I'll go back and read the first bit, but I have to say thanks quite a bit for taking the time to type this out and post it. I don't know how much of Carol's story to believe, especially if this book is told in a manner were her conversations with George are written with 'vivid accuracy. What I do like is the way she speaks of George, especially that moment in her tiny apartment with him showing a shy and softer side of himself to her. It was incredibly sweet if true. What do you make of her? Do you believe the majority of her story to be true?
You're welcome, I'd wanted to type it earlier, sorry I had computer problems. I figured while I had a temporary computer and my daughter is with her father, I'd go ahead and get on it. I had a couple of Goody powders which are nothing but pure speed anyway, so I was able to type it pretty fast, I apologize for any typos though.
It's hard to know how much of the accounts are true, I will say it's a very compelling, very readable book. It's impossible to put down! She goes into so much detail and it just highlights what all was lacking in Pattie's book, Pattie did not flesh out her accounts at all. This is one of my favourite George books because it gives a well-rounded sense of who he was, the good and the bad.
I don't doubt he was shy with Carol though, because he apparently was the same way with a groupie in New York, I've got that account on my journal too, hold on and I'll see if I can find it and post the link.
In general I tend to believe her characterization of George as they sometimes shy and very giving man who was quite complex and unlike the image people had in their minds of him. I'd like to believe in the specific accounts because they make for an interest viewpoint of George during that time of his life. And, from what I've heard of Pattie's book as you've stated it's lacking those details. It's a very 'glossy' book. I just wish there wasn't so much drama surrounding Carol's book and I could get into it more and not question it so much.
Thank you for typing this out. I have to say this passage:
"It's OK. Don't worry," he whispered. "Janet," he called loudly, "You're a groupie, aren't you?"
Janet looked astounded, but her sudden stammerings of "No, you're ah, mistaken" were a definite sign that George was right.
"Yeah, you are," he continued. "I remember. New York. Backstage at a Cream concert. I went to see Eric. And you went off with one of the boys," he laughed.
Whatever was happening, it was hitting home. Janet became nervous. She vehemently denied every word George said. She denied it so strongly that I knew it was true.
"Did I tell you the girls from New York don't speak to me?" George turned to me.
He winked. He knew he had told me about the New York girls, but he wanted Janet to hear. She was from New York and it seemed George was making a subtle insult.
"I don't think they understand me," he said and looked over at Janet.Sounds either like fannish wish fulfillment (i.e. Carol making it up to highlight the difference between herself as someone making an
( ... )
That part may indeed have been fleshed out, still, George did have a phenomenal memory, it's not a stretch to think he would have remembered a face from backstage. And yes, even though we're talking about George, once again I hate the attitude about groupies; rock stars think they're just fine while they're screwing them, then don't want to be tainted by their presence. But I think here it's the fact that Janet seemed to go with anybody just because they were famous, whereas the Scruffs were not only loyal to the Beatles, each Scruff had a Beatle she was primarily loyal to before the rest of the group
( ... )
What to you make of George being sometimes so unsure of himself around women, in the Carol and the Marilyn accounts? I find that so much more compelling than the way one would expect a famous man to act, the lack of ego and the fact he wasn't a braggart who thought he was God's gift to women are quite refreshing. I'm sure there were times he could be like that too, though, probably when in the company of a group, like John and Paul. On his own he seemed like he was floundering. While I do agree that being in a group of young men seems to be everyone's inner frat boy vis a vis women, as opposed to individual behaviour, I'm not sure about whether or not George's reported shyness was the genuine article, either. I mean, I have no doubt he was at times. But I seem to recall that he said something in Anthology along the lines of that he figured out how to make that work for him with women early on. (Though I could be wrong: maybe I'm misattributing a quote!) In Klaus Voormann's book, when he describes the 1963 holidays in Teneriffe (which
( ... )
Yes, that is interesting, I remember Voorman mentioning George trying to chat up the Tenerife girls, holding their first album up to his face to try and impress them. I have read in places that George played up being shy to get women; what I tend to believe is that was a natural part of him anyway, and when women seemed to respond to it, he was smart and savvy enough to exaggerate that quality. The exaggeration of it doesn't cancel out it being a genuine quality with him. Tony Bramwell speaks of George pre-Hamburg being laid back and not pushy with women, or not as pushy as John and Paul; I have no doubt the lack of desire to push too forcefully is why he wasn't experienced as soon as John and Paul. He had, after all, many girlfriends available to him; Tony Bramwell mentions sometimes they were shocked at the women George was able to get as a young teen, since he never seemed really skilled in chatting with them. That, and the iron undergarments he couldn't get into, per Anthology! I'm reading Derek Taylor now, who says morality
( ... )
Jude Kessler's book is written in a novel form, though she studied and researched and interviewed for about 20 years before she began writing, her George in early 1960 is sort of as he was in Tenerife, it's pretty adorable:
Suddenly, without a word of explanation, George jumped up and flipped the laminated cardboard sign on The Jac to 'Open.' An attractive blonde shop girl in a crisp white blouse and charcoal pencil skirt clipped by on Slater Street, and when the motion caught her eye, George smiled, waved, and motioned her inside. She pinched in a grin and hurried on, but at the corner, she hesitated for a moment, indulging in a furtive backward glance.
"Jilted again," George shrugged, wandering back to his perch.
"I've told you a thousand times," John put his feet up on one of Allan's tiny tables, "drummers get all the girls, son."
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It's hard to know how much of the accounts are true, I will say it's a very compelling, very readable book. It's impossible to put down! She goes into so much detail and it just highlights what all was lacking in Pattie's book, Pattie did not flesh out her accounts at all. This is one of my favourite George books because it gives a well-rounded sense of who he was, the good and the bad.
I don't doubt he was shy with Carol though, because he apparently was the same way with a groupie in New York, I've got that account on my journal too, hold on and I'll see if I can find it and post the link.
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"It's OK. Don't worry," he whispered. "Janet," he called loudly, "You're a groupie, aren't you?"
Janet looked astounded, but her sudden stammerings of "No, you're ah, mistaken" were a definite sign that George was right.
"Yeah, you are," he continued. "I remember. New York. Backstage at a Cream concert. I went to see Eric. And you went off with one of the boys," he laughed.
Whatever was happening, it was hitting home. Janet became nervous. She vehemently denied every word George said. She denied it so strongly that I knew it was true.
"Did I tell you the girls from New York don't speak to me?" George turned to me.
He winked. He knew he had told me about the New York girls, but he wanted Janet to hear. She was from New York and it seemed George was making a subtle insult.
"I don't think they understand me," he said and looked over at Janet.Sounds either like fannish wish fulfillment (i.e. Carol making it up to highlight the difference between herself as someone making an ( ... )
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Suddenly, without a word of explanation, George jumped up and flipped the laminated cardboard sign on The Jac to 'Open.' An attractive blonde shop girl in a crisp white blouse and charcoal pencil skirt clipped by on Slater Street, and when the motion caught her eye, George smiled, waved, and motioned her inside. She pinched in a grin and hurried on, but at the corner, she hesitated for a moment, indulging in a furtive backward glance.
"Jilted again," George shrugged, wandering back to his perch.
"I've told you a thousand times," John put his feet up on one of Allan's tiny tables, "drummers get all the girls, son."
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