Thursday, March 24, 2011

Baby's In Black - The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe by Arne Bellstorf

Get Baby's in Black at Amazon.

The Beatles have inspired so much over their history. Countless musicians and artist cite them as the spark that ignited their own creative passions, and if there's one that often comes from their existence it's the endless "What If's." All through the last quarter of 2010 as we acknowledged the 70th anniversary of John Lennon's birth and the 30th anniversary of his death, we asked "What if?" What if he had lived...how much more music would he have created, would he be on Twitter constantly, and how would he have responded to 9/11? We can only speculate now and wish to see it for ourselves.

For me, a constant "What If" in the Beatles history prompts me to think about what might have gone down differently had Stuart Sutcliffe lived. If you're a die-hard fan who has followed The Beatles from The Quarrymen days to Let it Be, you know Stu was the true "fifth Beatle." He was John's best friend and a talented artist. In his very short life he made an indelible mark in the world of popular music - he helped name the band, and despite having very little musical talent he was deemed good enough by Lennon to join in the early glory, because no way did Lennon want a band that didn't include his closest friend. Some have speculated (or perhaps wished) that the Lennon-Sutcliffe relationship stretched past platonic into something more intimate - though no proof really exists of that. Philip Norman's John Lennon: The Life goes so far as to boldly suggest that Lennon had caused the aneurysm that claimed Sutcliffe's life - perhaps one of the few surprises that biography offered, one that is also quite difficult to prove.

What do we know about Sutcliffe? We know he accompanied John, Paul, George, and Pete (remember, this is the pre-Starr era) to Hamburg to pay the requisite starving musician dues in the Reeperbahn, which apparently in the late 50s, early 60s made Las Vegas look like Sesame Street. He met a local girl named Astrid - a kindred soul and eventual confidante - and chose to follow his heart. Sadly, his head didn't prove as healthy or as willing to stay, and he lives on mainly through stories that keep the band's early spirit alive.

It is only fitting, too, that the story of Stu and Astrid's brief yet iconic relationship be portrayed in a graphic novel. Baby's in Black was conceived and drawn by artist Arne Bellstorf. The title comes from the Lennon/McCartney song, a somber ballad that Astrid's loss inspired.

Black opens with an ominous dream of Astrid wandering alone in the woods, transfixed by something that doesn't belong there but ultimately does. She's awakened by friend (and former companion) Klaus Voormann, who has just come from a club in the Reeperbahn having experienced a phenomenon unlike anything he's seen: rock and roll, and more specifically the five-piece British band playing it. It's clearly life-changing enough to justify waking Astrid in the middle of the night to convince her to see the act. The moment she agrees sets in motion Astrid's own life-changing moment when she joins Klaus the next night and notices the quiet bassist hiding behind sunglasses as he tries to hide his musical inadequacies.

Black near-faithfully progresses with the courtship of Astrid and Stu, which flourishes despite a tenuous language barrier and the ever-present specter of Klaus, who seems to find consolation in actively supporting The Beatles' young career (Voormann would remain associated with the band for years in various roles). The black and white artwork nicely sets the atmosphere of postwar Germany - even in the merriest of places like Hamburg's red-light district there is an underlying seediness that simply cannot be expressed in color. The young Beatles are reproduced to recognition: Paul's expressive eyes, George's pensive brow, and John's wizened expression. Pete Best, another "fifth" in the band's lore, barely figures into the story.

If there are any complaints about Black, they may stem from the comparisons I keep wanting to make to the film Backbeat, which is the only other source I'm familiar with that focuses on this part of Beatles history. Where the film brought out tensions rising from Stu's defection, and perhaps a hint of resentment aimed at Astrid for "stealing" Stu, you don't get that in Black. Through much of the book, expressions do not furrow or pinch in anger - everything just seems to happen. Perhaps this was a quality of the existentialist attitude that influenced Astrid and Klaus's circle of friends back in the day, but having read other accounts of the band's Hamburg days (particularly Lennon's zealous attempts to incite the crowd with Nazi references) I have noticed much of that is downplayed in this book. Of course, this story belongs to Stuart and Astrid, so there is really no need for Lennon's antics to disrupt the flow.

Baby's in Black remarkably realizes this brief passage in modern music history. Simple dialogue and bold imagery speak out in a way no song can.

Rating: A-

Kathryn Lively is a mystery author whose titles include Rock Deadly and Rock Til You Drop.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me - Pattie Boyd

Years ago when I purchased the gigantic The Beatles Anthology hardcover, one criticism I read bemoaned the lack of contribution from some of the more important witnesses to the band's history: the women. When I think of all the Beatles related books I have read, I realize I have read biographies written by people who were close to the band (Peter Brown) and others by those who merely saw the Beatles as the rest of us did - from a distance. They devoted more time researching the lore and sorting the truth from legend, and so far everything I've read appears to corroborate, give or take a few surprises.

