It's inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature, Nezami Ganjavi's The Story of Layla and Majnun (with Layla meaning "night" and Majnun meaning "madman"), a gift from his friend, Islamic scholar Abdul Qadir as-Sufi, who told Clapton the story had parallels between him and Boyd. I think, subconsciously, I just wasn't ready to let go, because it meant - on some level - letting go of my son."Īrguably Clapton's most recognisable song thanks to its distinctive opening guitar riff and pleading lyrics, Layla was born out of his all-encompassing unrequited love for English model Pattie Boyd, who was at the time married to his close friend, George Harrison (right). On his initial reluctance to release the track, he added, "This was the hardest song to record on that album.
It's a strange kind of cycle thing that occurred to me and another thing I felt I would like to share." "I realised that the closest I ever came to looking into my father's eyes was when I looked into my son's eyes," Clapton said. The guitarist admits that the song was also influenced in part by the loss of his son, Connor.
All of which resulted in his mother leaving young Clapton with his grandparents in Surrey, England, when she later married another soldier and moved to Canada. "It's a very personal matter but I never met my father," Clapton said in 1985, also revealing that until the age of nine he had been raised to believe his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his older sister. And I took this feeling and put it in this song for him."Ĭlapton was inspired to write his Grammy-winning song My Father's Eyes, which appeared on his 1998 album Pilgrim, about the fact that he never met his father, Canadian soldier Edward Fryer, who shipped off to fight in the Second World War before he was born, following a brief relationship with Clapton's 16-year-old mother Patricia Clapton. And so I took it to a relationship that I have been involved with, myself, for the last 25 years, which is with my manager.
I wanted to actually place it somewhere where I felt it really belonged. " I didn't want it to get pinned onto this event. For me, it was like a compilation of feelings that go back to every loss that I've ever experienced," he said. All this stuff started coming up like it did for everybody. "I went around to the newsagents on the Sunday morning and it was on the front page that Princess Diana was dead. Like all great songwriters, Clapton, 65, has long drawn on his own life experiences and poured them into his music to produce songs that have stood the test of time, such as Layla, Tears In Heaven and My Father's Eyes.Īnd with the legend coming to Abu Dhabi, there's no better time to look behind the loves, loathings and losses that have shaped Clapton's musical legacy.Ĭlapton wrote You Were There initially in reaction to the death of Princess Diana at the age of 37 in a car crash in Paris in 1997, but also admits that it turned into a tribute to his longtime manager, Roger Forrester. When the guitarist the world knows as "Slowhand" strolls onto the stage at Yas Arena on Friday as part of the Yas Island Show Weekends, Eric Clapton's legion of fans will be waiting to rock to some of the British legend's greatest hits.Īnd with 2011 marking the 40th anniversary of his acclaimed album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, a whole host of classics spanning his five-decade-long career will certainly be putting in an appearance on the set list.
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