Riccardo Russino

The triangle, though, is something they hadn't factored in. Nor did they experiment with it, at least not in the "zeriana" sense of the term. But there's no doubt that a suspicious kind of electricity began circulating right from the start between Pattie Boyd, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. A tangle of love, friendship, jealousy and betrayal that ran through the golden years of Swinging London, leaving deep traces in the music the three of them made. So much so that it became one of rock's most legendary and tormented love stories.
Journalist Riccardo Russino now reconstructs the whole saga in "Il triangolo rock", published by Il Castello in the Chinaski series.

The real merit of the book lies above all in tackling a story that seemed already worn thin by decades of anecdotes, biographies and tabloid-style sensationalism, and trying instead to restore a more nuanced dimension to it. Because behind the romantic rivalry between two of the greatest guitarists of their generation lies a whole universe of personal and professional relationships, spiritual aspirations, addictions and contradictions, set against the backdrop of an era in which popular music was radically transforming Western culture and society.
At the centre of the story is, naturally, her: Patricia Anne Boyd, known as Pattie, too often relegated to the role of muse fought over by two rock stars. Born in 1944, a model who made her name in 1960s London, Pattie Boyd embodies the aesthetic and cultural shifts of Swinging London. She entered the world of the Beatles in 1964, when she took part in the filming of "A Hard Day's Night", the Fab Four's first movie. On set she met George Harrison: the beginning of a relationship that would lead to marriage in January 1966 and thrust her into the very heart of Beatlemania.

Russino traces Boyd's path from childhood onward, dwelling on her modelling career, her sudden exposure to the media spotlight, and the difficulty of holding on to her own identity within an environment dominated by overbearing male personalities. It's an important perspective for understanding how the protagonist of this story is not simply the object of desire for two musicians, but a figure who lived first-hand through the shifting conditions of women, caught between emancipation and persistent social constraints.
The relationship between Harrison and Clapton forms the book's other major narrative thread. The two shared a deep mutual admiration, a kindred musical sensibility, and a friendship destined to survive even its most painful test. The emblematic episode dates back to 1968, when Harrison invited Clapton to take part in the recording of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", one of the masterpieces on the Beatles' "White Album". The Cream guitarist's solo becomes one of the record's most memorable moments, as well as proof of a collaboration able to rise above the usual artistic rivalries.

But it was Clapton himself who, in the meantime, fell hopelessly in love with his friend's wife. A feeling that at first went unrequited, and which gradually turned into an obsession, finding its most celebrated expression in music. "Layla", released in 1970 by Derek And The Dominos on the album "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs", grew out of this tormented passion, also fuelled by Clapton's reading of the Persian tale of Layla and Majnun, lovers kept apart by a hostile fate. The song, with its famous riff and long piano coda, remains one of the most powerful musical depictions of impossible love.
Harrison too had already handed down to history one of his most romantic compositions, "Something", released by the Beatles in 1969 on "Abbey Road" and traditionally linked to Pattie Boyd, although the author himself gave differing explanations over the years about what had inspired it. The love triangle thus ends up reflected in some of the most significant pages of rock songwriting, where private affairs are transformed into shared emotional heritage.

The relationship between Boyd and Harrison deteriorates gradually, amid infidelity and emotional distance, with the Beatles guitarist increasingly absorbed in his spiritual pursuits. Pattie leaves George in 1974 and begins a new life alongside Clapton, whom she will marry in 1979. This second marriage, however, proves to be anything but idyllic as well, marked by the former Cream man's alcoholism, his infidelities, and an increasingly difficult relationship. Also linked to Boyd is "Wonderful Tonight", written by Clapton in 1976 and released the following year on "Slowhand": a ballad of seeming domestic serenity, almost at odds with the tensions running through the couple's private life.
One of the most interesting aspects of Russino's reconstruction concerns precisely the survival of the friendship between Harrison and Clapton. What could have caused an irreparable rift did not stop the two musicians from continuing to see each other and collaborate. Their relationship spans decades of success, personal crises and divergent artistic paths, right up until Harrison's death in November 2001. The following year, Clapton took on a central role in organising the "Concert for George", the great tribute held at London's Royal Albert Hall, featuring, among others, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne and Billy Preston. One last, moving chapter in a friendship that had withstood even the deepest wounds.
The book, however, does not limit itself to retracing the chronology of events. Through the biographies of its protagonists, it offers a portrait of British culture in the Sixties and Seventies, from the fashion revolution to the spread of Eastern philosophies, from the explosion of Beatlemania to the excesses of the star system. Love and creativity, success and self-destruction, spiritual searching and addiction are constantly intertwined, revealing just how thin the line was between individual freedom and new forms of dependency and personal imprisonment.

Rounding out the reconstruction is the "Extra Texture" section, whose title pointedly recalls the album Harrison released in 1975. Here Russino delves into lesser-known aspects of the two guitarists' story, starting with Friar Park, the monumental estate Harrison bought in 1970 in Henley-on-Thames, destined to become one of the symbolic places of both his private life and his musical career. Further space is devoted to the collaborations between Harrison and Clapton, retracing the occasions on which their artistic paths crossed in recording studios and on stage.
Particularly significant, from a documentary standpoint, is the use of two interviews Russino himself conducted with Pattie Boyd. Alongside autobiographies, testimonies and archival material, these contributions give the book an element of originality and allow it to bring out the perspective of the woman around whom the whole story unfolded. An important choice, especially considering how long the public narrative of the triangle was shaped by the fame of the two musicians.

"Il triangolo rock" thus presents itself as something more than a three-way romantic biography. Its real interest lies above all in the chance to read, through an exceptional private story, some of the fundamental tensions of rock culture: the conflict between friendship and desire, the distance between public image and individual fragility, and art's ability to transform painful experiences into works destined to outlive their creators.
Given how familiar the material already was, the risk was indulging in gossip or reducing Pattie Boyd to the mere function of muse behind a handful of immortal songs. The biographical and documentary approach chosen by Russino, at least judging by what emerges from the material presented, instead signals a desire to widen the lens, placing the relationships between the protagonists within a broader historical and cultural context. The added value lies precisely in Boyd's direct testimony and in the attention paid to a friendship, that between George Harrison and Eric Clapton, which proved far more resilient than romantic convention might have suggested. What emerges is the portrait of three very different personalities, united by an unrepeatable season of popular music and bound by feelings that were often contradictory. A story with no winners or losers, in which the songs tell only part of the truth. The rest belongs to the lives of those who wrote them, inspired them, and lived them.

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09/10/2026