"Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me" by Pattie Boyd

There was no way I could not read "Wonderful Tonight" after working my way through "Miss O'Dell" and "Clapton."  It seems like Patti Boyd was the center of quite a few obsessions in her day and I wanted to see if I could pinpoint just what the allure was.


In good news, I think I'm finally over my own little Beatles phase.  You're welcome.

Summary:  Any time I read an autobiography I have a hard time summarizing it.  To be short and sweet (and accurate) it is the story of a person's life filtered through their own recollections and often rose-tinted glasses.  Moments are exaggerated or down played in a way that makes the subject look best...or at least not as bad as they were.

"Wonderful Tonight" tells the story of Patti's life, from her early childhood in Kenya to her tumultuous marriages to George Harrison and Eric Clapton and beyond.

My Thoughts:  I thought "Wonderful Tonight" was really interesting.  Patti Boyd had a life that seemed at moments quite charmed, at others horribly sad, and occasionally both at the same time.

Patti spent her early childhood with her three siblings, parents and rich grandparents in Kenya.  Then her father walked out on the family and her mother immediately remarried and moved the family back to England.  Patti's stepfather was weird (like...really weird) and the strained feeling at home pushed her out the door and into modeling at a young age.  It was as a model that she first started drugs via "skinny pills" and eventually met her first husband, Beatles guitarist George Harrison.  Patti traveled the world with George, was introduced to the elite of rock and roll and learned about Indian mysticism.  What started out as a happy marriage ended sadly as Patti left one bad relationship for another, this time with Guitar legend Eric Clapton.

There were parts of Patti's story that I liked.  I found her life to be really interesting.  She is fearless and isn't afraid to try new things, concepts that absolutely mystify me.  She traveled to exotic locales in her youth (and still does) and let those experiences change her outlook on life.  She mingled with rock stars and actors and didn't bat an eyelash.

However as glamorous as Patti's life was, it was also a lot more lonely and sad that I would have thought.  I felt especially sad reading about Patti's marriages.  While both relationships with her husbands seemed to start out with love, it was clear that neither George nor Eric saw her as anything other than a possession.  She lived her life for her men and didn't take care of herself.

But what was most sad, was that Patti's story seemed to end when her rock and roll lifestyle ended.  The book just glossed over her life after Eric as if it wasn't as important.  I'm not sure if that's for the reader or if it is how Patti really sees life.  I hope the former.

Rating:  An easy, quick read and a nice way to roll up my Beatles phase.

Also Read By:  N/A

Reviewed By:  Tami

"Miss O'Dell" by Chris O'Dell and Katherine Ketcham

Have I mentioned how much I love the library?  I'd shout if from the roof tops if I could.  (Or if I had been drinking like a frat boy...and not scared of heights...)  My library puts together several different displays each month and if I have time I try to peek at them every so often.  I found "Miss O'Dell" on a Grammy Awards display and picked it up on a whim.  I'm glad I did.

Summary:  Chris O'Dell spent the golden era of rock and roll as a cross between a super groupie and an inside man for some of the biggest rock groups of the 60s, 70s and 80s.  After a chance meeting with a music bigwig at a party in LA, twenty something Chris O'Dell packed her bags, moved to London and finessed her way into a job working with the Beatles at their Apple label.

O'Dells's appetite for drugs and alcohol combined with her self-described inability to say no catapulted her into the inner circles of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other high profile bands of the 60's through the 80's.  "Miss O'Dell" is a collection of O'Dells more shocking memories of life at home and on the road with rock's greatest.

My Thoughts:  Do you ever read Perez Hilton or watch an episode of TMZ, thoroughly enjoy it, then feel sort of greasy for enjoying it as much as you did once its over?  That's exactly how I felt about this book. "Miss O'Dell" is a rock and roll tell all on the big bands of the past, going into the lurid and absolutely entertaining history of who slept with the most groupies (the Rolling Stones), who did the most drugs ( the Rolling Stones) and who was a total asshat behind closed doors (see: every one, but mostly Eric Clapton.)

While I'm not convinced that the stories in the book were 100% accurate (O'Dell imbibed an amazing amount of coke and liquor during most of the story) I think that the author believes the stories are accurate and told them as she remembered them with only minor twisting to make herself look better than perhaps she was.  This made the book feel genuine to me, which in turn led me to see Chris O'Dell in a sympathetic light.  She may have been a ruthless social engineer who used any means necessary to get into the inner circle of rock's elite, but she was an endearing social engineer and I ended up rather liking her even when she did something awful (sleep with her BFF's Beatle husband), stupid (piss off her other BFF's alcoholic guitar legend husband over and over) or really stupid (allow her doped up husband to drive the car with her infant son in the back).  On second thought, maybe I didn't like her....maybe I pitied her so I tried not to judge her quite so harshly.

"Miss O'Dell" focused on the people behind the legends and was at some of musics most historic events.  The story telling method of writing was very cleverly done and let the reader feel as if they were experiencing the momentous events as Chris did.  Sing in the chorus of Hey Jude?  Sure!  Snort some blow with Freddie Mercury?  Ok!

I also enjoyed Chris' personal story woven in and out of the famous ones.  Chris didn't shy away from admitting to her problems with drugs and alcohol, nor did she shy away from detailing her multiple rock bottoms.  Her honesty about herself in these moments had me rooting for her to come clean and make something of herself at the end.

Overall I enjoyed this book.  It was easy to read, seriously entertaining, and kept the celebrities just mean enough that I wasn't bothered by their darkest moments being aired by someone they once trusted.

Rating:  If you're at all interested in celebrity gossip or rock and roll, check this book out.

Also Read By This Author:  N/A

Reviewed By:  Tami

Side Note:  After reading this book I'm curious to read "the other side" of the stories.  Look for a review on autobiographies by Eric Clapton and Patti Boyd coming soon.