Former George Harrison and Eric Clapton Muse Pattie Boyd Spills the Beans

Legendary rock muse Pattie Boyd, who inspired Eric Clapton "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight," and, reputedly, George Harrison's "Something," is coming out with an autobiography, Wonderful Today, and doing interviews on her relationships with two of rock's leading men. The juicy details:
• In 1970 Boyd was married to Harrison but became involved with Eric Clapton after hearing "Layla." "We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington. Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written," Boyd recalled. "He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was 'Layla.'"
• Later that same night Boyd was caught out in the garden of manager Robert Stigwood's house. "[Harrison] kept asking, 'Where's Pattie? But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric," Boyd said. "George came over and demanded, 'What's going on?' To my horror, Eric said, 'I have to tell you, man, that I'm in love with your wife.' I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: 'Well, are you going with him or coming with me?'" She went home with Harrison.
• Clapton once showed up drunk at Harrison's home and engaged the Beatles' guitarist in a rock duel. "George handed him a guitar and an amp -- as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword -- and for two hours, without a word, they dueled," Boyd recalled. "At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn't allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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