One of the unique aspects of the song is the high-pitched notes that Duane Allman could play on the slide guitar, by placing his slide past the end of the fret board on his guitar. This gives a distinctive sound that Ton Dowd, the recording engineer who mixed the song, described as "notes that don't even exist on a guitar."
It has been established that the song was about Clapton's hidden love for George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd, but what may not be well known is that the title and inspiration came from a was inspired by a 12-century Persian poem, The Story of Layla and Majnun.
I'll post the final song tomorrow, along with hyperlinks to all of the previous ones (thanks to SunkenCiv!).
Clapton’s obsession with Patti was creepy as hell. But, I like his music.
Never knew it originally, but Duane Allman came up with the opening riff which effectively became infamous.
I never liked that son all that much.