These three 70s songs took inspiration from real relationships. Here’s what the muses for these songs had to say about them later on.
“Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac
Plenty of Fleetwood Mac‘s best songs were born out of the breakup between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. “Go Your Own Way” was certainly Buckingham’s side of the breakup, but it had takes that Nicks didn’t necessarily agree with. In this song, the guitarist accuses Nicks of sleeping with other people, which she claims she did not do.
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She told Classic Rock Stories, “I want you to know, that line about ‘shacking up’? I never shacked up with anybody while I was with him. I was the one who broke up with him. All he wanted to do was to fall asleep with his guitar.”
“Layla” by Derek and The Dominos
As far as music industry love triangles go, few are as intriguing as the situation that took place between Pattie Boyd, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison. Clapton wrote “Layla” for Boyd while she was married to Harrison, whom she would leave in 1974 to be with Clapton.
As Boyd told The Guardian, she wasn’t too thrilled when “Layla”, which she calls “a declaration of love,” was written.
“I wasn’t so happy when Eric wrote ‘Layla’ while I was still married to George,” Boyd shared, “I felt I was being exposed. I was amazed and thrilled at the song – it was so passionate and devastatingly dramatic – but I wanted to hang on to my marriage…”
“My Old Man” by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash dated from 1968 to 1970. Between the two songwriters, there were plenty of songs in the 70s written about their relationship. As Nash told The Guardian, he knows that her song “My Old Man”, which sings about the possibility of marriage, is about him.
“I remember leaving the house to give her the space to finish ‘My Old Man’. I’m sad that it’s about me again, but it’s so brilliant,” Nash shared. “Like the song suggests, I asked her to marry me, but I think she thought I wanted a ‘wife’ to cook meals and so on, which was never my intention. I wanted her to be as free as possible, to be as brilliant as possible. She’s an amazing woman. I’m proud to have been a part of her life. In 100 years’ time, people will remember The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joni.”
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