Three Memoirs, Three Reviews

[selenak]

More leftover from my Brückenau days: book reviews. One of the books in question I’d browsed through before but hadn’t read it properly, the other two were new to me. What the three have in common is, aren’t you surprised, a Beatles connection; otherwise they’re widely different, though each struggling with the opening sentence ofDavid

Comments

[beagle_agent]

I never read Patti's book...and I never will honestly. I do not like that girl, she is phony and stupid.I tend to believe what I remember having read in Tony Bramwell's book: she was one of the girls from a certain institute, those girls were handed round until they found the ultimate rich guy to marry

[selenak]

Honestly, Tony Bramwell's comments on Pattie reeked of misogyny, envy and slapworthiness (Tony's, not Pattie's) to me, which isn't rare with him. He's entertaining, but if I read a guy complaining about a (unavailable to him) girl being a flirt while bragging of all the women he laid, I just roll my eyes. (Also, him saying he didn't like to see his mate George who could have had every woman pine for the likes of Pattie made me roll my eyes even more. Can we have a reality check there, please, Tony? According to most people, including yourself, George wasn't pining, he was cheerfully nailing groupies left, right and center, and don't give me that annoying male double standard on women who don't sit at home adoringly being sluts while men are just being boys. Ew

[jonesingjay]

You think it's possible that Tony Bramwell made a pass at Pattie and she didn't respond? Ha. He doesn't seem to like her at all. You pointed out that it's really a double standard sort of thing. George can go off and have as many women as he pleases, but if Pattie even looks at another man than she's some kind of tart. He makes it sound as if Pattie 'tortured' George when in truth George didn't seem so tortured having as many woman as he did.

[selenak]

I think that's very possible. Men who whine what a tease a woman is/was usually were turned down by her, and Pattie with her blonde looks was pretty much the ideal of the Beatles crowd when they were young men.

George can go off and have as many women as he pleases, but if Pattie even looks at another man than she's some kind of tart.

*nods* Yes, that's Tony's double standard exactly, and it comes across loud and clear in his book. Not just in regards to George and Pattie, of course, but pretty flagrantly there.

He makes it sound as if Pattie 'tortured' George when in truth George didn't seem so tortured having as many woman as he did.Quite. It's especially glaring if you compare his complaints about Pattie the heartless flirt torturing "my mate George" by going clubbing with everyone else's accounts of George doing the rock star and groupies thing on tour and, post-India, at home. I haven't read Chris O'Dell's book yet but I did see the excerpt where a woman drapes herself all over George right in front of Pattie and he allows

[beagle_agent]

Tony's double standard exactly, and it comes across loud and clear in his book.
Not only Tony's...just look at Paul and Jane. Same standard there. As soon as Jane lays eyes on someone else he saw red. Telephoned her again and again, and was furious that she did not answer. He himself nailed everything that moved....and was alright with it. Same goes for John...he had several women at the same time but was jealous as soon as someone came near to Cyn.

So I don't think this is a typical Tony standard. It is the standard of men (especially Northern men from Liddypool) at that time.
It is the right and male privilege to have girls in spite of being married....looking at it with today's standards it is chauvinistic beyond compare.

Astrid

[selenak]

Oh, absolutely, it was the double standard they all shared, but Tony didn't write many of my favourite songs, so I'm less inclined to dwell on his virtues instead of his faults.:) (This, btw, is one big reason why I'm glad I was born in ´69 and didn't live in that time. Also why I would never ever have wanted a romantic relationship with any of the Fab Four.)

[beagle_agent]

This, btw, is one big reason why I'm glad I was born in ´69 and didn't live in that time. Also why I would never ever have wanted a romantic relationship with any of the Fab Four.)
Same here...born in the same year and never having wanted a romantic relationship with any of them...at least at that time (which wasn't possible for obvious reasons LOL...)
Paul changed through the years and I am quite convinced he was true to Linda. And also his behavior seemed to have changed....I don't think Linda would have taken any shit from him.
Maybe the goes for all of them....they lived and learned.

