Golden Ring

Album: Backless (1978)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • When asked to name his favorite song out of his own catalogue during an October 1999 interview for the VH1 show, Flix, Eric Clapton chose this song. The episode was dedicated to the Rob Reiner film, The Story Of Us, for which Eric composed the soundtrack. He said he picked the song as his all-time personal favorite because it's obscure and people don't know it and it's about marriage (the theme of the movie).
  • Eric wrote this song during the 1978 sessions for Backless. In the tour program for his 1979 North American Tour, he had this to say about it: "The best thing that happened on Backless were the things that happened at the time. I got away with one song on there, 'Golden Ring,' which I think is the strongest song on the album, because I wrote it because I was fed up with the general sort of apathy of everyone involved, and I just thought, 'Well, I'll take a song in there and whether they like it or not, we'll do it, they'll learn it and record it, and we'll put it on the record and that's that!' And that kind of conviction carried the thing through. I spoke with Don Williams [an American Country & Western Cult Artist] just before Christmas and I told him I liked his album, and he said 'Golden Ring' was his favorite track, too, because it was the only one that came through with any kind of feeling, with strength. And if you listen to it, there's virtually nothing to it. Songs like that are caused by situations, but situations of that extremity don't happen every day, thank God." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    DeeTheWriter - Saint Petersburg, Russia Federation, for above 2
  • Although they share the same title, this song should not be confused with the hit 1976 duet, "Golden Ring," by George Jones and Tammy Wynette.
  • Eric fell in love with Pattie Boyd while she was still married to his friend George Harrison. When the pair finally got together in the mid-'70s, things were not as rosy as he imagined they would be. The complicated Eric-Pattie (whom he nicknamed "Nell")-George triangle inspired this song. He explained in his 2007 autobiography: "[The song] was written about the situation between me, Nell, and George. It referred in part to her response to the news that George was getting married again. She took it quite hard, and I, in my arrogance, found that hard to understand. So I wrote this song about the peculiarity of our triangle, which finishes with the words

    If I gave to you a golden ring,
    Would I make you happy, would I make you sing?
    "

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Harold Brown of War

Harold Brown of WarSongwriter Interviews

A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

The Real Nick Drake

The Real Nick DrakeSong Writing

The head of Drake's estate shares his insights on the late folk singer's life and music.

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Michael W. Smith

Michael W. SmithSongwriter Interviews

Smith breaks down some of his worship tracks as well as his mainstream hits, including "I Will Be Here For You" and "A Place In This World."

Desmond Child

Desmond ChildSongwriter Interviews

One of the most successful songwriters in the business, Desmond co-wrote "Livin' La Vida Loca," "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" and "Livin' On A Prayer."