Pattie Boyd, Cynthia Lennon, The Beatles and Eric Clapton

If it were not for the library Amazon.com would be dropping books off here daily.
Hello Library! They are happy because they often get late fees from me. Currently, I owe $16.00. ooops. The drawback is that the library is poorly stocked in current books but the upside to that is I get books that I would normally not pick up... That is the circumstance that got me on my last reading "jag".

I picked up: Pattie Boyd's book Wonderful Tonight about her life with George Harrison (my fav Beatle) and Eric Clapton.
I loved the book because it was almost like reading history of that era and phenomenon. I was born in 67 so I missed it all.
My oldest brother was into the Beatles, Cream, Soft Machine, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Donovan... I HAD to listen to that music. When I would watch Sesame Street my brothers would switch the channel to Hogans Heroes. War!
I remember looking thru his albums and remember seeing Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album and being a kid I would giggle at the salacious cover with the crotch of a dude and a real live zipper that I could zip up and...down!! Remember this is at an innocent time when I thought that fart jokes were funny... Seeing this was hysterical!
I am sure my brother still has Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, the White Album etc... I had no appreciation whatsoever. So Pattie, thank you for sparking my interest.
She spent roughly 10 years married to George and another 10 married to Clapton. She writes about the times, fashion, and every musician on the albums my brother had! It was really interesting hearing about all their early years and starts. I did not know that the Rolling Stones had their first #1 hit with a song that the Beatles (Lennon/ McCartney) had written for them to help them! I also though it was pretty funny that George was so totally into meditation and eastern studies that he had families of frigging Hari Krishnas living with them chanting all day and letting their kids run free!
It was a really interesting book that sparked my interest to read another book about the Beatles (remember, I am limited to the library's selection) so I chose:

Hard Days Night by Rayl and Gunther.
Gunther was the photog that took pics of the first American concert tour the Beatles made in America (a few months after the infamous Ed Sullivan show). It was interesting to hear the disparaging differences between the dealings with Epstien (their manager) in Bramwells book and this book) but nice pics and it really captured the spirit of the phenomenon and crazy-ass crowds of insane girls that would flock and swarm. This book lead to read the next book:

Magical Mystery Tour by Tony Bramwell.
He was a roadie who worked for them for a long time. It sounded like he was a "hanger on" but he had many stories to tell. Interesting to hear him talk about Yoko Ono. He clearly despises her and writes some funny and freaky things that she did... Especially with her Avant Garde artwork. She is a LOON. Some stories line up with Patties so it was interesting to hear tales from two different angles. Boy, hearing it from a guys point of view I can tell you that the Beatles wives would not like to hear the escapades... Who knows if it was totally true, I mean this guy is trying to cash in on the Beatles.
So, after reading this book I read:

John by Cynthia Lennon.
Boy, of all the wives, she got shit on big time! In all accounts in Pattie's book and Tony's book she was never spoken of badly. She was a nice person and a really good wife. John treated her like crap and she bent and bowed and let him be himself so she would not interfere with his creative "flow" I did not know that Yoko literally "stalked" John for a year! She would hang outside his gates with other fans, Yoko pursued him while she was married to some grifter and trying to land a "Whale" to fund her crappy art exhibits. She sent cards telling him they were meant for eachother and showed up all over for a year! John he said she was nuts. But somehow he ended up with her and when Cynthia found out it was by her walking into her own damn house and having this troglodyte there with her husband wearing of all things, HER robe~ Thanks John, real nice.
I didn't realize that Cynthia raised Julian alone and that John did not take any interest in seeing him; sometimes for years on end. Yoko didn't want him to! I guess John called Yoko "Mother" and did what he was told. LOL (umm errr..craaaazzzeee)

For me, having been a single mom as a result of a crap-bag ex-husband I could really relate with how devastating it is to raise a kid when the ex is so uninvolved and uninterested. Julian grew up not knowing John but Cynthia still loved John and she tried so hard to mend fences. I suppose it was impossible being as Yoko was there.
Anyways, that was a really good book; and once again the parallel stories were fun to compare from the other books. I also learned that Mike Nesmith of the Monkees and his wife went to visit John and Cynthia and how his weird wife hawked over Cynthia's shoulder telling her what Mike could and couldn't eat! Mike also dropped acid with John!
Much to my brothers disdain, I loved the Monkees! Seriously LOVED them... ha ha ha
So, after all that I had to read one more... I had heard it was really dry and emotionless but I picked it up and read:

Clapton by Eric Clapton
It was excellent! Great history of blues and touching stories told by an extremely introspective and quiet man. Did you know that Wonderful Tonight and Layla were NOT the only songs he wrote and sang about Pattie? Clapton has a lot of humility about his years of substance abuse. Now 20 years sober it is a great book that takes you through every era. He has a great dry sense of humor and had me laughing too. I felt awful when he auctioned off Blackie. If I could buy it back and give it to him I would.
So, those were a few books I read in the last couple weeks. Thankfully I am able read really fast and carefully read every word. Now I can relate to all those albums my brother had!! What an education in music history! Now I know WHY he liked them and why he plays blues guitar! No wonder!
IT also explains why he drew pencil thin mustaches on the faces of my prized Captain and Tenille album cover back in the 70's! HAH!!

Have any of you read these book?

Sincerely,
Your big book nerd