Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me Kindle Edition

I never did "get" the thrill of Pattie Boyd. And I very much got the other iconic women of the era, Twiggie, Jean Shrimpton, Julie Christie, Maryanne Faithful, Brigette Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, later Jerry Hall, Linda Ronstadt and others.Even now, in pictures from back then I don't see it. She did have the perfect body style of the age: long skinny legs, long skinny arms, small narrow torso. Her face was nice but just ordinarily attractive. It's still a mystery why she was an international model. As George said she had an indefinable "Something", an X factor that doesn't come across on film and certainly doesn't come across in this book.The book is well-written but sterile. While she states her emotions, "I was blissfully happy", "I cried all the way to LA", there is almost no emotion in the writing.She doesn't say why George Harrison was the love of her life, or why she married him. Just that she was madly in love with him and never fell out of love, even when she was with Clapton. She doesn't even include the circumstances of their first kiss. I don't expect sexual details but the first kiss to Beatle George Harrison would seem significant.I don't get the feeling that she ever really loved Eric Clapton, his well-known obsession with her that lasted until he got her seems to have flattered her, but she remained somewhat detached. She was appalled by "Layla" thinking everyone would know who it was about and assume the worst.It was George's blatant affair, in the house that he and Pattie shared, with Maureen Starkey Ringo's wife, that finally sent her running into Eric's waiting arms.Where the same rock'n'roll chaos proceeded apace. The circumstances of his proposal to her were beyond absurd and yet she still said yes. At the reception he started a food fight with the wedding cake, showing just how serious he was about the event.She says marriage to a faithful husband would have been a joy. Okay then why marry Eric Clapton whose way with women was notorious in the late 70s. It's like Priscilla's wistful complaint, all she ever wanted was a normal married life. And so she married Elvis?And while marriage to George when they were both very young might have seemed reasonable in the mid-60s, by the mid-70s Pattie was no longer a babe in the woods. Eric was clearly not marriage material.She seems to have loved the rock life style of drinking, partying and drugs. Her biggest mistake was to quit modeling, no longer having a career of her own. Essentially to become a hanger-on, a party girl, even if she did have a ring in her finger.It's interesting that both men were madly in love with her and then lost interest in her in spectacular fashion. Cruel fashion. If she was as superficial and self-absorbed in life as she is in this book, it's easy to see why.While she praises both men and expresses her love for them she was clearly hurt by the many infidelities they did little to hide. Why that should come as a shock to her is just naive on her part.And for their part why did rock musicians get married in that crazy time? So many did and then just acted like their wife was married but they weren't.Anyway I grew rather tired of the pointless drama and Clapton's odd behavior as he substituted Courvoisier and lemonade for heroine. In spite of detailed descriptions of crazy antics and moody withdrawals the reader never really gets to know George or Eric, or for that matter Pattie herself.Read through to their divorce and the tragic death of Eric's son Conor. I remember when that happened, it was awful. As Pattie says, what architect would design windows like that, so dangerous.After that I skimmed till the Epilogue. It really is just a narrative of events, no analysis, no physical description of any of the many people she mentions. No insight into anyone's motivations.At one point Clapton takes her to Israel, they go to the Dead Sea, he has some Ecstasy to try to reestablish their bond, which works, she goes back to him. But all she says of the experience is they sat on the shore and talked. Um, really? I can see being discreet but not to the point of boring.Clearly Eric Clapton was the major figure in her life, even George Harrison fades into the background as Clapton takes over the book. But she doesn't seem to have really known him or to have understood him. He was a complex larger than life character and sounds impossible to live with. If she learned anything at all about him she doesn't share it here.Once he disappears from the pages it's simply a middle aged woman's life in London.Pity. It could have been so much more.Unless really curious about a niche part of the 60s/70s I don't recommend this book.

I loved this story and what you think you might envy in a person this shows there can be great prices to pay. I am very glad that Pattie found herself and learned to live for herself. A very good story.

