Layla - Story Behind The Song

[@leslie6938]

This channel is going to blow up at some point, it's too good not to! C'mon youtube algorithm, find it and spread the joy. Fascinating stories, well told, about iconic songs many of us have loved for decades. Love your work and wish you every success!

[@tunesman100]

@leslie6938 Thank you you made my day!!!!!!

[@leslie6938]

@@tunesman100 I discovered your channel today and have watched several of your videos already and will watch all the rest soon. Your Massachusetts town pronunciation video was a great public service. Y'all have some weird and scary town names up there! For context, this Texan gave up trying to way "Worcestershire" a long time ago, I just call it "W sauce." 😂 I usually have a pretty good ear for detecting what part of the country Americans are from, but your video narration voice is so different from your Boston accent that I had no idea you were from there. You must've worked hard to de-Bostonize your voice, assuming that was your native accent. I love hearing different accents but your more neutral voice is great too, sounds like a professional radio voice. Thanks again for your videos and I look forward to watching what the future brings!

[@JoanneMcBride-j1g]

Love this song and everything about it

[@brothersbikesandbourbon]

Clapton references Robert Johnson with “tell me all my love's in vain”

[@LindaSherry-t4d]

I really enjoyed hearing about the relationship between Eric Clapton, Patti Boyd and of course, my long lost cousin George Harrison, because my name was Linda Harrison!!!!!

[@henryjames2484]

Nice Job again. My wife requests any background on CCR Songs. Tschüß

[@tunesman100]

I will look into CCR for sure, great suggestion.

[@Vincent-fo7xp]

Rita Coolidge wrote the piano part at the end, and it was stolen by Jim Gordon. Good job again nice video

[@TheHamilton26]

She wrote more than that! She wrote the entire hook and Clapton stole it!

[@robertnorthrop9964]

Hi great song and cool back story ❤ I loved every thing about it

[@EXQCmoi]

side note: Jim Gordon went mad, murdered his mother and died in prison.

[@DaveDallas-sp3se]

You're talking about the piano coda but showing the sheet music for the first part (around 7:10 or so)

[@daciefusjones8128]

Rita Coolidge was right up there with Bonnie Raitt, Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstad.

[@garykerr3384]

It's well documented that Pattie Boyd dated Ronnie Wood in 1973. She divorced Harrison in '74

[@TheHamilton26]

Rita Coolidge wrote it. Not the piano part” as some say but the entire song. Clapton stolenit.

[@alfsixmd]

nice

[@v.s.7669]

For those of you that continue writing that “Rita Coolidge wrote the coda”, I’m here to tell ya, I doubt she wrote as much of the MUSIC for the coda as everyone thinks she did. Do a little research please. Everyone forgets that this “revelation” came out in her book with details that don’t jive with what people are saying (read excerpt from her book below). It’s kinda fascinating how this story has been grossly exaggerated - to the point where some people think she wrote the ENTIRE song (her story changes in every interview). The story has taken on a life of its own to the point where its clear that most of what people think is just not true - but Coolidge keeps riding the wave…. Beyond drumming, Jim Gordon was an accomplished musician since he was a teen - he could read and write music. Read what you want on KZbin, those little Facebook posts or what Bobby Whitlock (keyboardist) says. While Whitlock appreciated Gordon’s talent immensely, he did NOT like Gordon personally. I’ll stick with what Coolidge wrote herself in her book, which is quite telling (again, read excerpt below). It is my belief that, AT BEST, she made some MINOR additions (if anything at all) to Jim’s original piece, and that’s about it. My thinking is that she just wrote the lyrics to a song called “Time” that was recorded 3 YEARS AFTER Layla. Keep in mind, she did not even come up with the initial idea for the song ‘Time’ - Jim Gordon did. She said so herself in HER book (again, read the excerpt below). Nor did she have the speck of musical talent that Jim Gordon did (he wasn't some hippie, half-assed drummer and, he produced several albums). The famous Drummer Hal Blaine once said (in 2005) of Jim that he "played great piano as well as drums and percussion". Finally, it’s pretty easy for Coolidge to make this accusation when the only one who can truly refute it was in jail at the time that her book was released. Below is what Coolidge wrote in her book about this matter. There are important facts that will sneak by if you’re not reading carefully. And for what it’s worth, even what Whitlock has said doesn’t jive with her story. That’s even more nonsense that muddies the waters. ********************* Excerpted from Delta Lady: A Memoir by Rita Coolidge with Michael Walker. Copyright (c) by Rita Coolidge. Reprinted by permission of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers “One afternoon in 1970, Jim Gordon came over to my house in Hollywood, sat down at the piano, and played for me a chord progression he’d just composed. Most people know Jim as one of L.A.’s top session drummers in the early ‘70s -- he played on everything from Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album -- but he was also a capable pianist, and because he was exposed to so many styles of music, he had a well-developed sense of melody and structure. "The chords Jim played for me were in the key of C sharp and built to an eight-note refrain before the progression repeated. There was something haunting about it, especially when the bright major chords suddenly dipped to B-flat 7th for the refrain. It also seemed deeply familiar-like when you meet someone you’re immediately attracted to who seems at once both exotic and approachable.” “I loved Jim’s progression, but at the moment that’s all it was -- a stunning riff, not a song. As we played with it, a second progression suddenly came to me, a countermelody in the key of G that “answered” and resolved the tension of Jim’s chords and built to a dramatic crescendo that bridged the song’s beginning and ending. I wrote lyrics that reflected the melody’s sense of fatalism and hope (“my darling believe me, don’t ever leave me, we’ve got a million years to show them that our love is real.”). Jim and I ended up calling it “Time (Don’t Let the World Get In Our Way)” and taped a demo. We played the song for Eric Clapton when we were in England touring with Delanie and Bonnie" “I remember clearly sitting at the piano at Olympic Studios while Eric listened to me play it all the way through (so does Bobby Whitlock, Delaney’s and Bonnie’s ace piano player, who was on the session).” "Jim and I left a tape cassette of the demo with Eric, hoping of course that he might cover it. Nothing came of it, and I largely forgot about it. But our song, with Jim’s wistful melody and my sweet countermelody, would come to haunt me the rest of my life."

[@robertsterner408]

Interesting

[@halfmoonfabrics356]

❤

[@robertnorthrop9964]

Also my name is Laila 🎉🎉🎉

[@jessenashvillejames150]

You're got it wrong Dude 🎵. The song was written by a lady named DeAnna. She has never received any credit for it. ( see professor of Rock) Eric Clayton and his manager Robert Stigdwood are creeps.

[@HarryGuit]

That „piano coda“ has nothing to do with Layla. Musically. It‘s just affixed but makes no sense as a part of Layla. It wasn’t included in the famous unplugged version of Layla. Nice piece though.

[@DaveDallas-sp3se]

I heard somewhere that part I was the pursuit, part II was after consummating