It's about time we heard Cynthia's side of the story...
She knew him when. She was a Liverpool girl when he was just a Liverpool bloke. They fell in love, she got pregnant, they got married. The Beatles got famous, Brian died, the Maharishi disappointed. John discovered LSD, Yoko, heroin. Cynthia tells the story well; with or without a ghost writer, her voice comes through. This book doesn't break any new ground, but anyone who wants to know everything about the Beatles needs to read it. It sent me back to the Anthology to review the official version of how Cynthia was replaced by Yoko.
Not trying too hard to tie everything together, I will mention two other things.
(1) Today I watched The Lake House, a nice PG love story with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. It features a beautiful song by Paul McCartney, "This Never Happened Before"--my husband recognized Paul's voice before I did, which shocked me.
(2) Today at work, Sarah, a former co-worker visited the office with her 6-month-old baby. Fun times. Sarah lives in Las Vegas now, and her husband is an executive at one of the big hotels there. There was some event at the hotel recently (I didn't get the details of the event, it's the nature of conversation when a 6-month-old is present, the dialog tends to be fragmented) At any rate, Paul McCartney was performing or appearing at the hotel, and Sarah and her husband attended the after-party. She said she was just standing around, chatting, and she looked up and There. He. Was. Paul freakin' McCartney, right in front of her. She's a level-headed type, not easily rattled; she's Swiss, very sophisticated, not some teeny-bopper. But she was, in this case, non-plussed, at a loss, verklempt. Paul and she "locked eyes" she said, and then he reached over and touched her on the arm and said, "'s'all right." Her impulse was to reach and touch his arm in return, but when she made that gesture, the bodyguards moved in, and the moment was over. So today, I touched someone who recently touched and was touched by Paul McCartney.
I've thought about this before: what must it be like to live your entire adult life as someone to whom everyone reacts with awe. It's like being the Dalai Lama, but nobody annointed you, there's nothing official, you're just one of the 10 most popular people on the planet. Amazing. In my opinion, Paul handles it very well. He will always be my favorite Beatle. And that's not just because John dumped Cynthia for Yoko.
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5 comments:
Oh.My.God. I know just how she must have felt. Paul was my favorite Beatle, too, although there have been times in the last few years when I've been a bit disenchanted with him. And I've never liked his choice of women after Jane Asher - but he seemed to have a great marriage with Linda and was a good father. I saw him in concert last year - what a thrill!
mostlylurking
I can't imagine what that must be like... having every female your age with a crush on you--whether you're 20 or 60.
I saw George Harrison in concert in the late 70s and all I could think was, "Wow.. I'm seeing a Beatle!" Never mind that the music was Ravi Shankar's, it was still A Beatle up there.
Hey, kbert -- I recently saw "The Lake House," too. It probably won't be winning any Oscars, and it's no "Citizen Kane," but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My favorite Beatle is George, but I'm sure I would have swooned if I'd seen THE Paul in the flesh. I feel kind of bad for him at the moment, what with the divorce and all.
I'm keen to read Cynthia Lennon's book.
Anyway, great Kit! (Boodleworthy, even -- or maybe Too Good for the Boodle!)
Dreamer
Celebrities do instill that. A former coworker was childhood friends with John Goodman. John was one of the ushers and every girl there wanted him to take her down the aisle.
Goodman is no McCartney, so that level of fame is incomprehensible.
Read the book by Cynthia over the weekend - very good. I enjoyed the part about how they met, and the time before the Beatles got famous - lots of detail about the other guys, and about Pete Best. The part after Yoko is sad, for everyone involved, but especially for Julian (who is now over 40 - when did that happen?). As kb said, Cynthia's voice does come through, and I wish her well.
mostlylurking
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