Jenny Boyd

Last updated

Jenny Boyd
Born
Helen Mary Boyd

(1947-11-08) 8 November 1947 (age 76)
Guildford, Surrey, England
Occupation(s)Former model, rock muse, author, clinical manager
Years active1962–present
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1970;div. 1976)​
​
​
(m. 1977;div. 1978)​
​
​
(m. 1984,divorced)​
David Levitt
​
(m. 1997)​

Helen Mary "Jenny" Boyd (born 8 November 1947) is an English former model, the younger sister of 1960s model and photographer Pattie Boyd (first wife of George Harrison). She quit her modelling career in the 1960s after discovering Transcendental Meditation, stating that modelling was "a waste of her time". She later managed an addiction treatment centre and wrote two books.

Contents

Early life and career

Helen Mary Boyd was born in Guildford, Surrey, England in November 1947 to Diana Frances Boyd (née Drysdale) and Colin "Jock" Ian Langdon Boyd, a pilot. [1]

She was a freelance model in the 1960s, and often accompanied her sister Pattie to modelling jobs. Through Pattie's relationship with George Harrison, she came to know the Beatles, various bands that included Eric Clapton, and other major British rock acts. [1] As a rock star muse, Boyd inspired Donovan and Mick Jagger to write songs about her. [1]

From December 1967, she worked at the Beatles' short-lived retail venture, Apple Boutique, in London. [1] Early the following year, she accompanied Pattie and Harrison on the band's visit to Rishikesh in India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. [1] [2] In July 1968, she and Pattie opened a boutique in London's fashionable Chelsea Market; they named it "Jennifer Juniper" after Donovan's song of the same name. [3] Boyd managed the shop, which sold antiques and other objets d'art, while Pattie was the buyer. [4]

She wrote, or co-wrote, two songs for the band Fleetwood Mac, although the group's manager gave the writing credits to her husband, Mick Fleetwood. [1] Following Pattie's return to modelling in the early 1970s, Boyd, Pattie and their youngest sister Paula were the subject of a British Vogue shoot by photographer Patrick Lichfield. [5]

Boyd attended UCLA in the late 1980s, earned a PhD in psychology, and became manager of an addiction treatment clinic. She co-authored a book about music and psychology, titled Musicians in Tune. [6] She spent many years running an addiction treatment centre in England. [1] In 2020, she published her autobiography, titled Jennifer Juniper. [7]

Personal life

Despite Boyd being the inspiration of Donovan's song "Jennifer Juniper", they were never in a relationship, although Donovan admitted to having a crush on her. [8] [1] "Jennifer Juniper" was released as a single in March 1968 and on the album The Hurdy Gurdy Man later that year. [8] Boyd shared an apartment with Magic Alex of Apple Corps's Apple Electronics subdivision. [1]

Boyd was 15 when she met a similarly young Mick Fleetwood, who attended her school. [1] At the time, Fleetwood was the drummer in the Bo Street Runners; he later co-founded Fleetwood Mac. They began an on-and-off relationship that would last 15 years. They married in June 1970 and had two daughters, Lucy and Amy. After divorcing Fleetwood (and remarrying and divorcing him a second time), [9] Boyd married drummer Ian Wallace in 1984 but they later divorced. [1] In 1997 Boyd married the architect David Levitt. [1]

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In late August 1967, the English rock band the Beatles attended a seminar on Transcendental Meditation (TM) held by Indian teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a training college in Bangor in north-west Wales. The visit attracted international publicity for Transcendental Meditation and presented the 1960s youth movement with an alternative to psychedelic drugs as a means to attaining higher consciousness. The Beatles' endorsement of the technique followed the band's incorporation of Indian musical and philosophical influences in their work, and was initiated by George Harrison's disillusionment with Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, which he visited in early August.

Beatles Ashram, also known as Chaurasi Kutia, is an ashram close to the north Indian city of Rishikesh in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located on the eastern bank of the Ganges river, opposite the Muni Ki Reti area of Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. During the 1960s and 1970s, as the International Academy of Meditation, it was the training centre for students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who devised the Transcendental Meditation technique. The ashram gained international attention between February and April 1968 when the English rock band the Beatles studied meditation there, along with celebrities such as Donovan, Mia Farrow and Mike Love. It was the setting for the band's most productive period as songwriters, where they composed most of the songs for their self-titled double album, also known as the "White Album".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Farber, Jim (30 March 2020). "'It's not what you think': behind the star-studded life of a rock star's wife". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. ↑ Lennon, Cynthia (10 February 2008). "The Beatles, the Maharishi and me". The Sunday Times . p. 3.
  3. ↑ Harry, Bill (2003). The George Harrison Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 63. ISBN   978-0-7535-0822-0.
  4. ↑ Boyd, Pattie; Junor, Penny (2007). Wonderful Today: The Autobiography. London: Headline Review. pp. 137–38. ISBN   978-0-7553-1646-5.
  5. ↑ Boyd, Pattie; Junor, Penny (2007). Wonderful Today: The Autobiography. London: Headline Review. pp. 135–36. ISBN   978-0-7553-1646-5.
  6. ↑ Boyd, Jenny; Holly George-Warren (1992). Musicians in Tune: Seventy-five contemporary musicians discuss the creative process . New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-671-73440-7. OCLC   25984281.
  7. ↑ Boyd, Jenny (12 March 2020). Jennifer Juniper: A journey beyond the muse. United Kingdom: Urbane Publications. p. 300. ISBN   978-1912666614 . Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  8. 1 2 Leitch, Donovan (29 November 2005). The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man. St. Martin's Press. pp. 201–202. ISBN   0312352522.
  9. ↑ Jenny Boyd, Holly George-Warren (1 May 1992). Musicians in Tune . Simon & Schuster. ISBN   9780671734404 . Retrieved 19 March 2013. mick fleetwood jenny remarried 1976.
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