Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me

My used copy came in excellent condition and I was happy to finally read it. <b>Sad and Interesting Life</b> Pattie Boyd by her own admission, led an interesting life. She was the muse for two very talented and famous musicians that ultimately took its toll on her. In an excerpt from the book that says: “Being the muse of two such extraordinarily creative musicians, and having such beautiful and powerful love songs written about me, was enormously flattering, but it put the most tremendous pressure on me to be the amazing person they must have thought I was- and secretly knew I wasn’t. I felt I had to be flawless, serene, someone who understood every situation, who made no demands, but was there to fulfill every fantasy; and that someone with not much of a voice.” This book was both fascinating and sad, and I could see where the young woman was caught up in the world of rock ‘n’ roll and lost to it, and the men who played it. I can see where she lost herself, and tolerated a great deal more than someone with what she had to offer should have. When George Harrison started to lose interest, and she was courted by Eric Clapton, she could see that Eric was an alcoholic. Yet she succumbed to his romantic advances, when instead, she should’ve simply left Harrison and decided whether or not her marriage should’ve continued. This is a book worth reading if you’re interested in the life of the rich and famous, but don’t expect to read about joyful and wonderful things. The rich and famous suffer, sadness and setbacks, the same as everybody else, and in fact possibly more. This was a five star read, but not the romance I expected. Pattie was ultimately just another woman in the shadows of the men she lived with.

Having just read the biography of Phil Spector and the girlfriend of Lindsey Buckingham, I'm beginning to see a pattern. Rock Stars are narcissistic creatures who do what they want when they want, don't like no for an answer and want to be waited on hand and foot. Oh, one more trend. There are plenty of people willing to do that from wives, girlfriends, managers and roadies. But this is a special book mainly because you are dealing with two very special musicians. Any Beatle is special and George appears to overall have been a special human being. Eric Clapton also has to go down in the Top 20 of musicians for his guitar playing and long history. Imagine what life is like to have been the inspiration of such classic songs, Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Something in the Way She Moves! Patty's life is very interesting although I wouldn't call it fascinating. She just happened to be at a place to view Pop History in the last half of the 20th Century and meet many of the people who influenced it, as well as partake in the drugs and drink that shaped it. In summary, George comes off as what the public saw: a quiet man with faults like others but a fairly even demeanor, a good chap. Eric, is passionate, but eventually cruel. It's often said that the ones you hurt the worst are the ones closest to you. That's the summary of this book. And Patty participates also by breaking hearts. I too am surprised by the harsh comments of her by some reviewers. She was a beautiful model who inspired men, maybe no more so than Clapton who pursued her from his friend when still married. I wish there had been more pictures of her to see the appeal. What she does an excellent job of is showing what is behind the public persona of these guys. What was it really like? A series of highs and lows but due to the fascinating people, the highs were much higher. Unfortunately, the lows were much lower. There seems to be a lot of criticism for not making this a "tell all" with a lot of dirt. It's very clear this is a caring human being who stills cares for both men and chooses to draw the line on some private matters. Now, to the criticism. Patty, thanks for the revisit to this fascinating period. But the book begins to read very slowly once she is through with George and Eric. Great, she went everywhere and met many people. There is no reason for this. We are interested in the George, Eric and Patty's recovery, but ultimately, not what sites she was fortunate enough to visit. This part makes me lower my rating from 5 to 4. Overall, not a great piece of literature. But a great story of a great time with fascinating people. And for me that was quite enough to overcome the few weaknesses.