Pattie Boyd was probably one of the most beautiful rock women during her 60s heyday. She snagged a Beatle after only one meeting on a movie set, inspired Clapton to create the anthem "Layla" and was the avowed idol of many a young girl. Yet her book, in contrast to some of the other "rock wife" and "rock groupie" books out there, is noticeably devoid of ego, or bitterness towards the famous men who let her down. At times she comes off as almost self-effacing to the degree that you'd just like to tell her, "Pattie! Wake up and realize you're awesome!"Even though I'd read many Beatles books in the past, I hadn't realized the degree to which Pattie was a cipher in those books. (By contrast, some of them contain Yoko Ono's entire life history pre-Lennon.) It turns out Pattie had a very interesting childhood, having been raised in a poor and somewhat dysfunctional family in Africa. Eventually, pre-teen Pattie moves to England and starts a modeling career just as the Beatles are hitting the big time. She meets George and has a fairy-tale romance ending in marriage. Unfortunately, George ends up cheating on her - with Ringo's wife Maureen of all people (I had also never heard this story before). When George isn't cheating he's distancing himself to concentrate on his meditation or inviting meditation groups to come live in his and Pattie's house. Living with this type of stress, it's easy to see why Pattie eventually succumbed to the repeated and persistent advances of George's friend Eric Clapton, who claimed that her initial rejection of him led him into years of heroin addiction.After Pattie marries Eric, his addictions and erratic behaviors disturb any peace she might have hoped for. This section of the book seems choppy and less complete than Pattie's recounting of her life with George, and you sense something else may be lurking below the surface of Eric and Pattie's troubled relationship. (It is rumored that she left his worst excesses, such as physical abuse, out of the book.) Eric seems not so much heartless as just not emotionally sensitive enough to have a decent relationship. For example, he fathers children outside the marriage even though Pattie has desperately tried, and failed, to have a child of her own and she is devastated by it. By the time the book gets to the end of the Pattie and Eric story, Pattie, for all her money and her exciting life, truly seems beaten down and victimized, emotionally if not also physically. It's hard to read this book along with Clapton's recent biography where he seems much less affected by the entire breakup and unremorseful for his extramarital affairs.The end of the book has Pattie getting her life together with the help of her friends, achieving some measure of inner peace, and dealing with the death of George, to whom she still feels a loving bond. By this point Pattie's life has become so rarified (jetting off to this and that exotic destination) that she seems removed from the mere mortals on earth, but her emotions still seem very human.The most interesting, fun and complete part of the book is the first half dealing with Pattie's early life, her modeling career and her marriage to George. The Eric sections seem very sad by comparison (as well as choppy) and I found myself really wishing, as Pattie also seems to wish at times, that she and George had gotten back together, or never broken up. My one major complaint with the book and its subject is that Pattie does seem very passive and at times like she has no life or motivation of her own - she just exists to bask in whatever love these powerful men might choose to dole out to her. Perhaps this is due to her having an unhappy childhood and then marrying one of the biggest rock stars in the world at a very young age, but I do hope she's able to grow a little bit more of an assertive spine.

Just got finished reading this book. I could not put it down. I found Pattie's descriptions about the "Swingin' 60's fascinating. I remember her and Marianne Faithful back then, they were my Idols, I was just a kid, but loved hearing and reading about these fantastic girls and seeing thier pictures.I remember seeing "A Hard Day's Night" at the Theatre in Atlantic City and sitting through it twice, and I thought the "School Gir;s" were so cool and pretty.For a person who was a fashion Icon and Muse to both George Harrison AND Eric Clapton, she comes off as pretty well grounded and down to earth. George sounds like he was a genuinley nice guy, Eric not so much.I really think she showed a lot of class regarding Eric, who treated her very shabiliy, he was monstrous with his non stop abuse and infidelity. She was a loving and supportive friend to him when he lost his little son, I doubt that he would have been as gracious if the shoe were on the other foot.Well written and fast paced, if you like stories about Rock n Roll, the 60's and the musical genuises that populated that era, I highly recommed this book.

