This song definitely makes it into the “Jazzmin Fotherby Top 10 Greatest Songs of all Time” awards, if not for it’s flawless craftsmanship, for it’s sheer awesomeness alone. The song was written by the well known Eric Clapton and, the not so well known at the time, Jim Gordon. However, on it’s release in 1971, the song wasn’t well received compared to it’s popularity over a year later, and even still today. ‘Layla’ is widely recognised as one of the greatest rock songs of all time and gained a reputable number 27 in The Rolling Stones Magazines “Top 500”, and then won a Grammy award in 1993 for Clapton’s re-mastered acoustic version, but then who could argue with that when Clapton’s and Duane Allman’s godly opening riff seems to stop time it’s self and takes every rock fan back to the release of this classic Derek and the Dominos album all those years ago.
It is said that “Layla” was inspired by Nizami Ganjavi’s story “The Story of Layla and Majnun, a book that was given to Clapton by his friend Ian Dallas. It was a story of a young man who fell deeply in love with “Layla” and went crazy because he could not marry her; hence “Layla, I’m begging darling, please!” However, it could be argued that this song was written about one of Clapton’s love affairs, similar to his well known song “Wonderful tonight”… But that’s another story.
All in all, I think it’s safe to say that “Layla” is a timeless record with a timeless melody, a song attribute that isn’t commonly found in todays world of popular music.
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