 | |
List Price: $26.00 | | Publisher: Touchstone
Salesrank: 7767
|
| Our Price: $9.00 |
| Used Price: $7.77 |
|
| Media: Hardcover |
|
Editorial Review:
CHRIS O'DELL WASN'T FAMOUS. SHE WASN'T EVEN ALMOST FAMOUS. BUT SHE WAS THERE.
She was in the studio when the Beatles recorded The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, and when Paul recorded "Hey Jude," she sang in the chorus.
She was at Ringo's kitchen table when George Harrison said, "You know, Ringo, I'm in love with your wife." And Ringo replied, "Better you than someone we don't know."
She typed the lyrics to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. She lived with George and Pattie Boyd at Friar Park, developed a crush on Eric Clapton, and unwittingly got involved in the famous love story between Eric and Pattie.
She's the subject of Leon Russell's "Pisces Apple Lady," a song he wrote to woo her. Other rock legends with whom she was intimate include Ringo, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan.
She worked with the Rolling Stones as their personal assistant on their infamous 1972 tour and did a drug run for Keith Richards.
She's "the woman down the hall" in Joni Mitchell's song "Coyote" about a love triangle on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour. She's the "mystery woman" pictured on the back of the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street. She's the "Miss O'Dell" of George Harrison's song about her.
Miss O'Dell is the remarkable story of an ordinary woman who lived the dream of millions -- to be part of rock royalty's trusted inner circle. Illustrated with private photographs and jam-packed with intimate anecdotes, Miss O'Dell is a backstage pass to some of the most momentous events in rock history.
Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved Reviews:
The Real Deal 
2009-12-01 - Chris O'Dell has given us an authentic experience in her memoirs of living the rock and roll life. And, she lived it with the most important people in the genre, in the age and beyond.
It's impossible to sit and imagine what it might have been like to live and work among the Beatles, or the Stones, Dylan and beyond. Chris takes us there, puts us in the midst of these people and does it all while telling her story. It's all hers, she's not trying to relate their lives, only the life she lived while involved with them.
The word "groupie" crops up periodically from people trying to describe her, and yet this woman worked in the industry, became the first female tour manager and, more than that, she forged a path for other women to work in the music industry beyond the role of the secretary or "assistant". If you're looking for more than diary type memories, then consider how revolutionary she really was in an age that was only just beginning to emerge out of the "housewife" mentality of the earlier generations.
Chris O'Dell gives us a delightful, exciting and sometimes "gasping for air" account of life in the 60's. If you don't remember that era, didn't live through it, you may not understand what it meant to be a pioneer of the decades to come. Freedom meant exploration, and that exploration led to issues and sometimes, regrettably, dependencies on drugs or alcohol that was unknown previously. New drugs like LSD revolutionized creative thought, but often led to other more pervasive addictions.
Happily, Miss O'Dell's path does lead to a life that is dedicated to solving problems and helping people. Hers is not one dimensional, as might have been the case with someone of lesser values and conscience. The book offers insight, folly and pathos. Many of the larger than life characters are suddenly, simply people. It takes someone of a caring nature to impart a sympathetic view of people who are shaping our world culturally and creatively. They become more than icons of an age.
I loved reading this book. As a fan, as a member of a generation that was impacted by the period she takes us to, and as a woman.
Serendipity or destiny? Who's to say. Either way, anything is possible.
Essential for fans of the era
2009-11-30 - The readers who take this book as an entertaining look at the music business, fame, and sex, drugs & rock n' roll are going to find a feast of great stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses of some remarkable people, and palpable sense of the times it describes. The author's honesty has alienated some reviewers, but she appears to understand that her life was mostly about courting the rich and glamorous, flirting with rock stars and attending the right parties. Her account of her troubles along the way keeps the story from being as gossipy and shallow as it might sound. If you'd like to attend some of those parties and slip into a few of those limos yourself, you won't find a more charming guide than Miss O'Dell.
Is it largely celebrity gossip? Yeah. Some great stories, though, and a sensitive portrait of George Harrison, in particular, make the ride worthwhile. Lots of fun and hard to put down - up there with the best accounts of rock and roll life.
With friends like that.... 
2009-11-29 - Chris O'Dell has had a lifetime of experiences that many of us would give our eyeteeth for. She's hobnobbed with the Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and a bevy of other famous rock musicians... not to mention sleeping with several of them, too. Anybody who has happy memories of the 60s and the memorable music spawned by that decade would enjoy reading details about the lives and loves of the great musicians of that time. And there's a lot of fascinating tidbits in this book, e.g., "If there had been a job description for being employed by the Stones back then, I'm pretty sure it would have included a proviso that went something like this: Sleep with Mick whenever he asks." And after reading Ms. O'Dell's tell-all memoir, I'm guessing that the Stones are also regretting not including a non-disclosure agreement in their non-existent job description.