Pattie Boyd is the reader on the abrdiged audiobook. She has a pleasant reading voice. In fact, she is a better reader than some of the actors who reguarly read audiobooks. I found myself very sympathetic to her throughout the first half of the book. Boyd had a rough childhood. It was enjoyable hearing about who she met George Harrison and their relationship. He treated her badly, having an affair with Maureen Starkey. In addition, once he started meditating, he retreated into the mediation, ignoring Boyd. By her account, Harrison treated Pattie better after he married Olivia Arias. He made a touching offer to take care of her at a point when her relationship to Eric Clapton had foundered. As described in this book, Eric Clapton is just despicable. Boyd says nothing positive about him. In fact, I found it hard to figure out why she was attracted to him. I lost all sympathy for Boyd when she decided to marry Clapton. By her own account, before she married Claption: 1) He told her he would take heroin if she didn't have an affair with him. 2) He had an affair with Boyd's sister and cheated on her. 3) He was a heroin addict. 4) He had cheated on Boyd already. If some one who tells you he is going to take heroin if you don't have an affair with him, run screaming in the opposite direction. This is proof that he is mentally unbalanced, willing to use emotional blackmail, and either a heroin addict or some one well on the way to that unfortunate destination. And once the man has cheated on you, marriage is not likely to change anything for the better. By her own account it appears that Boyd married Clapton simply because some friends told her do it. And that Clapton only asked her to marry him because he was trying to win a bet. After reading all of this, I had no interest in her whining about how Clapton broke her heart. And I sincerely I hope I misheard something and she did not actually refer to a house purchase for more than 300,000 pounds as a "cottage". If you have an interest in Pattie Boyd and her relationships with George Harrison and Eric Clapton, you'll probably enjoy the book. I found it interesting. But it left me wondering why she ever married Eric Clapton. Given her account of what happened before the marriage, this seems like a serious lapse of judgement. Any one with more than a passing familiarity with the Beatles' story already knew that George and Maureen had an affair. The most shocking revelation in this book is that Pattie attended Bill Wyman's 70th birthday party. My God the Stones are old!!!!

I loved this book and at the same time I found this story very sad because it’s not fiction, it’s about things that she lives that were sometimes good and other times not so good.

Very interesting recap of the sixties, the British invasion, and rock and roll history. Married to two iconic figures that have shaped todays music. Raw accounts of the chaotic life of rock and roll. Not for the faint of hearts. See behind the scenes of two epic singers and how life really was. Great read. Wish her continued success and health and happiness. I would have picked George too out of the beatles!!!! Lol

It’s a worthwhile read and, like others, the first half about her upbringing and life with George was the most interesting. Frankly, her life with Eric was appalling and I’m shocked she stayed with him for so long. She was an abused woman, yet she kept saying how “passionate” their love was. Sorry, but if you’re with someone who is drunk 24/7, it’s NOT passion or love. It’s sick addiction and, from what she wrote, he didn’t consider her ever. Personally, I don’t think he saw her. She was the means to his ego and his self-centered personality. I mean while he’s busy seducing a young woman on their sofa in their house and when Pattie walks in, he tells her to “f-off” you’re really going to call that love? Pattie was his arm candy and steady lay. I know he’s cleaned up, but during his time with her, he was a pig of a man — truly a disgusting person. It was also disconcerting to me that while she repeatedly says she “drank far too much” she never saw herself as an alcoholic. The men in her life had the drinking problem, not her! Sorry Pattie, but once you’re arrested for drunk driving, you too, my dear lady are also an alcoholic. Even after Eric, her life seemed to be one party after another. The reading got quite tedious in the last part of the book — this party with these famous people and that party with those famous people … I skipped through a lot of it. When George died, she was bereft as anyone could imagine. She made a huge mistake in leaving him and that would be hard to live with. He literally opened the entire world to her and she dumped him because he didn’t give her enough attention? Really? You can’t work through that? Tragic. Quite shallow too — a thread that runs throughout her telling of her life.

I was skeptical about this book based on the reviews some people have posted. I should have ordered it sooner!. I poured through it in one sitting. It answered little questions about SOME songs, such as Dear Prudence on the White Album and who in the heck was Donovan's Jennifer Juniper. I knew about Pattie, George an Eric and wondered how that whole changeover happened and have the two men remain such good friends in the end. I suppose their guilt over their individual philandering helped, but Pattie turns out to be a sweet, innocent, old fashioned city-girl caught up in the whirl wind of rock 'n roll right in the eye of the storm. Her early childhood set the stage for her dependance and lack of response to their one-night-stands. Her friends turned out not to be the bad girls of rock, or groupies in general; a further testament to her naiveté (i.e. not a gold digger)and inability to handle two such powerful figures as George and Eric. I knew the songs Something, Layla and You Look Wonderful Tonight were written for her, but I found many more tidbits here that caused a lot of the puzzle to fall into place for me. I've read many books on the Beatles, Lennon, George etc. but they tended to be more like travelogs, rushing from event to event without time to develop the cast as real characters. Cynthia's book on John was good, but that turned out to be about someone that John left behind in the early 60's and not the man he became with Yoko (yeah I can't beleive I said that either, I've never be a real fan of her's). But Pattie's narrative is at one accessible and understandable, with just enough insight to make George more of a real person. Does she tell all? NO! and nor should she. What she let's us into is her world, which included these famous people and more. You want to read about the Beatles? buy a Beatle book; same goes for Clapton. This book is about Pattie and how she bacame the muse for two of rock's pivotal characters. Well done Miss Boyd!

