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A batalha pela alma dos Beatles
The world stopped in 1970 when Paul McCartney announced that he was through with the Beatles. His statement not only marked the end of the band's remarkable career, but also seemed to signal the demise of an era of unprecedented optimism in social history. Though the Beatles' breakup was widely viewed as a cultural tragedy, one of the most fascinating phases of their story was just about to begin.
Now, for the first time, You Never Give Me Your Money tells the behind-the-scenes story of the personal rivalries and legal feuds that have dominated the Beatles' lives since 1969. Journalist Peter Doggett charts the Shakespearean battles between Lennon and McCartney, the conflict in George Harrison's life between spirituality and fame, and the struggle with alcoholism that threatened to take Richard Starkey's life. In vivid detail, Doggett also describes the wild mismanagement of the Beatles' fortune staked largely in Apple Corps.
You Never Give Me Your Money is a compelling human drama and an equally rich and absorbing story of the Beatles' creative and financial empire, set up to safeguard their interests but destined to control their lives. From tragedy to triumphant reunion, and chart success to courtroom battles, this meticulously researched work tells the previously untold story of a group and a legacy that will never be forgotten.
512 pages, Unknown Binding
First published May 21, 2010
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About the author
Peter Doggett
48 books57 followersPeter Doggett has been writing about popular music, the entertainment industry and social and cultural history since 1980. A regular contributor to Mojo, Q and GQ, his books include The Art and Music of John Lennon, a volume detailing the creation of the Beatles’ Let It Be and Abbey Road albums; the pioneering study of the collision between rock and country music, Are You Ready for the Country? and, most recently, There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and the Rise and Fall of 60s Counter-culture.
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September 19, 2016
The nauseating subtitle “The Battle for the Soul of the Beatles” appears to have been replaced in a later edition by “The Beatles after the Break-Up” but that’s not quite right either because this is a very detailed account of the break-up itself – this is the first half of the book – followed by the history of Beatle legal complications, projects and personal bitternesses, reconciliations, stand-offs and flounce-outs during the 40 years which followed.
The first half was riveting reading because Mr Doggett is able to merge together in a clear non-editorialising way all the myriad strands of wonder, money, drugs and pain which led to the ugliness of the court case in which McCartney, the Beatle who up to late 1969 was still frantically pretending the band had a future, who was the one of the four with most invested in the idea of the Beatles, sued the other three to dissolve the partnership. Really, it’s not a pretty tale, and although I bought this in 2009 when it came out, only now have I got round to delving into the unpleasantness.
Mainly because Mark Lewisohn’s definitive Beatles biography is appearing so slowly – the brilliant first volume came out in 2013, part two expected in 2020, part three who knows. So You Never Give Me Your Money is like a trailer for Lewisohn part three – no doubt his version of the end of the Beatles will be 900 pages long.
IF YOU THINK THE FOLLOWING IS RATHER DULL
So this being an account where the business machinery is a major part of the story, you have to be okay with several passages like this:
Apple were now providing full-time employment for five legal teams in London and New York… the deeper the legal minds delved into the Beatles’ affairs, the more anomalies and eccentricities they discovered…There were queries about the legality of a corporate system under which George Harrison could resign as the employee of a company that he himself ran and in which he held 99% of the shares, before deciding that he did want to work for himself after all, and applying to himself for his job back.
(Well, for all I know this kind of thing goes on all the time in corporate affairs.)
WHO BROKE UP THE BEATLES? THE SIX SUSPECTS
1. JOHN LENNON
Really, he was impossible to work with between 1967 and 1970 – depressed, fried on acid and then heroin, running hither and yon after every tin pot guru from Maharishi to Arthur Janov and then being cruelly disappointed, insisting after September 68 that he was Johnandyoko and making her part of every recording session – the list goes on. And finally he decided he’s had enough of Beatles, and left in September 69. He’s the only one of the suspects to cough for the crime :
I formed the Beatles and I broke them up. It’s as simple as that. - John Lennon
2. YOKO ONO
She was from another planet, the Planet Avant Garde, the same place John Cale was from when he joined the Velvet Underground. This crowd had nothing to do with anything outside their own bubble. Yoko made films people immediately think of if they were asked to describe an avant garde film – a series of random naked bottoms; a fly crawling over a naked woman; and she did strange live stuff like Cut Piece where members of the audience (no doubt all of them other avant garde artists) came up on stage and cut off a piece of her clothing until she was naked. And she did a lot of atonal howling too. Being a woman and being Japanese and being weird she got the major hate from the public for breaking up the Beatles by luring John away into her weird world so that five minutes after meeting her he was doing unlistenable albums like Two Virgins which featured a naked photo of John and Yoko on the cover. On the cover! It was shocking in 1968 and it would still be pretty shocking now – imagine if let’s say Jack and Meg White had appeared completely naked on the cover of one of their albums. Pandemonium!
