Book Review: Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved

Book Review: Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved
By Chris O’Dell with Katherine Ketcham

I’ve often wondered when reading memoirs… what do you leave in? What do you leave out? What might not be exciting to you, might be exciting to others. But how do you know? Where do you begin? Where do you end? How deep do you go? And how on earth do you choose?

Now, say you are someone like Chris O’Dell who worked with three of the major bands of the ’70s. You are touring with the big names and every day is something out of a movie for the average person. How on earth do you decide what to focus on?

O’Dell focuses on plenty in her memoir but keeps the action going and generally flows from one thing to the next with few holes left for the reader to leap over (or knowledge gaps to fall into). O’Dell begins with her first touch with fame–The Beatles and how she landed a job working in their company. From there, the whirlwind picks up speed as she meets more and more famous musicians, the drugs and alcohol get more serious, and the names just keep on getting bigger. (And maybe a few big names write you a few songs along the way as well.) Before long, O’Dell is best friends with several of the Beatles and their wives, is sleeping with Mick Jagger, on first name basis with Bob Dylan, and borrowing a place to crash from Eric Clapton. Yeah, a little bit like something out of a movie for someone like me! (I shook hands with Prince Charles–is that worth anything? Okay, not in this context, but I just wanted to bring it up.)

An interesting look into the lives of musicians (being on tour is a lot like I imagined! Okay, a little more hectic and crazy!), their wives, lives, and those that keep them all together. (In some cases, that would be Miss O’Dell, thank you very much.)

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