ジョージ・ハリスン、エリック・クラプトンという20世紀を代表するロック・アーティストの妻だったパティ・ボイドの自伝。1960年代の「スウィンギング・ロンドン」の象徴のような著名モデルだった彼女が幼少時代から現在に至るまでの人生を率直に綴っています。両親の離婚、義父からの暴力など不安定な少女時代を送った彼女は美しく成長し、モデルとして名声を得、人気絶頂だったビートルズのジョージ、続いて彼女に激しく恋したエリック・クラプトンと結婚し、その華やかな交友関係や『レイラ』『ワンダフル・トゥナイト』といった名曲を生み出す原動力になった女性として「ミューズ(美神)」と呼ばれてきました。ですがこの自伝には、彼女が二人の天才との結婚でもけっして満たされず、不実で気ままな夫たちとの生活で深く傷ついたことが詳しく記されています。特に厳しく描かれているのはクラプトンのアルコール依存症で、クリエイティブな天才ミュージシャンである半面、朝からブランデーをがぶ飲みしては奇矯な行動をとり、何度も命の危機にさらされ、浮気をしてはパティに辛くあたるという困った姿にかなりのページが割かれています(このあたりの描写は以前に刊行されたレイ・コールマンの著書とかなりかぶっています)。他の女性との間に子供を作ったクラプトンとの離婚後、狭いフラットに移り、アイデンティティの喪失に苦しみ、しかもついに自分の子供を持つことのなかったパティ(元夫たちは彼女と離婚後、別の女性と結婚し子供をもうけて幸せに暮らしています)。美しい蝶のように周囲から称賛された彼女ですが、華やかなうわべと内面の寂しさの落差に同情を禁じ得ませんでした。一読して思ったのは、パティは社交的で賢く、きわめて知的とはいえなくとも(本書には夫たちの内面や創造力の秘密に迫った洞察はあまり記されていません)温かい女性だということです。『レイラ』などの曲から繊細でやや弱々しい女性を想像していましたが、行動力にあふれ、友人の多い彼女はこれからも自分らしく生きていくのではないかと思わされました。ビートルスは言うに及ばず、当時の著名ミュージシャンたちの様子が生き生きと描かれ、愛を吐露したクラプトンの手紙や詩が引用され、珍しい写真も掲載されて60〜80年代のロック界に興味のある方なら目を通して損はない一冊だと思います。

So many addicts and alcoholics.If you want to see how chaotic the back stage was, you should read this book.But her childhood and model years are also interesting for us to know whatabout growing outside of UK or typical covent girl's life. It is innocent with full ofthe spirit of the age. On the contrary, after separating her husbands, I feel thatshe is calculating. Each figure she was received from them is astonishing.It's an easy chronicle for a nonnative rock fan to read.

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。

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この人は本物の美人だと思う、その証拠に妹二人も大変な美人だった。母親も美人だったらしいから、いわゆるお市の方ファミリーみたいなもんだ。世の中には本物の美人、努力や高須クリニックでは作れない美人が存在するが彼女はその一人、とはいえモデル時代は体型維持のためほとんど絶食状態らしいけど。ファッション誌などに掲載されている彼女の写真は今見ても古さを感じさせないし、表情や服装でcoolな美貌もキュートな可愛らしさも表現できる変幻自在の美貌。そりゃ、ハリソンもクラプトンも夢中になるわな、ってとこですが、その結果が必ずしも幸せだったのかっていうとそうでもないのが人生のアヤみたいな。この本は自叙伝ですが、あまり感情的になることなくとても客観的に書かれていて第三者が書いたのか？と一瞬思えちゃうほど。別に、ゴーストライターいるんでしょ、って言うんじゃなくて淡々としているのです。どう考えても良い感情を持てない人間の事も悪しざまに書くでもなく、淡々とその時あった事柄が述べられていて、この人理性や寛容さを感じさせます。義父の事は相当ツライ想い出だったらしくちょっとキツイけど、他はハリソンやクラプトンの浮気相手に対しても自分の傷づいた感情は吐露しても相手を責めたりしていない、パティって結構イイ人なんじゃない？と思ってしまった。ただ、この本のamazon.comのレビューを見ると思ったより評価が低いのです、で、低いレビューを見ると、淡々と描かれていることに不満の様子、ただ事実を述べてるだけだとか、パティの気持ちが出ていない、とか。。。私が美点と思った点がアチラでは欠点になってるみたいでちょっとびっくり。あと、一番びっくりしたのではジョージが彼女の目前でリンゴのカミさん、モーリーンと浮気してたとこ。　こんなキレイなカミさんいながらあのモーリーンと？！これはさすがにパティも辛かったらしい。ビートルズの奥さん達の中でmost beautiful とleast beautifulが戦ってleastの方が買っちゃったんだからなぁ。。。この頃のジョージは明らかにメンタルやられてたみたいだけど。一つ残念なのはクラプトンと別れた後の話はさほど面白くない、新しい彼氏見つけて、旅行して、傷を癒して少しずつ立ち直って、ってまぁ良かったねって感じで後味は悪くないんだけど、ハリソンやクラプトンと別れてももう一つ面白い展開が欲しかった。なんたってあの名曲「愛しのレイラ」のモデルになった女性なのですから。