Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me by Pattie Boyd, Penny Junor Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
Book Review: For Those of Us Who Lived the Sixties
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fascinating book for those of us who came of age in the Sixties and know of whom Pattie Boyd speaks. Married to rock icons George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Pattie lived every girl's fantasy. Or so we thought.
There was a dark side to drugs and rock and roll, and Pattie tells us all about it. But she also tells the good side, and so much of the insider stuff is just pure fun to read, especially when one remembers one's perceptions of how it must have been. If, however, you need to idolize George Harrison and Eric Clapton as the super rock gods they were, it's probably best not to read about them as mortal men.
With all the drugs and alcohol that Pattie did alongside her men, it's amazing she is still alive to tell the tale. But she is, and although the book drops off into a few chapters of endless (and I do mean endless) name dropping at the end, it's still worth a read if, like me, your soul never quite left the Sixties.
Book Review: Cannot recommend
Summary: 1 Stars
I am glad I skimmed this book in a bookstore and did not waste my money by purchasing it. Pattie's book includes a lot of information that Beatles fans probably already know. Also, Pattie seems to have felt superior to Cynthia Lennon because Pattie says that, unlike Cynthia, she had a career and attended private schools. So, I would like to know why, in my opinion, Cynthia's memoir, which is entitled John, is vastly superior to Pattie's book. Unlike this book, Cynthia's is very well written and insightful. Book Review: Don't Let Pattie Get Your Money Too!
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a Beatle fan of epic proportions and have been since I was twelve (I'm in my forties now). I was so excited when this came out I couldn't wait to read it. My wife bought it for me for my last birthday and I have to say, this isn't just one of the worst books on the Beatles I've ever read, it may be one of the worst written books I've ever read, period. Everything the other reviews say about timelimes being erratic, well known facts totally being distorted and Pattie sounding like nothing more than a whinning, self-centered, shallow baby are dead-on accurate. I always thought that Pattie was a beautiful and talented woman of the sixties that had captivated and inspired two of the decades greatest icons with her wit, beauty, and charm. After reading this I don't even think she would be capable of holding a coherent conversation. The woman just sounds like an idiot and this is by judging her from her own words. She apparently contributed nothing to the marriages (except for being a drug and drinking buddy), spent tons of money on herself, and is now whinning because the party's over. No wonder Harrison and Clapton dumped her. After reading this I don't think I could stand her for more than fifteen minutes. If you want to know what Pattie Boyd had for lunch at some expensive retreat on a vacation paid for by an estranged husband all the while hearing her complain about how hungover she was at the time, then buy now. Otherwise, don't become her latest money victim like George and Eric were. Book Review: Should Have been a Better Book
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading Eric Clapton's autobiography, I was keen on reading Patty Boyd-Harrison-Clapton's own biography/testimony. Now that I have finished her book, my reactions are mixed.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn Ms. Boyd spent her early years as a child in Kenya. Although there are sad memories in Kenya, her discussion about that time is one of the best parts of the book.
Unfortunately, once grown up and beginning her life as a model, her story becomes a horn of plenty for names, food, dinners and parties. This onslaught has lead to the charge that Ms Boyd is a very superficial, name-dropping, social-climbing jet-setter. Oddly, this is precisely the person Ms. Boyd had wanted to prove she was not in writing this book. My inclination is to believe that Ms. Boyd is an intelligent and introspective lady. Such a person pokes up from the text several times. Thus this continuous parade of names and parties--while perhaps accurate as far as it goes--only obscures the real story she wants to tell.
(On the other hand, one can only be amazed that Ms. Boyd remembers so much detail about who she met when and what they ate. I can't necessarily remember who was at the office Christmas party just six months ago much less what I was eating on a particular day forty years ago.)
Buried in Ms Boyd narrative is a tale of a self-doubting and insecure young girl slowly growing into a mature and self-directed woman. This could have been a good story all by itself; but if you weren't looking for it you'd miss it. Instead, we get occasional admissions of confusion and "low self esteem" during the major tumultuous crossroads in her life. These admissions get to be a little annoying after a while. The vocabulary she uses leads the reader to suspect M.S. Boyd has learned just enough psychobabble through therapy to use for explaining many of the poor choices she had made. I do not know if "low self esteem" really does explain much of her actions; but therapeutic terms often can act as detours around serious thinking. Indeed, some serious thinking seems to be lacking in many of Boyd's reflections.
In discussing her courtship and marriage to George Harrison, Ms Boyd is not shy to admit that in spite of everything George was the love of her life. Nevertheless, I found myself wanting more about her life with this quixotic man. For a man who by all accounts was so comfortable with himself, why could he be such an absolute jerk at times? How could one focused on the transcendent turn to be so mean with those who meant the most to him? Perhaps, George was simply a mystery even to those closest to him.