I can't recall when I've been so depressed reading about the lives of two of my favorite popular musicians. I'd never heard of Pattie Boyd. I woke up one morning to her giving an interview about her memoir to one of the local talk shows. Her wonderful British accent made her sound so distinguished and clever. While I didn't recognize her name, I quickly figured out she was talking about her marriages to songwriters and musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton. That realization grabbed my attention and I immediately ordered her book to learn more. I'd recently read Andy Summers autobiography and loved how he was able to share the passion that had driven him and his music throughout his life. This book however was totally without passion and short on insights one would have expected. By the time I was nearing the end of it I didn't really care whether I finished it or not. But I did just in case there was more than I'd found so far. Pattie (being born on Saint Patrick's Day is the reason for her name) had finally matured enough through the pain of her marriages to begin to discover herself. What she was discovering doesn't say much for living with Rock & Roll Gods unless one occasionally gets enough pleasure and satisfaction from their reflected glory. Otherwise her life was a lonely life spent enabling and caring for spoiled men who had never grown up and were compulsive in every way. They were apt to substitute one form of obsession with another one in order to escape their own self-doubts and addictions. George Harrison, who Pattie married when they were both kids, was a very shy man who couldn't quite come to grips as to why he was famous. He felt there were lots of musicians and songwriters who were better and more deserving than he was. When his manager Brian Epstein died at age 32, he and the other Beatles were totally helpless because Brain had seen to their every whim, want and physical need as well as making them famous and rich. They were like children who had never had to grow up. The world revolved around them and they did nothing for themselves. Pattie and George lived in a twenty-five bedroom English Estate but took it for granted. George eventually seized on Eastern Religion to escape his demons but was soon back living in a cocaine fog. He would often mediate and chant for eight hours at a time and sometimes he would goes days doing nothing but chanting and fondling his prayer beads. He turned into an angry and frustrated man. Eric Clapton eventually seduced Pattie away from an inattentive George and he turned out to be alternating between heroin addition and alcoholism. Since I'm the same age as Pattie reading her book was like a nostalgic trip down memory lane. But while I was a simple observer she was a major player--the girl on the cover of the photographic book about beautiful women in England entitled "The Birds of Britain." And while normal people such as myself may dream of what it's like to be in Pattie's world, it turns out to be more of a nightmare. She was the muse of two of the greatest Rock & Rollers of all time, but she wasn't a part of their inner world. She was just a pretty face to have around. The book is ghost written but still lacks detail and the kind of insights one would expect. "Sex and Rock & Roll" may seem exciting to we outsiders, it isn't so for the main characters of the drama and their family and enablers. There were some very famous events such as the legendary Guitar Duel between George and Eric and the writing of the song "You look Wonderful Tonight" that were described in the sparsest and the most unsatisfying detail. It's like Pattie wasn't even there and was simply giving a second-hand account. Or perhaps she was simply too drunk or stoned to recall and share the wonderful details of those famous moments in the lives of those popular artists. There were zero insights about her husband's music. One also feels incredible pity for Pattie who was unable to have the children she so desired and who was married to two of the richest men on Earth and only managed to end up with a modest divorce settlement from either marriage. Eric had actually married her because of a bet for 10,000 pounds he'd made while drunk. She didn't find that until after the quickie marriage had taken place. Naturally she would have preferred to never learn that information. The book is disturbing depressing. As she wrote, the musicians she was around all the time never grew up. They were never criticized. They were just kept happy. To Hell with everyone else around them. They didn't care about anybody else or if they did, they weren't sober enough to realize it. This book is about Lost Souls. It's amazing they were able to create music that is so, so appealing.

ジョージ・ハリスンのことをもっと知りたいと思ったのですが、本人の自叙伝のkindleが無かったので、代わりに購入してみました。読み進むうちに、パティさん本人への興味が高まってきて、彼女の生き方に共感するようになりました。幼少の頃の苦労や結婚後の葛藤などについても、飾らない、素直な視点で描かれていて、ジョージやエリック・クラプトンが彼女に惹かれた理由が理解できたような気がしました。この時代のイギリス文化について、当時の薬物やアルコール乱用事情などについても知ることができて興味深かったです。離婚後のジョージとの関係も、最後まで素敵な友情で結ばれていたことが分かり、うれしくなりました。

C'est une biographie très intéressante. Et je trouve qu'il est utile d'en savoir plus sur le Londres du milieu du XXe siècle. Le style d'écriture est proche de J.K. Rowling.