The contumely poured forth upon Yoko was sexist and racist, leading John to write his song “Everybody’s Got Something to hide Except for Me and My Monkey” because he read one comment in the press that Yoko looked like a monkey.
But accepting all of that, and the other Beatles’ macho attitudes (they were a boys’ club) her sudden omnipresence made the changed situation painfully clear like a loop tape PA announcement. If John broke up the Beatles, Yoko gave him the courage to do it.
3. PAUL MCCARTNEY
After the death of Brian Epstein Paul became group leader by default because Lennon couldn’t be bothered. You can see this quite clearly in the A sides of the singles – on the six single A sides after John’s All you Need is Love, Paul wrote five of them. He got them to do the dubious Magical Mystery Tour film and convinced them to do the disastrous Let It Be sessions in January 69. Thing was, he liked to work and the others didn’t. He wanted a job, the others didn’t. They thought there was more to life than being fab, he didn’t. (When he realized they had really broken up he spiraled into depression – the other three felt freed from a burden.) Dragooning the Beatles like that caused much of the bad feelings which enabled John to dissolve the group with no protest from Harrison or Starr.
4. APPLE
Starting out as a tax avoidance cheme, it was then hijacked by the Beatles themselves to become an all purpose artistic collective, in some ineffable way “anti-capitalist” but still hopefully profitable. It turned into none of these things but became a twisting serpent of complicated delusion which began to eat the Beatles’ money. They needed serious help, so Lennon found his next guru.
5. ALLEN KLEIN
As McCartney was getting serious with Linda and thinking her dad and brother would be ideal to sort out the mess that Apple had become, the other three were agreeing that showbiz shark Klein would be the best bet. “He’s nothing but a New York gangster” said Paul. The others reacted badly to the Eastmans’ sharp suits and country club manners. Klein was street, he was their kind of guy. So Klein became the flashpoint. In order to extricate himself from any management connection with Klein, Paul had to sue the other three to dissolve the original partnership. No Klein, no lawsuit. So Klein was the reason the Beatles were legally terminated.
6. THE BEATLES
The unique fame and pressure of being Beatles since 1963 appears to have become almost unbearable to three of the four by 1969. Every album had become a great statement, each one since Rubber Soul in a radically different style (or collection of styles) to the previous one. No one could have kept it up. What should have come after Abbey Road? Given the stuff they came out with on their first solo albums it would have been White Album part 2, a gallimaufry of clashing genres – Monkberry Moon Delight, My Sweet Lord, Mother, Power to the People…. It would not have been good. They couldn’t take it any more, there was nowhere left for them to go, they were inhabiting an art pop landscape which was nothing to do with the power trios, heavy metal guitar virtuosi and soul music of the early 70s. They left at the right time. But it was so sad to see the way it was done.
The first half was riveting reading because Mr Doggett is able to merge together in a clear non-editorialising way all the myriad strands of wonder, money, drugs and pain which led to the ugliness of the court case in which McCartney, the Beatle who up to late 1969 was still frantically pretending the band had a future, who was the one of the four with most invested in the idea of the Beatles, sued the other three to dissolve the partnership. Really, it’s not a pretty tale, and although I bought this in 2009 when it came out, only now have I got round to delving into the unpleasantness.
Mainly because Mark Lewisohn’s definitive Beatles biography is appearing so slowly – the brilliant first volume came out in 2013, part two expected in 2020, part three who knows. So You Never Give Me Your Money is like a trailer for Lewisohn part three – no doubt his version of the end of the Beatles will be 900 pages long.
IF YOU THINK THE FOLLOWING IS RATHER DULL
So this being an account where the business machinery is a major part of the story, you have to be okay with several passages like this:
Apple were now providing full-time employment for five legal teams in London and New York… the deeper the legal minds delved into the Beatles’ affairs, the more anomalies and eccentricities they discovered…There were queries about the legality of a corporate system under which George Harrison could resign as the employee of a company that he himself ran and in which he held 99% of the shares, before deciding that he did want to work for himself after all, and applying to himself for his job back.