Given all the juicy details in this memor, why, then did I not give this book a higher rating? I think it's because I ended up feeling that Chris O'Dell would be one heck of an interesting person to share a meal with, but I don't know if I'd want her as a friend--as her idea of friendship apparently includes writing a book that reveals intimate details about famous people who probably would prefer to have their private lives remain private; borrowing a large sum of money from a rich and famous friend but failing to repay it; sponging off friends' generosity by living in their home for weeks, possibly months, at a time; and, oh, sleeping with one of her best friend's husband.
It's not often I read an autobiography and end up not liking the person who wrote the book. But I finished this book with the feeling that Ms. O'Dell never grasped how she comes across in the pages of her own memoir. Particularly telling is a passage toward the end of the book, where she describes a fight she has with Ringo, who scolds her for overstaying her welcome and says, "you're eating the children's food." Her response, however, was one of wounded outrage: "how could he talk to me like that, as if I were a servant, or, worse, a freeloader taking advantage of his family's hospitality?" Well, perhaps because she WAS freeloading off his family's hospitality. Or maybe it was the paragraph where she was telling Maureen Harrison why she liked her latest boyfriend so much, and right after detailing his good looks and how much fun he was to be with, she concludes with "And he's got money--that has to count for something." But I think the straw that broke the camel's back was her description of the last tour she worked on, for Echo and the Bunnymen. She recounts the time when one of the Bunnymen came off the stage dripping with sweat, asking for a towel, but instead she snapped at him, "Get your own damn towel." She stresses that she would have been happy to get a towel for George or Mick or Bob or somebody else more famous, but a Bunnyman? He just didn't pass her fame threshold, and the inconvenient fact that (hello!) she was WORKING FOR HIM AS A TOUR PROMOTER was obviously something that could be easily tossed aside.
But I rant. If you want salacious details about sex and drugs with famous rock stars from the 60s, this is a good book, and it'll keep you entertained.
Miss O'Dell - The Rock Chick Next Door Living a Rock and Roll Fantasy
2009-11-29 - Imagine being swept back into the world of Rock and Roll during the late 1960s through the 1970s and becoming close to the best musicians of the time.... The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, CSNY and others. Chris O'Dell lived a life most people could only imagine in their wildest dreams. A down-to-earth American girl, who finds herself in a world full of bright lights and big stars. She has had songs written about her by Leon Russell and George Harrison. The B-side of his single "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" is a song called "Miss O'Dell", a catchy little giggly country number George wrote when she kept blowing him off when they were supposed to meet up while he was in town. At the time she was having some difficulty keeping it all together due to constantly trying to find the right combination of drinking, coke and pills. That is but one of the stories in the facinating new rock memoir: "Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved."
Miss O'Dell tells her story starting with meeting and befriending Derek Taylor of Apple Records and taking a chance and going to London on a whim and making herself a place as a valued employee at Apple, working her way up from scrapbooking and running for lunch to becoming an assistant to various executives there, until mean old Mr. Klein (booooo! hisssss!) dismantles it. She is present for some pretty big moments of rock-n-roll history such as the Beatles rooftop concert, singing the na-nas in Hey Jude, being part of the historic first benefit rock show, The Concert for Bangladesh, witnessing the George/Patti/Eric go-round, and being at Eric and Pattie's wedding. She became close friends with Maureen Starkey and Patti Boyd and lived with the Harrisons at Friar Park for a spell, along with the Hare Krishnas at one point. She tells how she fell hard for Leon Russell and followed him back to the States where she lived with him during a roller coaster romance before going back to London.
Chris O'Dell became one of the first, if not the first, female rock tour managers and toured with The Rolling Stones, Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour, CSNY, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, Queen, and others. She was the mysterious girl pictured on the back of the Stones Exile on Main Street. She played gopher a lot, whether it was for drugs for the Stones or Bob Dylan's harmonicas, and lived the tough life on the road with several bands and catered to their every whim. She even participated in a couple love triangles, being cast as the one down the hall in the Joni Mitchell song, "Coyote" which was about their affair with Sam Shepherd during a Dylan tour. Chris may even have helped destroy Ringo's marriage to Maureen, one of her best friends.
