I was killing time in Guitar Center last night after my make-up lesson, talking to some staffers and regulars (those Greenpeace activists hanging from the Baytown bridge and the traffic shutdown that way meant I couldn’t quite go home yet). Somehow, though perhaps not surprising, we went from a short discussion about why rock music started to suck to the great songs and eras in rock.

Naturally, this meant talking a little about The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and other greats. Of course, I remembered the story about “Layla” from my stepdad, that the Derek and the Dominoes song was about George Harrison’s wife, who Clapton was crazy about.

I joked that she must’ve been the ultimate groupie.

One of the guys said she was more the ultimate muse.

I think he’s more accurate.Turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg. I definitely wanted to know more.

First of all, the woman’s name wasn’t really Layla, but Patti Boyd.

And it wasn’t just Harrison and Clapton vying for the model and photographer.

As far as the iconic rock song Layla is concerned, though, this particular article from loudersound.com has a pretty good basic gist of who thought up what and where certain bits of the music came from.

Regarding the many songs believed influenced by Ms. Boyd, this is a pretty good list right here.

Enjoy this window back to the 60s and 70s for a while, and the weird pseudo-swinging relationships that populated the rock world.