(Well, for all I know this kind of thing goes on all the time in corporate affairs.)
WHO BROKE UP THE BEATLES? THE SIX SUSPECTS
1. JOHN LENNON
Really, he was impossible to work with between 1967 and 1970 – depressed, fried on acid and then heroin, running hither and yon after every tin pot guru from Maharishi to Arthur Janov and then being cruelly disappointed, insisting after September 68 that he was Johnandyoko and making her part of every recording session – the list goes on. And finally he decided he’s had enough of Beatles, and left in September 69. He’s the only one of the suspects to cough for the crime :
I formed the Beatles and I broke them up. It’s as simple as that. - John Lennon
2. YOKO ONO
She was from another planet, the Planet Avant Garde, the same place John Cale was from when he joined the Velvet Underground. This crowd had nothing to do with anything outside their own bubble. Yoko made films people immediately think of if they were asked to describe an avant garde film – a series of random naked bottoms; a fly crawling over a naked woman; and she did strange live stuff like Cut Piece where members of the audience (no doubt all of them other avant garde artists) came up on stage and cut off a piece of her clothing until she was naked. And she did a lot of atonal howling too. Being a woman and being Japanese and being weird she got the major hate from the public for breaking up the Beatles by luring John away into her weird world so that five minutes after meeting her he was doing unlistenable albums like Two Virgins which featured a naked photo of John and Yoko on the cover. On the cover! It was shocking in 1968 and it would still be pretty shocking now – imagine if let’s say Jack and Meg White had appeared completely naked on the cover of one of their albums. Pandemonium!
The contumely poured forth upon Yoko was sexist and racist, leading John to write his song “Everybody’s Got Something to hide Except for Me and My Monkey” because he read one comment in the press that Yoko looked like a monkey.
But accepting all of that, and the other Beatles’ macho attitudes (they were a boys’ club) her sudden omnipresence made the changed situation painfully clear like a loop tape PA announcement. If John broke up the Beatles, Yoko gave him the courage to do it.
3. PAUL MCCARTNEY
After the death of Brian Epstein Paul became group leader by default because Lennon couldn’t be bothered. You can see this quite clearly in the A sides of the singles – on the six single A sides after John’s All you Need is Love, Paul wrote five of them. He got them to do the dubious Magical Mystery Tour film and convinced them to do the disastrous Let It Be sessions in January 69. Thing was, he liked to work and the others didn’t. He wanted a job, the others didn’t. They thought there was more to life than being fab, he didn’t. (When he realized they had really broken up he spiraled into depression – the other three felt freed from a burden.) Dragooning the Beatles like that caused much of the bad feelings which enabled John to dissolve the group with no protest from Harrison or Starr.
4. APPLE
Starting out as a tax avoidance cheme, it was then hijacked by the Beatles themselves to become an all purpose artistic collective, in some ineffable way “anti-capitalist” but still hopefully profitable. It turned into none of these things but became a twisting serpent of complicated delusion which began to eat the Beatles’ money. They needed serious help, so Lennon found his next guru.
5. ALLEN KLEIN
As McCartney was getting serious with Linda and thinking her dad and brother would be ideal to sort out the mess that Apple had become, the other three were agreeing that showbiz shark Klein would be the best bet. “He’s nothing but a New York gangster” said Paul. The others reacted badly to the Eastmans’ sharp suits and country club manners. Klein was street, he was their kind of guy. So Klein became the flashpoint. In order to extricate himself from any management connection with Klein, Paul had to sue the other three to dissolve the original partnership. No Klein, no lawsuit. So Klein was the reason the Beatles were legally terminated.
6. THE BEATLES
The unique fame and pressure of being Beatles since 1963 appears to have become almost unbearable to three of the four by 1969. Every album had become a great statement, each one since Rubber Soul in a radically different style (or collection of styles) to the previous one. No one could have kept it up. What should have come after Abbey Road? Given the stuff they came out with on their first solo albums it would have been White Album part 2, a gallimaufry of clashing genres – Monkberry Moon Delight, My Sweet Lord, Mother, Power to the People…. It would not have been good. They couldn’t take it any more, there was nowhere left for them to go, they were inhabiting an art pop landscape which was nothing to do with the power trios, heavy metal guitar virtuosi and soul music of the early 70s. They left at the right time. But it was so sad to see the way it was done.
July 17, 2024
"George Harrison: 'The Beatles have been in the doldrums for at least a year . . . Maybe we should get a divorce.'"
