Sunday, April 27, 2008

"Wonderful Tonight" by Pattie Boyd

It's hard to imagine that a book by Pattie Boyd would be mediocre, but this effort definitely is.

Only a few interesting insights. One is that there was a Liverpool/London divide with the Beatle women (Pattie & Jane/Maureen & Cynthia).

Another is that whenever George found himself saying something negative about John or Paul he would stop himself.

And she explains how Brian Epstein would separate John and Paul when the boys were touring or vacationing. Apparently because J&P spent so much time together anyway, that they would get on each others nerves. This explains the awkward moment in the extras disc of the Beatles Anthology DVD, where the three surviving Beatles are discussing when Ringo first joined. It's a kind of "wink wink" moment where they don't want to discuss the details, but to simply say it was a good idea to have Paul be Ringo's roommate instead of George.

Like Cynthia's recent book John, Pattie doesn't seem to have been privy to George's innermost thoughts about the Beatles. And like Cyn, Pattie talks about being madly in love with George, but never explains what was so wonderful about him (other than "I'd never met anyone like George"). Both ex's seem full of stories about their husband's callous sides with minute details of their shortcomings. But when it comes to insights of their kindness or thoughtfulness, there's very little. Why this is, we can only speculate.

The pictures are good, but there's not enough of them. And again, regarding Pattie's view of things, there's one picture of George laying on a bed and she describes as him looking "relaxed and calm". Now Pattie knew George and I didn't. But after looking at pictures and film of him since 1964, to me, he looks uptight in the picture. Like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

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