By Boyd's testimony, Harrison was less than candid about their past relationship after their divorce. Harrison claimed that the marriage that was stupid, meant little, and never should have happened anyway. He also maintained that his best song, "Something", was not written about Patty. He also stated several times that losing Patty meant nothing to him. In fact, Boyd is confident that George knew that she was the love of his life as well. Even among his infidelities, he was deeply in love with her and when he lost her it completely tore him up. By her written account, when Boyd returned to their home at Friar Park to gather up her things and move in with Eric Clapton, George was visibly shaken and destroyed. Years later, Boyd relates that they met once again at an airport. George had been remarried to Olivia Trinidad Arias while she herself was solidly attached to Clapton. By her account, in a particular instant during their polite meeting, she saw that George was still deeply in love with her. She, too, realized that she loved Harrison even then. The magic was still there. As Boyd herself matured and learned to stand on her own feet, she felt that she shouldn't have left George. Instead, she should have stood up and fought for their marriage.
So who was telling the truth? Harrison with his professed indifference? Or Boyd's testimony of mutual emotional devastation? I am far more inclined to take Boyd's account than that of Harrison's. There are a few songs Harrison wrote at the time that seemed to betray his true feelings of loss. (Especially his "So Sad (No Love of His Own)" recorded for Alvin Lee's ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM solo album). Is Boyd's perception that both she and Harrison still loved each other when they met at the airport reliable? Again, I think Boyd is fairly trustworthy here.
If Harrison was the fire, Clapton was the fire. As her marriage to Harrison began its downward spiral, Clapton pleaded Boyd to leave George and join him. She resisted but another affair by Harrison pushed her over the edge. She fell in with Clapton and he began a long torment vacillating from passionate love to emotional cruelty. When she was away from him, Clapton was enchanting. When she was safely his, he could be indifferent or abusive. One of the major demons in Clapton's life was alcohol and it drove his life with Boyd suffering his drunken mistreatment. The picture Boyd paints of Clapton is not pretty and is very difficult to square with the hero worship laid at his feet. Finally, after fathering a child with another woman, Ms Boyd made the clean break. The reader, however, is left wondering why she tolerated Clapton's serial infidelities so long--especially given her awareness of what goes on among rock musicians on the road.
One walks away from this book wondering why both George Harrison and Eric Clapton remained good friends after the high drama of Boyd leaving one for the other. It being a "musician thing" as some suggest doesn't cut it. Perhaps because it is more common than we think or she herself has no insight to share on this score, Ms Boyd does not venture explaining the bond between her two husbands.
Neither do we get beyond more than scratching the bare surface the Beatles as a band or as individuals. Given the very long bookshelf of books about the Beatles by those who knew them and (more frequently) those who never met them. I would have liked to have read the perspective of one of the wives who was there from Beatlemania until the breakup. Cynthia Lennon has done so to a degree. Unfortunately, Linda McCartney and Maureen Starkey died from cancer. Yoko Ono is more interested in guarding John Lennon's memory--especially wanting to have the public see their relationship in the best light. (By and large, most of the public still believe Yoko broke up the band. Not a few within the Beatle's circle of friends have suggested there was something pathological about John and Yoko's relationship.) This leaves Ms Boyd. It may be a biographer is required to draw this out of her.
Lastly, Ms Boyd tells us that after all these difficult years she finally found herself and took responsibility for her own life. How did this come about? We get a hint that becoming a professional photographer played a role in this; but we learn next to nothing about Patty the photographer.
So we add Ms Boyd's manuscript to the burgeoning library about the Beatles. Ms Boyd's writing in clear if only workman like. Compared to Eric Clapton's own autobiography, Patty's is less dynamic--and that is saying something. All the names and parties distract from what should have been the focus of the book: Harrison, Clapton and Patty Boyd. If you have read more than a few books about the Beatles, some of the chronology of events seems a bit off. Still, you can't help liking Patty Boyd. She made some bad decisions in her life; but I think it is fair to say that none of the Beatles and their circles escaped making a long series of poor choices in that pressure cooker few will ever experience.
Book Review: Wonderful Tonight by Patti Boyd
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was a lot of name dropping which I found annoying seeing as I didn't know most of the names she mentioned. I loved the history with the Beatles and Eric Clapton the most. Learning that Patti was the muse for some of the greatest love songs of all time like "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton and "Something" written by George Harrison. I almost feel like Patti has repeated all the wrong patterns without learning any lessons life tried to teach her. She always relied on her ex-husbands to support her financially and had no real world experience. I understand being married to a superstar is a whirlwind, however, let's get realistic, which I feel Patti never did. A quick read. I skimmed a lot of parts that babbled about supermodels and photo shoots. She skimmed over drug usage...I felt she could have elaborated more on those moments/feelings, which would have connected her to more of her audience bc most of us share that experience or have had that experience. Writing style was not elegant, sort of choppy.