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Patricia Anne "Pattie" Boyd (born 17 March 1944 in Taunton, Somerset, England), fashion model and photographer, is best known as the wife of two famous rock musicians and the inspiration for several memorable rock love songs. After meeting on the set of A Hard Day's Night, Pattie married George Harrison in 1966, during the heyday of his group, The Beatles. Harrison's friend Eric Clapton, first of The Yardbirds, then of Cream, also fell in love with her. Pattie went on to divorce Harrison in 1977, and later marry Clapton in 1979. She and Clapton divorced in 1988.
Pattie was a successful model during the 1960s and early 1970s. She was known to frequent trendy clubs as well as the company of the era-defing designers Mary Quant and Ossie Clark. She also appeared several times in the covers of the best-known British magazines, including the UK and Italian versions of Vogue.
Pattie was the inspiration for Harrison's most famous Beatles tune, "Something", the only Beatles hit not written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The song was called "the greatest love song ever written" by Frank Sinatra. It was only after his wife had humiliatingly left him that Harrison denied Pattie was his muse. However, most of his songs up until 1974 (the year of their split) were clearly inspired by her, for instance "For You Blue", "I Need You", and "So Sad".
During Clapton's tenure in Derek and the Dominos, their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, focused on his unrequited love for Pattie, which consumed Clapton. Clapton's tortured passion for his best friend's wife produced one of his most famous songs, Layla, a rock song that became a pop hit in three different decades, with two different versions. Clapton's desire for Pattie drove him to a heroin addiction that forced him to go on a music hiatus for several years in the early 1970s. After Harrison's increasing religious fanaticism and relentless infidelity irrevocably alienated her, Pattie left him for Clapton; from then on she became his muse. In 1978 Clapton wrote the famous love song "Wonderful Tonight" for Pattie. He also penned other tunes for her: "Never Make You Cry" (from Behind the Sun) and "Pretty Girl" (from Money and Cigarettes.)
However, just like her marriage to Harrison, the outward image of the perfect couple Clapton and Boyd projected masked deep pain and struggle. She divorced him in 1988 after years of violence and alcoholism on his part, as well as numerous affairs and several illegitimate children. (Pattie infamously could not naturally conceive children herself.) She was favoured by the judge during her divorce trials due to Clapton's extensive misbehaviour. In 2005 her partner of 14 years, Rod Weston, left her after she refused to marry him. She has repeated in interviews that she will never marry again, ostensibly for personal reasons. It is persuasively rumoured that the true reason for this is that for every year she stays unwed, Clapton is legally obliged to pay her 250,000 pounds as a result of a harsh divorce settlement. If she remarries, this arrangement will be voided.
An exhibition of photographs taken by Boyd during her days with Harrison and Clapton opened at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005, titled Through the Eyes of a Muse. The exhibition also ran for six weeks in June/July 2006 in London.
Pattie's younger sister Jennie Boyd (born Helen Mary Boyd, but nicknamed Jennie after one of Pattie's childhood dolls) also experienced a musician love triangle: she was the muse for some of Donovan's pop hits, most notably "Jennifer Juniper". However she eventually chose over him Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame, marrying Fleetwood in 1970 and bearing him two daughters.
John Lennon and Mick Jagger were known to have had crushes on Pattie, with the latter admitting in the 1980s that he'd tried (but failed) to seduce her for years. She also had an intense affair with Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood throughout 1973, as her marriage to Harrison was ending. Wood became besotted with her, but Boyd left him heartbroken, thereby inspiring yet another musician (for instance the song "Breathe on Me")!
Reference
- Leopold T. Harrison, Clapton and their muse: Pattie Boyd's life and images put classic rock era in focus. CNN.com, February 3, 2005. Accessed on October 6 2005.
External links
- A Pattie Boyd site: detailed biography, many images, and FAQ.
- Dollyrocker: A site on Pattie Boyd with many Beatles/Clapton artifacts and article reprints. Includes dated fashion advice and "Letters from London" published in 16 Magazine from February to August 1965, as well as an interview from 1992.
- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/thepattieboydgroup/
- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/pattieandgeorge/
- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/lady_pattie_boyd
- Something About Pattie Boyd Yahoo! group with hundreds of photos and dozens of articles about Pattie Boyd.
1944 births | Living people | British models | The Beatles' wives | The Beatles films | George Harrison | Eric Clapton
"Pattie Boyd"