romance (or wish for romance, in the case of Layla), will live on forever.
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