Old Love

Album: Journeyman (1989)
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Songfacts®:

  • Clapton wrote this song with the blues musician Robert Cray, who plays guitar on the track. It wasn't released as a single, but is one of his most popular songs to play live.
  • In 1989, after nine years of marriage to Pattie Boyd, Clapton divorced the model and photographer. This song documents the end of their relationship. Boyd told the Guardian newspaper December 13, 2008 that she was hurt that he should write a song about such a sensitive subject. She said: "The end of a relationship is a sad enough thing, but to then have Eric writing about it as well. It makes me more sad, I think, because I can't answer back."
  • Pattie Boyd has been the inspiration for several well-known songs. Her first husband, George Harrison, wrote "Something" about her, Eric Clapton's then unrequited love for the beautiful model was documented in "Layla" and after they'd moved in together, Clapton penned "Wonderful Tonight" for Boyd.

Comments: 4

  • Joel from TexasSorry people....IMHO and Being a person in Recovery (an active addict from age 12 to 45) and knowing EC's history with the same affliction and his ultimate rise from the despair of being an addict to sobriety, in my heart, I am convinced EC's "old love" is the haunting expression of the allure of heroin, his drug of choice, which drove him to a bottom of misery and despair! No matter how far from active addiction we addicts abstain, our "old love" never truly leaves us alone. Listen to the lyrics carefully. https://youtu.be/vSHPkq6aYSs
    Thank You, Eric Clapton, not only for the tremendous artistry and years of the upper echelon of quality music but also the tremendous work you have done and continue to do with Four Winds Recovery Center. Please keep "Running On Faith" and gracing the world with your amazing gifts. https://youtu.be/36Yl6O6OR9Y
  • Karen from Florence, AlPaige, I agree with you. I have read both Pattie and Eric's biographies and they both admit the songs where for her. George says in this interview that "Something" was not about Pattie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZAPftYF8SU&feature=relmfu but according to Pattie's biography he did write it for her. I agree with you that George probably was a little hurt and "took it away"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecb1Fc49IDA
  • Paige from Dumont, NjBill, no offence intended but your facts are all wrong. Wonderful tonight was exactly for Pattie Boyd. Eric himself said he wrote it while waiting for Pattie to get ready for Paul McCartneys party.

    Layla was writen by Eric Clapton with help from C.S. He openly admits here in this article it was for Pattie... he says..

    "And what of "Layla" herself, Patti Boyd-Harrison? ****Clapton said she ignored the song he wrote for her****, but Patti remembered it differently. "He played 'Layla' to me two or three times," she has said. "His intensity was both frightening and fascinating."

    http://www.jimdero.com/News2001/NewsSept22Derek.htm

    Although in a sense it was an insult to George..I dont think it was meant that way since they stayed friends after everything.

    Something *I* believe was writen for Pattie..although George later said he didnt write it for anyone he was thinking of Ray Charles at the time and thought it would be a good song for him. I personally think he felt jaded after Pattie left and he " took away" something to hurt her. I could be wrong but its my feeling on it. I think Pattie would be the likely subject of that song rather than RC lol!

    Here is where he talks about Ray Charles...

    Paul Cashmere: Can you tell me about "Something". Now, you wrote that about Patti, is that right?

    George Harrison: "Well no, I didn't. I just wrote it, and then somebody put together a video. And what they did was they went out and got some footage of me and Patti, Paul and Linda, Ringo and Maureen, it was at that time, and John and Yoko and they just made up a little video to go with it. So then, everybody presumed I wrote it about Patti, but actually, when I wrote it, I was thinking of Ray Charles."

    http://www.abbeyrd.net/harrison.htm
  • Bill from Salt Lake City, Ut"Wonderful Tonight" was not exactly for Patti, it was an insult EC turned into a song and told other women he wrote it for them. EC did not write "Layla" and never credited his girlfriend for the song. Something was not written for Pattie Boyd according to George Harrisons televisied interview. He didn't say who he wrote it for does any of you know who "Something" was written about?
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