Pattie Boyd is far and away one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest muses. The wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Pattie was also a succesful model, one of the key faces of the Swinging Sixties and immortalised in the (now impossibly rare) photography book of 60′s female icons Birds of Britain. She was the inspiration behind some of the greatest songs of all time, like Harrison’s “Something”, “I Need You”, “For You Blue” and “Isn’t It a Pity”, and Clapton’s “Layla”, “Wonderful Tonight” and “Bell Bottom Blues”. She is also a photographer, and recently had an exhibition in SF called Through The Eyes of A Muse. Her autobiography Wonderful Today is well worth reading, though in my opinion not a patch on other female memoirs of the period – such as Marianne Faithfull’s unrivalled and achingly beautiful Memories, Dreams and Reflections. Wonderful Today is a harrowing read, and unlike Faithfull’s autobiography, it lacks the lyrical beauty and pathos that makes her story so readable. It’s stark, and at times desperate, and tells of her problems with alcohol addiction and anorexia, and the difficulties of living in the limelight as model and muse to two of rock’s greatest stars. I speed-read it in a day and absolutely loved it. It was only really much later that I felt its emotional effect, and now, I find myself looking at those fabulous 60′s shots with a different eye. Well worth the read.
I find Patti Boyd a most fascinating deep soulful individual. It is sad that it took a lifetime for her to see how strong and wonderful she really is all by herself. I wish her wonderful things to come. She has a very unique and special quality of beauty and innocense that is so very rare
Wow. What a life. I can’t wait to read her and Marianne
Faithful’s books.