Like the Beatles, the timing for Pattie Boyd couldn’t have been better. She wasn’t what one would call a classic beauty, but she fit the era - no one said Mod like Twiggy and Pattie Boyd. She was the British equivalent of the American “girl next door,” and she inspired three of rock’s most iconic love songs for two iconic musicians, who just happened to be best friends.
It was 1964. "I Want To Hold
Your Hand" topped the charts, and the Beatles’ appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show set the record for the most-watched television program in American
history. Capitalizing on “Beatlemania,” United Artists approached the Fab Four
with a three-movie deal. Just like their records, A Hard Day's Night went on to
become a major commercial success, a film that is considered nearly 60 years
later one of the greatest films of the modern era.
But the Beatles' first feature film
didn't just bring them fame and fortune — it also brought them love. While
shooting scenes for the movie, one of the extras took a particular shine to
George Harrison. Her name was Pattie Boyd, a 20-year-old British model
regularly captured on the cover of Vogue as the embodiment of Swingin’ London.
The meeting is a romantic one. Harrison
was equally taken by his newfound admirer and on the set asked, "Will you
marry me?" With her refusal, he responded: "Well, if you won’t marry
me, will you have dinner with me tonight?" Cut to an evening at the
Garrick Club in central London that quickly led to a brief engagement. Harrison
and Boyd wed on January 21, 1966 with Paul McCartney serving as best man.
The relationship lasted through the
Beatles’ tenure but due to spiritual differences and Harrison’s increasing drug
use, Pattie let George’s best friend and fellow guitarist, Eric Clapton, get
closer and closer. Equally romantic, Clapton wrote a cryptic and anonymous love
letter signed simply, “E.” Later at a party, he asked if she’d gotten his
message.
Now it gets dramatic. Torn between the two men, Boyd was approached by Harrison who, sensing the situation, asked who she was going home with that night. Boyd agreed to stay with Harrison, driving Clapton into depression, heroin addiction, and a three-year hiatus from music, though in an effort to nullify his unrequited feelings, Clapton wrote "Layla," a play on The Story of Layla and Majnun in which a young man is driven mad by an unattainable love.
Boyd’s marriage to Harrison ended
in 1977 with George’s romantic tryst with Ringo’s wife. (I said there was
drama), and this time as Clapton’s advances were successful.
Boyd married Clapton in 1979 and
became yet another legendary musician's muse. Both "Bell Bottom
Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight" were inspired by Boyd, yet, even
more drama, the good times wouldn't last. The couple began drinking heavily and
infidelity and drug use followed suit. By the 80s, the couple was on the outs. Boyd
divorced Clapton in 1989, citing his affairs and "unreasonable
behavior." She called Eric’s love “infatuation” and added that "Eric
just wanted what George had." While Pattie remains torn over her two great
loves, men that wrote some of rock’s most iconic songs just for her, but it’s
George who remains the love of her life.
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