Layla

Rare card · No. 34007

"Layla" is a song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, originally recorded with their band Derek and the Dominos, as the thirteenth track from their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). Its contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Gordon. The piano part has also been controversially credited to Rita Coolidge, Gordon's girlfriend at the time. The song was inspired by a love story that originated in 7th-century Persian literature and later formed the basis of the poem The Story of Layla and Majnun by the 12th-century Persian author Nizami Ganjavi, a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly because its story mirrored Clapton's own - a young man's obsessive love for a beautiful girl driving him to madness. At the time, Clapton was desperately in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and fellow musician, George Harrison. After Harrison and Boyd divorced, Clapton and Boyd eventually married. "Layla...

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