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Program 08-05-18-B

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It was the best of times for Pattie Boyd. Her modeling career was booming and the sixties were exploding on the London scene. One day she got a call - she'd been cast in a Beatles film. The rest is history. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet the woman who inspired three of the most famous rock songs of all time, from George Harrison's "Something" to Eric Clapton's "Layla." Also, one writer's homage to a hero in letters: Kurt Vonnegut.

SEGMENT 1:

Pattie Boyd was a young model in London when she met and married George Harrison. Eric Clapton courted her while she was still married to Harrison, and both of them wrote songs for her. She's just published her story, called "Wonderful Tonight" and tells Steve Paulson about it.

SEGMENT 2:

David Hillman almost lost his chance for a PhD when his doctoral committee questioned the part of his dissertation on recreational drug use in antiquity. He took it out, but revived it for his book "The Chemical Muse." He tells Jim Fleming that drug use was common in Greco-Roman times, and that the ancients thought it helped them get closer to the gods. Also Steve Almond tells Steve Paulson how his evolution as a writer began with a teenage obsession with Kurt Vonnegut. Though he hid that passion for years, he revealed it recently in his book "Not That You Asked."

SEGMENT 3:

Pianist Christopher O'Riley agrees with Duke Ellington that there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. He has a thriving career playing both classical music and his own arrangements of Elliot Smith and Radiohead. He tells Veronica Rueckert that the real credit for his success belongs to his mentor, Russell Sherman.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-05-18-B.

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Books:

Steve Almond, (Not That You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions (Random House)
Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me (Harmony)
David Hillman, Chemical Muse : Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization (St Martin's)

Spoken Word:

• Virgil, The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fagles, read by Simon Callow (Penguin)
  

Music:

• From the interview with Pattie Boyd:
  -Hard Day's Night/ The Beatles
  -Something/ The Beatles
  -Layla/ Eric Clapton
  -Wonderful Tonight/ Eric Clapton
  
• -Rising Eagle/ Brainscapes/Cyberoctave
  
• -Physical Cites/ The Bad Plus/ Do the Math Records
  
• -Piano Sonata Nr. 4 in E Flat Major, Opus 7/ mvt 1/Russell Sherman/ Beethoven Piano Sonatas
  
• -Between the Bars/ Christopher O'Riley plays Elliott Smith/ Home to Oblivion/World Village
  
• -Piano Sonata Nr. 28 in A Major, Opus 101/ Russell Sherman/ Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Distribution dates: week of 04/19/2009 - hour 2 week of 05/18/2008 - hour 2 click here for timings and cues

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