Getting back to the Beatles' women, in the band biographies they are often relegated to the back seat. With solo stories, your mileage may vary. John Lennon: The Life presents the history of a man dominated by women. Well, two at least. I've not read bios of the other three yet, but it happened that I found a copy of Wonderful Tonight at a closing Borders and grabbed it for the TBR pile. Musically speaking, George was always my favorite, and all I know about him comes from Brown's memoir and what I've since found in rare interviews and, of course, the post-Beatles music. Pattie Boyd, George's first wife (and later, Eric Clapton's first), is long known as his first muse as well, having inspired some of rock music's best-known tributes. While she isn't the first wife/girlfriend to influence a Beatle into quality songwriting ("Here, There, and Everywhere" was allegedly written for Jane Asher), I'd always thought her the most interesting. It was my hope this long-awaited memoir lived up to the hype.

The one thing I immediately took away from Pattie's book, and this is something I'm guessing any reader would expect, was this unfortunate pattern of unhealthy relationships she endured. The beginning chapters recall, with lack of clarity, a young life in Africa in a semi-stable family. One might be envious to know a girl raised in such exotic environs, but instead we are told a story about passive parents and a father who gradually fades away, to be replaced by a stepfather who doesn't do any better for Pattie and her siblings. Adulthood proves her first opportunity to escape and achieve happiness and a sense of accomplishment, and it's this determination to succeed as a model that gets her the gig of a lifetime, a walk-on part in a Beatles film.



She's the blonde and has only one line. One word, actually, but behind the scenes it was a different story. Now, I can forgive how Boyd glosses over her childhood. She seems to imply, too, she only recalls so much, but the picture of life before George that she paints offers vivid glimpses into the hip sixties, where people of all classes socialized and interacted. A brief anecdote about inviting a famous dancer to her table sticks out in my mind - what she describes, I'm sure, doesn't happen much these days, even with celebrity accessibility via Twitter.

In some instances, though, I read a passage and wish Boyd had gone into more detail. The Beatle courtship also reads a bit rushed. Some of what Boyd relays I remember from other books and accounts of peak Beatlemania. I can also forgive her here, for she had come during the touring years and therefore didn't have much access to the scene beyond receiving hate mail from fans. It isn't until Clapton enters the picture that Boyd is freer with detail, yet reading through Wonderful Tonight I got the sense that there is still more to tell here.

Boyd's voice comes off as sadly wooden, as though she's telling us okay, you've bugged me for years to tell my story, here it is. Having lived the life surely exhausted her, perhaps to the point that there is no emotion left for the book. As other readers of this book confirmed, I had a problem with the time-hopping in this work. Boyd tends to jump back and forth with anecdotes - she may start with an event that happened in the mid-sixties and leapfrog a decade, then come back. If you're the type of reader who craves chronological order, Wonderful Tonight may give you a bit of a headache. If you believe Eric Clapton can do no wrong, too, you may not want to pick it up at all.

What emotion I do sense in the book comes forth as pain, mostly where Clapton is concerned. I wouldn't say that Boyd's account of her second marriage is scathing, but if what she writes is the truth then my opinion of the man musicians call God is now virtually non-existent.

Once we're past the marriages, Boyd's life seems to waver between self-doubt and spiritual search. While she claims not to have gained financially from her divorces (she claims to be overdrawn often at the bank), she apparently has enough income to travel extensively, and the remainder of the book reads like a gossip column. She had dinner with Mike Rutherford of Genesis, she stayed at Ron Wood's house, met this person and that. More time is spent talking about other people, and not Pattie Boyd. We know who Mike Rutherford and Ron Wood are, Pattie, who are you?

I wanted to love this book, but at best I liked that Pattie finally came forward open up about her life. I still get the sense there's more to tell, however. That this book came out after George died made me wonder if she waited on purpose, yet she still lives now as she did when she was Mrs. Harrison, then Mrs. Clapton: as a young woman doing her best to maintain balance and harmony in her environment, and living by merely accepting what happens. I hope that's not the case. A woman who would willingly hang-glide without a thought for the outcome shouldn't be afraid to bare her soul.

Rating: C

Kathryn Lively is a mystery author who reads and drinks wine.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life - Steve Almond

So, what have I learned after reading Steve Almond's Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (AMZ / BN)?

(You might consider these spoilers. If so, read with your eyes shut.)

1) Apparently there was a time when Styx wasn't cool before Kilroy Was Here.

2) Toto's "Africa" may well threaten "We Built This City" as the Worst. Song. Ever.

3) In the 80s, everything came with cocaine, even tote bags.

4) When I, too, contemplate the timeline of modern music technology, I realize I feel old as the author does. One day my daughter is going to find one of the cassettes we have inexplicably hanged onto - though we no longer have anything with which to play it - and ask, "What is this?"

5) I pretty much agree with the author's list of Rock's Biggest A$$holes. Glad to see Rush didn't make the cut, but they didn't have a chance.

6) Weird Al apparently had groupies back in the day.

You do get the flavor of High Fidelity in this book - it reads as part memoir and part music theory, exploring the things people do in the name of rock and roll and how the music affects us and the way we live. Not a bad pick for a music club. I look forward to the discussion.

Rating: B

Kathryn Lively is a mystery author whose titles include Rock Deadly and Pithed: An Andy Farmer Mystery.