Layla Speaks

I am sure people will disagree with me that Layla is not his most famous song. I do have to say it has had more than one lifetime of memories invoked within its lyrics.

You see, I never was a big Clapton fan. I couldn't take his singing. It seemed more like screeching to me. I got a double album of his from a Goodwill store.  It was
 a record set with his greatest hits.I was exploring different guitarists when I had started playing guitar myself. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammet and
the list goes on. Of those guitarists, only Eric Clapton sang. "Layla" was a very long song which the singer tells us about his aching feelings for a girl named Layla(in real
life, Clapton was singing about George Harrison's then wife, Patti). He fell in love with his best friend's wife, and wrote Layla for her.

Maybe that's why he was screeching so much, he was in pain with so much unrequited love at the time that it just came out that way. The result was
"Layla."  I actually preferred his slower songs like "Wonderful Tonight" or even "Badge," which he wrote with George Harrison.

But my interest in Layla was reignited when the last part of the song, the piano part was used for Martin Scorcese's mobster movie "Goodfellas."
At the time, the song was the furthest thing from my mind, since whenever I heard the first part, I changed it or turned it off. I guess I never knew about the last part!
And it fit perfectly with the tone of the movie. The heaviness of the movie's actions, especially the part when so many of the "Goodfellas" were being discovered to have been
"whacked," went so well with the movie that I couldn't believe it was the same song.

A few years later, Clapton revived the song for an all acoustic show on MTV. The new version was almost unrecognizeable as what it once was. What used to be screeching for me
in Clapton's voice, was now a soothing, beautiful voice. I also now enjoy the original version today as well. So I guess, you could say Clapton knew what he was doing
with that song and he will forever be known for writing "Layla."