A new book about The Beatles titled All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words is set to be published on Tuesday, April 9. The book, which was co-written by one-time Fab Four associate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines, features previously unpublished interviews that the two men conducted in 1980 and ’81 in preparation for The Love You Make, the controversial 1983 book they penned that featured salacious details about the band members.
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As in The Love You Make, All You Need Is Love features information gathered from interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and a variety of people who were in the group’s inner circle. Those people include Brown himself, who was Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s assistant before taking over as the band’s manager after Epstein’s death.
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According to The Times of London, All You Need Is Love features Brown’s recollection of an incident where he’d invited The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger to a 1969 meeting with The Beatles that wound up leaving Jagger feeling “very uncomfortable.”
Brown told The Times that he’d asked Jagger to the meeting in an attempt to dissuade The Beatles from hiring Allen Klein to manage the Fab Four’s business affairs. Klein oversaw The Stones’ finances from 1965 to 1970, and his maneuvering led to him gaining control over much of that group’s publishing. McCartney also was distrustful of Klein and refused to sign with him, but John Lennon felt differently.
As Brown recalled, Lennon unexpectedly had Klein “turn up to the same meeting, which was deeply embarrassing. It made Mick very uncomfortable too.”
Brown Reflects on Why Lennon May Have Liked Klein
Regarding why Lennon may have been enamored with Klein, Gaines told The Times that it may have had something to do with Klein’s apparent interest in a movie project for which Yoko Ono was seeking financial backing.
“The interviews suggest it is because Allen Klein offered Yoko a million dollars for her movie project,” Gaines said. “She was enticed and John would do anything Yoko said.”
More About Klein’s Association with The Beatles
McCartney eventually was outvoted by Lennon, Harrison, and Starr. Klein was ultimitely signed by The Beatles as their interim financial manager. The conflict wound up playing a role in the band’s breakup. In 1973, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr fired Klein, with Lennon admitting that McCartney probably had been right to mistrust him.
The Book Also Features McCartney and Harrison Criticizing Lennon
A New York Times article about All You Need Is Love reveals that the book also features interviews with McCartney and Harrison. The interviews were conducted shortly before Lennon’s death, in which they were critical of their former bandmate.
Harrison calls Lennon “a piece of [expletive],” and reflects on John’s abrasiveness, wondering why he’d “become so nasty.”
McCartney calls Lennon and Ono “very suspicious people,” and suggests that it was difficult to maintain a friendship with them.
“The way to get their friendship is to do everything the way they require it,” McCartney says in one interview. “To do anything else is how to not get their friendship.”
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