Tudo de acordo.

Wonderful Tonight: eine wirklich lesenswerte Teilbiographie, zumindest für meine Generation, die mit Sex, Drugs ans Rock`nRoll erwachsen wurde! Frau Boyd beschreibt sehr eindringlich und sensibel, was eigentlich hinter den Kulissen und Gardinen in ihren langjährigen Ehen mit zwei so bekannten, beliebten und auch begehrten sowie begabten Männern passierte: kein normales Leben, aber eines geprägt von großem Glück und auch tiefem Leid, um das ich sie nicht beneide! Dabei bleibt sie so integer gegenüber George Harrison wie auch Eric Clapton, wie die es sich nicht besser gewünscht haben könnten - eine tolle Frau! Außerdem liest sich das Buch locker und ist spannend, also auch stilistisch gut, was man von der Bio über Clapton nicht sagen kann. Diese habe ich zwar in der deutschen Übersetzung gelesen, was ein Fehler gewesen sein mag, doch für mich ist "Mein Leben" langweilig! Ich selbst habe viel von dem Zeitgefühl der 60/70erÄra nachempfunden und viele Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen Pattie Boyd und mir entdeckt - im übrigen bin ich heute 59 Jahre alt und in Hamburg geboren und aufgewachsen!

I well remember as a nine year old standing in a long line of people waiting to get into the Cinema to watch a Hard Days Night,i only liked John Wayne war films and in truth could not make head nor tail of the film,my parents took me to London,Swinging London on week long holidays throughout the mid sixties,i asked if i could have a red Palace Guard red uniform jacket,i thought i would look really cool in one of those,my dad said yes so of we went to Carnaby street,none would fit as my dad no doubt knew in advance so i never did get to dress as a Palace Guard,I remember London of that time as being just as it is in the now aging films,very sunny,very safe and very nice night or day.This era is of course sinking back into history,the first world war has gone out of living memory the second rapidly doing the same,so the age of the invention of the teenager beginning in the 1950s to the revolution of the 1960s is moving onto the history stage.The reaction to the war in Vietnam coupled to the music and movements of the era did create a true revolution one that changed the world and was perhaps overdue,enough has survived to the present day to make a difference and nothing since has had anything like the effect not even Punk Rock.Pattie Boyd is part of that history,her book begins with her childhood a mix of happy and unhappiness common to most children i suppose regardless of class or wealth,moving to her appearance in the Beatle film in school uniform with another Girl who it is hard to find anything about other than her name and catching the eye of George Harrison is amusing and well told.Accusations of gold digging do not hold water as both she and her sister were well known models of the day and part of the Swinging London set (swinging in the current age has a different meaning) her marriage to George Harrison lasted considering the stresses involved for a long time,it was a true love and George comes over as a fine man with a good heart but beset as all the Beatles were to differing levels by what had happened to them,a well known American actor has said everyone should be rich and famous for a time so they can know it is not the answer.Her story covers the love triangle between her ,George and Eric Clapton is also well covered,Eric has since said that he did not truly love her,to me a man who wrights songs about a woman as he did is most certainly in love with her,Pattie became the wife of two very creative people and this is the Fairy Tale and Greek Tragedy,Eric has told his own story very truthfully,a man who has had great success and suffered tragedy that no human being should ever have to suffer,many people see them as sort of Gods but they are just people,in reading her book i got the feeling she loved maybe still does George and Eric,perhaps having fonder memories of George,at no point does she demonise anyone nor does she put herself on a pedestal.Happily today she leads a happy life and is a renowned photographer,appearing to have no bitterness for some of the bad fortune and hurt she has endured,something she has had a fair share of and not all down to the men who chased her and chase her they did,no she looks back at her life and celebrates the times she lived through and the people she got to mix with,if the book has one fault it is not enough Photographs although the ones included are very good,i wonder if she is aware that five decades on lots of girls on line show you how to do your make up the Pattie Boyd way or just want to look like her,more than a good read it is a fascinating insight into the lives of some of the most famous people of the day and how it was a bit different to what people may have thought,a Fairy Tale,Greek Tragedy and i think told from the heart.