Meet the Beatles for Real: India

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The Beatles All Too Much: A book Review

Photo by Pattie Boyd

Because I am flying somewhere different across the United States each week for my job, I have been reading on the plane a lot. Last week I read a Beatles book The Beatles All Too Much: The Untold Story of A Hollywood Actor's Two Months with The Beatles in India written by Judd Klinger.

The actor in question is Tom Simcox, a frequent Western television actor in the United States in the 1950s and 60s. Tom gave the author an interview, telling his complete story of his time in Rishikesh and with the Maharishi for the first time. If you have read other books about the Beatles time in India, you will have heard about Tom being there. Tom befriended Cynthia Lennon during this time and was a friend as Cynthia was confused by her husband's lack of interest in her. I have a feeling that if Cynthia was not there with her husband, a romance might have happened between them because they quickly became friendly with each other.

I found this book to be very interesting because it mostly goes into the reason why John and George were upset with the Maharishi, what the rumors were about the guru and women and how Magic Alex manipulated the entire ordeal. One thing I did not realize was that Mia Farrow did accuse the Maharishi of making a pass at her -- but this occurred BEFORE the Beatles arrived. Mia was upset and left the ashram for a bit and then returned after The Beatles had arrived. I also learned how The Beatles were treated royally at the ashram while others who were there for the same reason such as Tom, were not allowed the same "luxuries."

I liked this book because I was able to read it on a flight from St. Louis to Houston and it was interesting with enough new bits of information to keep me interested.

https://amzn.to/3UXcpbe

* I make a small percentage of money for each purchase using this affiliate link. The money from the purchase of Amazon books is what is used to keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Back home again

March 3, 1968

So a lot has been said about Ringo leaving because of the food and Maureen leaving because of the bugs, but Ringo has also said that they didn't plan on staying for very long at Rishikesh. And who could blame them? Their son, Jason, was just 6 months old at the time. Babies at that age grow and change so quickly-- and there aren't many parents that want to leave their babies for months. I am sure they were happy to get back to Zak and Jason.

Class picture

Before Ringo and Maureen left India, a huge "class photo" of everyone at Rishikesh was taken. When you see the full large photo, you realize that quite a few students were there -- more than you realize.