{"id":85779,"date":"2015-05-15T13:44:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T17:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85779"},"modified":"2015-05-15T18:29:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T22:29:11","slug":"the-layla-iq-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/15\/the-layla-iq-test\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cLayla\u201d IQ Test"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"layla\"<\/a>

Beloved of dads everywhere.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1992, Eric Clapton released an acoustic version<\/a> of his 1970 Derek and the Dominos classic, \u201cLayla.\u201d Inspired by the Persian epic The Story of Layla and Majnun\u2014<\/em>and, of course, by Clapton\u2019s personal life\u2014the original was ubiquitous at the height of album rock. But the relaxed, dad-friendly \u201cunplugged\u201d take made an instant sensation, too: it was an inescapable part of the soundtrack of the early nineties.\u00a0To this day it\u2019s\u00a0a Lite FM staple\u2014just try to visit the dentist\u2019s office without hearing it.<\/p>\n

When it came out, I remember hearing it was everywhere. In stores; on MTV; in the local salon, Visual Difference, where tough young women gave me terrible haircuts between cigarettes. And whenever that live cover came on in our car\u2014as it did in the cars of countless boomers across the nation and the world\u2014my mom would go on the same tear.<\/p>\n

Recall, to start, that the set was recorded in front of a Brixton audience. Unlike the rest of the world, the crowd captured on tape was presumably hearing this cover for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSee if you can spot this one,\u201d begins Clapton with lazy impishness, breaking into the now-familiar acoustic riff. And literally within one bar\u2014probably two seconds\u2014someone shouts \u201cYEAH!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and there\u2019s a flurry of enthusiastic applause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do they know<\/em>?\u201d my mom would always say with wonder. \u201cHow do they know<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

The real clapping starts when he goes into the first verse. \u201cWhat\u2019ll you do when you get lonely,\u201d he sings. \u201cAnd nobody\u2019s waiting by your side?\u201d Now, they\u2019re sure\u2014even those who were maybe succumbing to peer pressure in those first few moments can applaud with authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fair enough,\u201d my mom would say. \u201cThat\u2019s an appropriate place to clap.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later still, just as he hits the chorus, she\u2019d make a prediction: \u201cHere come the real morons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, indeed, at the mention of the titular \u201cLayla\u201d there are a few whoops of thrilled approval and very belated recognition. Oh, yeah\u2014it\u2019s \u201cLayla\u201d!<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s more than possible that these whoopers had, in fact, recognized the song before this moment. Perhaps these are even the same savants who had so excited my mom\u2019s admiration only moments before\u2014they\u2019re merely giving a second voice to their joy in sharing an experience with others. Maybe they felt, in that moment, that aging wasn\u2019t so ignominious\u2014different, certainly; quieter, slower\u2014but rather had a certain style. Maybe they knew that within a year most people would recognize\u00a0this Lite FM version more readily than the original. Some, perhaps, would never even know that this was a man who\u2019d pined for Pattie Boyd and won her from George Harrison; who had enlisted the services of Duane Allman for one of the finest slide-guitar solos of all time; who had most assuredly not<\/em> been unplugged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, as Clapton wended his way through the chorus, my mom would say, \u201cThe original\u2019s much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review,<\/em>\u00a0and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1992, Eric Clapton released an acoustic version of his 1970 Derek and the Dominos classic, \u201cLayla.\u201d Inspired by the Persian epic The Story of Layla and Majnun\u2014and, of course, by Clapton\u2019s personal life\u2014the original was ubiquitous at the height of album rock. But the relaxed, dad-friendly \u201cunplugged\u201d take made an instant sensation, too: it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[18131,18137,18129,18133,18135,18130,18138,18134,13106,46,18136,18128,10401,18132],"class_list":["post-85779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-acoustic-guitar","tag-duane-allman","tag-eric-clapton","tag-fm-radio","tag-george-harrison","tag-layla","tag-listening","tag-lite-fm","tag-lyrics","tag-music","tag-pattie-boyd","tag-pop-songs","tag-the-nineties","tag-unplugged"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nListening to \u201cLayla\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein and her mother give a close listen to the ubiquitous \u201cunplugged\u201d take on Clapton\u2019s classic.\" 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