Astrid

[selenak]

Agreed. Given how eagle-eyed the papparazzi had Paul's life under their sight, if he had been unfaithfull to Linda, they'd have found someone willing to spill the beans by now. (At the latest during the HM divorce debacle when all types of claims were made but never that one.) As much as he (and all of them) were displaying sexism in the 60s (and to some degree beyond), he also seems to believe in the traditional view that once you do marry, the bachelor behaviour is over and done with and you owe your wife the same you expect of her. Plus, you know, being a parent really makes a difference, and I think it was the combination of Linda and the children which allowed Paul to grow and learn. Similarly, I think for George Olivia and Dhani made a difference. Ringo had an alcohol problem but the relationship with Barbara was strong enough for them both to kick the habit together, which is remarkable, and at any rate Ringo in many ways, not just the age, was the most grown up of the four back in the day already so needed to change the least.

[beagle_agent]

Agreed on every aspect. And also about Ringo being the most grown up of them even in their early days. I do not say that he never nailed groupies, but I remember having read that he sometimes only chatted with them. Seems to be the most laid back type of them...not as wild as the rest of the bunch.

Astrid

[jwllover]

Paul has gome on record as saying he never cheated on Linda in their 30 years together, and I believe him. He had all the groipies he could ever want before he was 25, so it was a case of been there, done thst, in spades.

[selenak]

I believe him as well, I just wanted to point out he's backed up by the utter lack of papparrazzi claims to the contrary. (Not that papparrazzi are trustworthy in any case, but you know what I mean.) You know, with all the talk about how Yoko changed John, one shouldn't forget how much Linda changed Paul as well, and I don't mean that negatively. He went from being your avarage promiscous 60s rock star living the fast life in the city to being a monogamous husband and family father spending most of his time in the country (except when on tour, and given that he hasn't been back in Scotland after Linda died, I'd say it's a safe bet this was for her, despite liking the farm anyway), and in a way that's as remarkable an adjustment as John going from "avantgarde is French for bullshit" in the pre-Yoko 60s to bed-ins and Plastic Ono Band happenings in the late 60s and early 70s.

[jwllover]

Oh yeah, I knew what you were getting at.

[jonesingjay]

I always found it 'laughable' that John confronted Cyn about some note another student at the ashram wanted to give her but instead gave it to George to give to her. George gave it to his mate John and Cyn never got it, but Cyn doesn't learn of any of this until John confronts her with it back home. Somehow twisting it to make it Cyn's fault, as if she had shamelessly flirted with this man (I wouldn't have blamed her if she did) and had something going with him. While John himself had been cheating on Cyn since art college and was involved with Yoko at this point.

[selenak]

Yes, that took the cake. Alistair Taylor in his book, btw, says that John in his opinion was actually believing what he said, that even while trying to get rid of Cyn he was sincerely jealous of her, not just making it up, not because he had reason to be (all the Beatle writers seem to agree Cynthia until the sight of Yoko in a bathrobe was faithfull to John) but because like many a cheating husband (plus his specific John type of paranoia) he was raging at the idea she'd do the same

[jonesingjay]

Yup, in Cyn's book she mentions a 'yank cowboy', that she had developed a friendship with while at the ashram. He was someone she could talk with while her own husband began to shun her during their stay. I had no idea that John had written a song about it, nor that he had truly been jealous. At the time I read that story I thought it was a way for John to excuse him own behavior, which I find rather silly of him. Even if Cynthia had cheated on him with the cowboy. So, what? He'd been doing it to her for years, but as you've pointed out time and time again. It's that whole double standard thing, along with the times they were raised in and how they grew up. Plus, when you achive that kind of fame it has to mess with your perception of reality and self. How dare she cheat on me?Let us not forget how John sent Magic Alex to try and seduce Cynthia so he could file for divorce on the grounds that she'd been faithful. Then of course, he accused her of cheating on him with Roberto Bisiani when at the time it actually was just a friendship

[jonesingjay]

Well, if you do read Chris's book and revieww it I'll read that. I've heard bits and pieces of it through articles on it. A very interesting bit in the book is her pov on George's confessing that he was in love with Mo. Oh, and another is her thoughts on the numerous George's. She said something along the lines of you never knew which George you were going to get. She does mention that Pattie pulled her aside and asked that if they were to be friends she couldn't sleep with George. He hit on her but she turned him down and from there on out their relationship reminded plutonic.

I gotta agree with you that Pattie seemed especially tortured post 68'. As I've said before I think it had a lot to do with George wanting out of his marriage whether or not he realized it in the late 60s but instead of just telling her he went about it in a way that he felt would make her leave him.