As someone who has befriended and partied with so many famous people, Chris O'Dell shares her adventures in the madcap world of sex, drugs and rock and roll without being too raunchy or disrespectful of our idols. There are, however, times where you wish she would dig deeper and tell you more. I probably need to read Pattie Boyd's book "Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me" to get a fuller picture. One thing that kinda struck me as odd was that Chris had to pretty much pinky swear not to sleep with George before Pattie would let her come close.... But I guess in that world, it made perfect sense, and once she was in, she was really in as a BFF.
Chris O'Dell lets us look over her shoulder at the people behind the music we know and love. She gives us a glimpse inside the world of rock during a very historic era. You see her as an insider, not a groupie out to bed the biggest names in rock and roll. She is likable and seems to be both the luckiest and unluckiest gal in the world. You find that rock stars aren't the only ones who struggle with keeping their addiction demons in check or make terrible messes of their love lives. She was right there doing it too, while on her seemingly endless cycle of self-destruction. The storytelling in the book is neither braggy nor preachy, and you find yourself rooting for the girl to find a nice man and live happily ever after. When she finally meets and marries a man who appears to be Prince Charming, an English aristocrat, he turns out to be an addict too... so that was a false start to her happy ending. She does eventually end up cleaning herself up for good and finding herself. Read the book and see if she ever meets her prince and ends up happily ever after. Chris O'Dell is now a licensed substance abuse counselor in Arizona.
Chris O'Dell certainly has an interesting story to tell and this book should be required reading for any Beatle-fan or student of rock and roll history.
Reviewed by Kathy Wheeler, [...]
indispensible!
2009-11-29 - I got this book on Wednesday and finished it the next Saturday and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Although the author may state otherwise, I think the main market for this book are those people who are interested in the Beatles and obtaining an insider's view of what was going on (I would imagine the author would prefer a wider audience).
Over the years a number of books of this ilk have been published - Richard De Lillo's Longest Cocktail Party being the first and then followed by books written by people such as Peter Brown, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, May Pang, Ken Mansfield, Tony Bramwell, Derek Taylor, Alastair Taylor, Tony Barrow (and the list goes on....) - all insiders or ex-wives whose stories, when put together, are like spokes on a wheel that meet up in the centre - the Beatles - and I, for one, despite the expense, prefer these books to general books written by people who just weren't there.
Chris O'Dell's book is a very welcome addition to the "genre" - she comes over as a modest, warm, no-nonsense, honest and friendly person who is not afraid to criticize herself. The book is at its best when she describes her relationship with George, Pattie Boyd, Maureen Starkey and Ringo Starr. It works fine on the Rolling Stones tour but is far too laconic when describing her time on Dylan's tour Rolling Thunder Tour- I also thought the short but painful description of her first marriage should have been edited on the grounds of privacy - but I'm probably being too priggish here.
For Beatle fans this is the best book that gives a picture of Maureen Starkey and the break up of Ringo's and Georges marriages. Sometimes, writing descriptions and recollections is similar to taking a portrait photograph - don't use a close up/wide angle lens - it will distort the picture - better use a medium telephoto - the same applies to the life of George/Ringo etc during the early mid 70's - Pattie Boyd's book ("Wonderful Tonight" - an excellent book by the way) is written by someone who was close and personal - the view given by O'Dell is, at times, more interesting because of the authors relative distance (I hope I have made myself understood by this over long metaphor....).
This book is the only book I know that gives any first hand description of George's tour of the US in 1974 - although it is painfully short - the description of her experiences on the tour are worth the price of the book! She describes, in touching detail, the meeting John Lennon and George Harrison had, after one concert, with a rather distraught Maureen Starkey (someone who comes over very well in the book and deserves a biog in her right - it is a pity she drops out of sight in the book after she marries Isaac Tigret - and I do think the author, when she does describe Maureen Starkey's second husband, was rather mean in her narrative).
Other highlights of the book center on Eric Clapton (who doesn't come out at all well from this book) and Leon Russell.
One last point - if the book had any theme it would be substance abuse. The degree of substance abuse is from another age and I do think the author, at certain points in the narrative, does romanticize drugs - even during the late 60's people were dying from over use of drugs and I think, at times, she should have counterbalanced stories about a cocaine crystal the size of a basket ball being snorted with Stephen Stills with something more negative about the effects - but then again, to quote one reviewer here, I may be too PC.
I found the book very interesting and well written - there were a few factual mistakes (I would be pedantic if I mentioned them...) but it ranks, in my opinion, as one of the best books written about the Beatles written by an insider - in fact I would say it was indispensible to people interested in the Beatles or Eric Clapton and want to scrape underneath the surface.
