Excerpt: Read 'Wonderful Tonight' Here
Pattie Boyd, former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, tells her tale.
Aug. 31, 2007 — -- One woman was responsible for inspiring some of rock's greatest love songs: Pattie Boyd.
She was married to George Harrison and Eric Clapton, both of whom called her their muse as they wrote classics like Harrison's "Something" or Clapton's "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight."
Boyd has never spoken much about her relationship with either man. But now, at age 63, she has written a memoir of her unusual life: "Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me."
You can read an excerpt from the book, below.
From time to time during the spring and summer of 1970 Eric and I saw each other. One day we went to see a film called Kes together, and afterward we were walking down Oxford Street when Eric said, "Do you like me, then, or are you seeing me because I'm famous?"
"Oh, I thought you were seeing me because I'm famous," I said. And we both laughed. He always found it difficult to talk about his feelings—instead he poured them into his music and writing.
Once we met under the clock on the cobbled Guildford high street. He had just come back from Miami and had a pair of bellbottom trousers for me—hence the track "Bell Bottom Blues." He was tanned, gorgeous, and irresistible—but I resisted.
On another occasion I drove to Ewhurst and we met in the Hurt woods. He was wearing a wonderful wolf coat and looked very sexy, as he always did. We didn't go to the house, probably because someone would have been there….The convent girl in me found the situation uncomfortable but at the same time strangely exciting.
We also 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.
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," about a man who falls hopelessly in love with a woman who loves him but is unavailable.
He played it to me two or three times, all the while watching my face intently for my reaction. My first thought was: 'Oh God, everyone's going to know this is about me.'
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