Silly love songs have serious origins

You'd think that people would have had enough silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isn't so.
But some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs and what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know.
'Cause here I go again . . .
I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Paul McCartney wrote those words for the Wings at the Speed of Sound album back in 1976, asking forgiveness for his fondness of love songs and begging mercy from critics who had grown tired of the ex-Beatle's over-sentimentality.

McCartney would be the first to admit that some of his post-Beatles work was just a bit too cute, but you must respect a man who wrote "Yesterday." "Silly Love Songs" is exactly what the title suggests -- a goofy song about love, albeit a bad one.

But "Silly Love Songs" does have a purpose. It effectively provides license for popular artists to continue writing love songs for years to come, and for this I am thankful. Even though I'm no Wings fanatic, I most certainly am a love song fanatic.

Now, when I talk about love songs, I'm not simply speaking of those songs of happiness, joy and wonder associated with living contentedly in love.

I'm also talking about the songs written out of pain, doubt, fear and revenge that go along with unrequited love, broken hearts and crushed hopes.

From Robert Johnson to Eric Clapton, Otis Redding to Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan to Sarah McLachlan, Van Morrison to Jeff Buckley and so many others, love songs comprise the bulk of my "favorite songs" list.

To me, there just isn't anything more real than artists pouring all of themselves into a song, harnessing feelings felt so strongly within and capturing them forever in a piece of art.

Theodore Dreiser once said, "Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail" -- great love songs epitomize Dreiser's words, taking moments of joy or pain and turning them into objects of beauty.

Essentially, great love songs have great stories behind them, and few stories are entrancing as that of the making of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by the quasi-fictional band Derek and the Dominos, a band fronted by Clapton.

After the breakup of Cream in 1970, Clapton spent most of his time trying to find peace of mind after the fame he had accumulated as England's guitar hero.

Instead of finding that peace of mind, however, Clapton instead found a love so strong it nearly killed him and it became the impetus for one of his greatest works ever.

Clapton's best friend, ex-Beatle George Harrison, lived near Clapton's estate. At the time, Harrison was married to the beautiful Pattie Boyd, a fashion model of some fame.

Before long, Clapton fell madly in love with her, but could not convince her to leave Harrison.

Clapton was insistent, and tried everything to make Boyd fall for him -- after repeated attempts to woo Boyd failed, a despondent Clapton reportedly showed her a bag of heroin and told her that if she wouldn't be with him, he would begin using. Boyd was shocked, but refused him.

Crushed, Clapton sunk into a deep depression, rounded up a band of top-notch musicians and moved to Miami to write and record Layla. The album would prove that, more than anything in the world, Clapton wanted to be with Boyd.

Prior to writing the album, he had read an ancient Persian love poem titled "The Story of Layla and Majnun." So inspired by Majnun's pure, unwavering dedication to Layla, he sat down and penned his own masterpiece, "Layla."

From the frantic opening guitar riff to the concluding piano coda to Duane Allman's soaring slide guitar work, "Layla" is musically beautiful.

Meanwhile, Clapton screams -- almost incoherently -- the best lyrics he ever wrote.

"Let's make the best of the situation, before I finally go insane," he sings in the last verse. "Please don't say, we'll never find a way, or tell me all my love's in vain."

Upon finishing the album, Clapton took a copy of both "Layla" and "The Story of Layla and Majnun" to Boyd.

Eventually, as Clapton continued to pursue her, Boyd left Harrison and married Clapton. To this day, Clapton says he is still amazed he wrote a song so powerful.

"Layla," though, is just one of the great love songs to have been written with such focus of emotion.

Fleetwood Mac's "You Can Go Your Own Way" is Lindsey Buckingham's way of saying good riddance to ex-girlfriend and bandmate Stevie Nicks. Billie Holiday's "I'm A Fool To Want You" is her evocation of a lifetime of unfulfilled relationships. Stevie Ray Vaughan wrote his most popular song, "Pride and Joy," in the middle of the night, sitting naked on the floor of his girlfriend's house, trying to express his crazy-in-love state of mind.

The list goes on and on, and as long as people continue fall in love, as long as artists write about it and McCartney's song is never forgotten, there will never be a shortage of love songs, silly or serious.