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: The Other Side of the Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Pattie Boyd was married to George Harrison and later to Eric Clapton, and she describes what life was like during those turbulent years. The first 60 pages of the book describes her childhood in Kenya, and then later in England.
She was a struggling young model when she met George Harrison on the set of the film "Hard Day's Night." It was love at first sight. But George's propensity for drinking and drugs and women and obsessive religious chanting sank the marriage.
But that was nothing compared to the years she spent with Eric Clapton, who could seemingly drink all day and all night. He was no slouch when it came to drugs, either.
Pattie's identity was swallowed up by her huge rock god husbands, and it is only once she got away from them that she really started to appreciate and love herself.
The book exposes the emptiness of the rock culture, and how unfulfilling life can be without a solid moral and ethical foundation to guide our lives. Pattie's biggest regret seems to be that she didn't try harder to work things out with George. In her words, she and Eric were passionate playmates, but she and George were soul mates.
This is a good book to read once you've read Eric Clapton's biography because it fills in the gaps by presenting how she felt about his philandering and his cheating and his drinking.
I should say that Pattie Boyd has led a very interesting life. But the parts of the book that cover her life before her marriages and her life after the marriages are not all that interesting. She seems to be a talented cook and a fair photographer, but she doesn't strike me as a particularly compelling person in her own right. Maybe that will change.
For this reason, I felt led to give the book four stars rather than the five stars I gave Eric Clapton's book. But still, it's good to read both.
Book Review: Nicely done
Summary: 5 Stars
I am so glad that some of these 60's stars are writing books. And Pattie was certainly a star. I was a very young Beatle fan in the 60's, but followed them faithfully into my college years. Everyone read every magazine to follow Patty and Jane Asher's comings and goings. It was a magical time, the Beatle-era. I thought she was crazy when she left George for Eric. (I read a quote in an interview with George that said something like, "Well at least she didn't run off with some jerk, she ran off with Eric") The British Invasion groups really huddled together in order to survive their sudden fame and wealth. I thought it interesting that money was at times embarressingly hard to come by and ask for, by both of her husbands. I had read Eric's book first, and am glad I did, since her memory is much better. Eric was so in love with her...I am sorry he was so unfaithful. Well, I certainly enjoyed this respectfully told book. She seems like a very sweet person.Book Review: Les Paul and Stratocaster are not one and the same guitar!
Summary: 3 Stars
Interesting read, not spellbinding but at times close, this memoir offers compelling insight into the lives of Eric and George. The cast of characters is dark, even though the period is otherwise perceived to be one of light and peace. Lots of troubled individuals plagued by the same old human sorrows.
The book could have used a good editor. Timelines get a little dizzying in places, but the thing that rang out REALLY loudly is the confusion over the Fender Stratocaster guitar. The strat is made by Fender. Gibson makes the Les Paul. They are two, forever religiously divided camps. Pattie says toward the end of the book that she sold a "1960 Les Paul Stratocaster" guitar. That's like saying "1960 Mustang Corvette." I don't expect her to know the difference, plus, who cares. But reading the book as someone who does know the difference made me think the editing/fact-checking was pretty marginal.
Power to her for committing her life to print for the rest of us vultures to pick at.
Book Review: Beatles Fan
Summary: 3 Stars
Interesting for Beatles Fans. Some inside info on the group. Not a spellbinder but interesting. Book Review: hard to imagine
Summary: 5 Stars
incredible story, well written and almost impossible to believe if it were not true. sheds light on the wild time of late 60's / 70's