Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles,The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved
Written by Katherine Ketcham and Chris O'Dell
Narrated by Renée Raudman
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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.
Jam-packed with intimate anecdotes, Miss O'Dell is a backstage pass to some of the most momentous events in rock history.
Katherine Ketcham
Katherine Ketcham is the coauthor of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption by William Moyers, the bestselling classics Under the Influence with James Milam, and The Spirituality of Imperfection with Ernest Kurtz. More than 1.4 million copies of her books are in print, and her books have been translated into 13 languages. She has three adult children and lives in Walla Walla, Washington with her husband.
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The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Miss O'Dell
13 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fun insiders look at the 70s rock scene. Her take on the Beatles is particularly interesting, since she worked for them and knew them for quite a period of time, but does not appear to have an axe to grind with any of them. I think the best part of the book is how normal the author seems - it's difficult to relate to the glamourous Patti Boyd or super fabulous Bianca Jagger, but easy to see a piece of yourself in Chris O'Dell.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Actually this book was better than I expected.... (have I been saying this a bit lately).
I had no idea who Chris O'Dell was or that she was more than a groupie, but the title of the book intrigued me, so I pulled it from the shelf.
It turns out Chris O'Dell was in the right place at the right time..... A friend of hers invited her out one night to meet Derek Taylor who worked with the Beatles at Apple. Derek invited Chris to go back to London to Apple and once there she volunteered at Apple until she was offered a job.
She worked w/ Neil Aspinall, Peter Asher, George & Patti Harrison, Eric Clapton and many other well placed recording industry people. She was once the short-term girlfriend of Leon Russel....
Some of her stories are pathetic, how drugs & alcohol made some of the musicians just freaking nuts, how the addictions almost destroyed her.....
Not too much name dropping going on (which I was worried there would be), just the relationships she had with these people.
I have to hand it to her, she stuck to it and made a pretty good life for herself.