Three Memoirs, Three Reviews

Jul 14, 2011 19:03

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 ( Read more... )

harrison, pattie boyd, book review, warum spielst du, klaus voormann, horst fascher, wonderful tonight, beatles, let the good times roll

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Comments 81

ponygirl2000 July 15 2011, 01:06:41 UTC
So interesting! Especially Klaus' book. As for poor Pattie it just adds to the ongoing question: what the heck exactly happened in India?

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selenak July 15 2011, 04:00:47 UTC
No kidding. Everyone goes in a stressed yet amiable musician, comes out a divorce-headed obsessive...

ETA: also, re: Pattie's book, you know there is something weird about you when your first thought upon reading Sgt. Pilcher telling his dog "Yogi, find the drugs" is "zomg, that's Martha's arch nemesis!"

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jonesingjay July 15 2011, 18:10:06 UTC
I write as I read. Just a warning ( ... )

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selenak July 15 2011, 19:30:02 UTC
It’s easy to be the ‘good guy’ when he no longer has an obligation to Pattie as her husband. I suppose I can understand why Pattie thinks she should’ve fought for him harder when he’d been so good to her after their marriage ended, but if she would’ve stayed I could only see it ending in divorce. I don’t think he wanted to be married to her but enjoyed their friendship.

Yes, that was my impression as well. They were both young and immature when they married, and George realised at some point (i.e. India or shortly after) that he didn't want to be married anymore, but as opposed to John he wasn't the bridge-burning type and wanted to keep Pattie in his life, just not as his wife.

I’d honestly be curious to hear Jane’s thoughts on Pattie. I bet she probably thought Pattie was lovely enough but probably didn’t relate to her on an intellectual level.

I'd be honestly curious to know Jane's thoughts on everyone (me and all of fandom, I know; we all admire and curse Jane for her impeccable discretion, I suppose), but yes, my guess is ( ... )

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jonesingjay July 15 2011, 19:52:10 UTC
Oh, yes, I did read your bit on Klaus' book and found the George passages rather sweet and endearing. George could be such a lovely man to his friends. I just felt an urgency to respond to your Pattie bit first. I'm quite interested in the Beatles relationships when it comes to women romantic or otherwise.

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beagle_agent July 15 2011, 18:58:27 UTC
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 ( ... )

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selenak July 15 2011, 19:40:22 UTC
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 ( ... )

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jonesingjay July 15 2011, 19:59:34 UTC
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.

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selenak July 16 2011, 03:13:34 UTC
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 ( ... )

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ljlorettamartin July 19 2011, 12:43:09 UTC
I enjoyed reading these. It was nice hearing more about Klaus and Horst, especially. Thanks for posting them.

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selenak July 19 2011, 13:15:01 UTC
You're very welcome. I figured that since Klaus' and Horst's books aren't available in English, extensive reviews might be informative for the community. (Also I thought you'd enjoy Horst being unhesitatingly affirmative of John's bisexuality, instead of the usual "maybe" disclaimers. *g*)

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blackbirdfan July 19 2011, 15:06:03 UTC
Thanks. Your book reviews are always fascinating. I especially enjoyed hearing more about Klaus Voorman's book as I had always had the impression (apparently false) that he didn't like Paul much. In interviews, Klaus always seemed to go on and on about George and John, and he seemed fairly dismissive of Paul's talents. As if all Paul did was stand around, smile, and look pretty. So it was good to hear that he had positive things to say about Paul now and again. It always bugged me that none of the Exi's seemed to understand or respect Paul ( ... )

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jwllover July 20 2011, 05:12:42 UTC
I so agree with you. My theory as to why there's no good books on the Mohn and Paul thing is because they're written by men. I don't think most men get it.

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I. Klaus selenak July 20 2011, 08:58:21 UTC
In interviews, Klaus always seemed to go on and on about George and John, and he seemed fairly dismissive of Paul's talents. As if all Paul did was stand around, smile, and look pretty. So it was good to hear that he had positive things to say about Paul now and again. It always bugged me that none of the Exi's seemed to understand or respect Paul.

Not only now and again. You have to consider that in an interview the interviewer selects what he or she wants to print/broadcast, what they're interested in. Now George was as I said Klaus' favourite Beatle (he even lived with him for a while), John his second favourite, and he recorded with both of them repeatedly (as he points out, why would Paul need a bass guitarist? So they didn't record until the last decade when he asked Paul to play with him on his cd "A sideman's journey"), so it's not surprising he has more stories about the two of them. But that doesn't mean he doesn't like Paul, either as a person or a musician; he sounds very affectionate about him throughout the book. (Like ( ... )

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II Exis selenak July 20 2011, 09:01:06 UTC
Re: Exis, Astrid in a 2010 German interview sounds very protective and affectionate about Paul as well. (She was asked about the HM fiasco and about whether people like the Rolling Stones and Paul shouldn't stop touring and performing - her answer was "oh, but Paul does it so marvellously well, that's different from the Stones!" ("Paul macht das ganz wunderbar, das ist etwas anderes").) No idea about Jürgen Vollmer's current attitude. Now again the fact that it's decades later might have changed a few things, but I never got the impression they disliked Paul; just that they liked the others (except for Pete Best) more, which partly had to do with John's inherent leader of the pack/rock'n roll rebel charisma and partly with everyone's urge to mother George, and the excitement young people have for people coming across as different. You also shouldn't overlook something American or British biographers don't get about these Hamburg students. As Klaus points out, their wish not to be like their parents' generation in all things, including ( ... )

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