The sixties in London were a time of miniskirts signed by Mary Quant, and of youth, color and freedom up and down Carnaby Street, King’s Road and Kengsinton; of beatles, who’s, kinks Y stones; of Michael Caine behind the wheel of a 600 and David Hemmings in white pants and holding a camera; of protests, drugs, ideas and, above all, during a not insignificant portion of this period, it was the time of Pattie Boyd.
The model, photographer, actress and muse for the most coffee lovers of rock mythology, fascinated by the almost dozen hymns she inspired, served as a hinge in an increasingly complex society, a transversal icon capable of linking John Lennon with pockets wealthiest of the time and the changes that were coming. There was already a Queen of England, but there was a unique and fascinating period in which she reigned over London.
That life is now collected in Patty Boyd. My Life in Pictures (Reel Art Press), a biography in images of Patricia Anne Boyd (Taunton, 78 years old), who was born 200 kilometers from London and, very shortly after, in 1962, had already emigrated to the capital and started working in the legendary Elizabeth Arden beauty salon. Her job there was to be shampoo girl, that is, washing heads. That didn’t last long. “I was there simply because I needed to work. A lady came one day and asked me if she had considered me being a model and if I was interested, to go see her the following week”, she recalls today from her apartment in Kensington, where she has received ICON.
That person turned out to have contacts in the magazine Honey, vademecum of modernity. Soon, Boyd found an agent. “Then came the most complicated part: persuading photographers to take pictures of me. So I worked with a lot of young people. They needed experience and I needed photos, so that was the process for a long time,” says Boyd. Among those young people were David Bailey, Terence Donovan or Brian Duffy. “I also admit that I did not quite believe it and every time I got it I thought, damn how lucky I have been. Then another session came and I thought the same thing: damn, this one hasn’t noticed either.”
A couple of years later, Boyd, all bangs and huge eyes, was the most famous face in Swinging London. Twiggy, the legendary model of the time, who by the way is a close friend of Boyd, declared her her essential reference. Mary Quant said that the requirement of every modern woman was to look more like Pattie Boyd than Marlene Dietrich. “Their goal of hers is to look almost childishly youthful, so unsophisticated as to be almost naïve, and it takes a lot of sophistication to achieve that look.” She, meanwhile, rubbed shoulders with the most legendary actors, poets and musicians of the time. “I’ll tell you something: everything happened so many years ago that, when I think about it, I always have the feeling that I’m looking at someone else’s life. Add to that that I don’t remember most of it: I remember the fun parts and I keep the best memories, but otherwise it’s all a long way off, ”she jokes.
You do remember a pivotal moment: “A guy came by once and saw my book and I think he liked it because he hired me. I thought it was another TV commercial [Boyd acababa de filmar un spot para las patatas fritas Smith’s], but that night my agent told me that I had been hired for a film with the Beatles. I told him it couldn’t be, how was I going to appear in a Beatles movie. But it turned out yes [El anuncio de Smith’s había sido dirigido por Richard Lester, colaborador cinematográfico de los de Liverpool y director de su primera película, A Hard Day’s Night (1964)]. He was just going to blurt out a sentence and wear a schoolgirl uniform, which seemed ridiculous, but okay. Then everything else came, so I’m not going to complain.”
Summary of what everything else is: fell in love with George Harrison and both ended up married. She was, in fact, the one who introduced Harrison to the realm of Indian spirituality and became a fixture on the band’s travels, eventually changing the sound of the biggest band on the planet forever: in Stir (1966) some sitars were already heard, shortly after the Rolling Stones brought the idea to their Paint It Black and, by 1968, the Beatles were taking group trips to India to learn how to meditate. “I don’t miss those times,” he amends with septuagenarian sarcasm. “If I could transport myself there right now I would love it, of course, but I loved my life then the same way I love it now. It was living in a bubble, surrounded by famous people, where all doors were open to you. But even today I lead a wonderful life. If the fame of the group affected me? They did not behave as if they were special, but as ordinary people. That made it all very easy,” she recalls.
Harrison’s divorce ultimately cemented Boyd’s legendary status. Shortly before the separation of the Beatles, the guitarist had begun to collaborate with his friend Eric Clapton; With the group disbanded, Harrison and Clapton spent so much time playing together, with Boyd photographing them, so close that Clapton fell in love with her. Withering and irrevocable: so much so that he dedicated a song to her, layla. Today, that seven-minute epic about a woman you can’t have is one of the most famous anthems in ’70s rock.
Boyd ended up leaving Harrison for Clapton and that was the first of many songs devoted to him. “I’m not a muse,” she warns. “I mean, I understand what you mean, but for me, and I tell you this with all sincerity, everything is in the hands of the artist: everything is in his head. Then he can project that to whoever he wants, but it’s up to the artist. That said, it makes me very happy to hear them. But I can’t be so narcissistic as to believe that they are talking about me, I don’t believe it. I still remember the first time George told me that he had written something for me. I looked at him and said: ‘Why have you written a song for me, why do I deserve a song? What have I done to inspire her?’
A note that proves her right: Boyd is a reasonably successful photographer whose documentation of the time, especially with the Beatles and Clapton, has been exhibited all over the world. She was not only an icon of that time, she was also its historian. “I remember how free and happy I felt and the feeling that the world would never change. I noticed that zeitgeist in the atmosphere, how creativity and excitement and the feeling that we were about to get to something completely new filled everything, the number of painters and musicians that were coming up, great artists, great photographers, the number of cinemas that were… It was an incredible time,” he recalls.
The present? These times of Twitch, Twitter, TikTok? “Impossible, I would not have been able, in any way. With social networks it is very difficult to do what you want to do, decide who you are, be connected to everything every minute, relentlessly. I would have completely outdone myself,” he acknowledges.
Now, with the release of the book, Patricia Anne Boyd is back in front of the cameras and microphones. “Well, it’s not something that scares me, it’s not like I’m at home all day watching TV, you know? I go to the theater, I still take photos and I have a very active social life, so it will not mean a big change. Before bidding her farewell, and when she is asked about the great lesson learned from a difficult life to summarize in a few paragraphs, Ella Boyd pauses for a long time. “It is essential to be true to yourself, not betray yourself, be honest and thus make people know you for who you really are. I don’t think there is anything that important.”
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Pattie Boyd is sick of being called a muse: “What have I done to inspire George Harrison?”