Paul McCartney: 'Well, I said that at the last meeting. It's getting near it.'"
- excerpt of conversation from a January 1969 recording session at Abbey Road Studios, on page 60
During productions of the Let It Be and Abbey Road albums throughout 1969 into 1970 it became readily apparent that the formerly tight-knit Beatles were falling apart at the seams. There were many reasons - among them manager Brian Epstein's 1967 death, new marriages for both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, long-simmering aggravation that led to both George Harrison and Ringo Starr briefly walking out on the group in frustration - and by April of 1970 McCartney was the first to 'officially' announce his exit for a solo career. But things were not quite that simple. It took another four and a half years for the quartet - none of whom had the best business and/or financial acumen - to get their monetary and ownership affairs in order after said break-up. Author Doggett details all of the feuding, bad blood, and varying levels of success that marked the 1970's for this former 'Fab Four' in You Never Give Me Your Money, with a sly title appropriated from a quirky side 2 track on Abbey Road. While the long chapters - which often ran thirty or more pages without breaks - occasionally lapsed into some murky contractual / legalistic / business vernacular (not my favorite sections), the diverse life experiences of John, Paul, George and Ringo were of much more interest.
Paul McCartney: 'Well, I said that at the last meeting. It's getting near it.'"
- excerpt of conversation from a January 1969 recording session at Abbey Road Studios, on page 60
During productions of the Let It Be and Abbey Road albums throughout 1969 into 1970 it became readily apparent that the formerly tight-knit Beatles were falling apart at the seams. There were many reasons - among them manager Brian Epstein's 1967 death, new marriages for both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, long-simmering aggravation that led to both George Harrison and Ringo Starr briefly walking out on the group in frustration - and by April of 1970 McCartney was the first to 'officially' announce his exit for a solo career. But things were not quite that simple. It took another four and a half years for the quartet - none of whom had the best business and/or financial acumen - to get their monetary and ownership affairs in order after said break-up. Author Doggett details all of the feuding, bad blood, and varying levels of success that marked the 1970's for this former 'Fab Four' in You Never Give Me Your Money, with a sly title appropriated from a quirky side 2 track on Abbey Road. While the long chapters - which often ran thirty or more pages without breaks - occasionally lapsed into some murky contractual / legalistic / business vernacular (not my favorite sections), the diverse life experiences of John, Paul, George and Ringo were of much more interest.
October 19, 2011
Whenever The Beatles are brought up, it evokes those in the conversation to enter a time machine in their mind that takes them back to another time and place. I find it to be truly fascinating that a band who in their final configuration (McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr) essentially played together for 7 years from 1962 to 1969. For many bands, they would simply be unable to make any sort of meaningful mark. Yet, The Beatles came to represent the 1960s for better or for worse unlike any entity. Their music evolved perfectly to represent the early 1960s, mid-1960s, and the late 1960s. It was truly a stunning achievement that they accomplished. They absolutely reaped the rewards from their creativity and musical genius during those 7 years. Sadly one could never have predicted that in the 40 years after they last played together as a group in Abbey Road Studios, they would be subjected to a wide range of misfortunes. There were good times for each member as individuals, but it seemed there were more bad times for them.
Peter Doggett lays down the story of the Beatles from the late 1960s through the present day. It is perhaps the most honest assessment of the band that has been put into print. Make no mistake about it, Doggett does acknowledge he is a big Beatles fan, but the book does not turn into a hagiography which can happen quite easily. In spite of his preference for the band, he simply lays down a story backed with facts, and it never feels as if he is telling the reader what to believe. Certainly some may disagree with things he says, but the reader can read the book without feeling pushed into accepting a certain view of the group. Many have chosen to remake the image of the late John Lennon so he appears as a saint. Doggett's book while not a look at Lennon specifically, shows a man who was quite human and made mistakes just like the rest of the members did, or even any one of us. People often lament the fact that the band never got together for a true reunion before Lennon's death in 1980, but Doggett's story makes it clear as to why it never happened. In some regards it probably was for the better even though many may disagree with that assessment.
Their end in 1969 was facilitated by several factors from Yoko Ono to Allen Klein to the Apple Corps. There was no one specific cause for the breakup of the band. It took several factors that when combined made it really impossible for the band to continue on due to the bickering over financial issues. Doggett does a wonderful job of laying out the problems that the Apple Corporation created for the group. The company was created with the best of intentions, yet it turned into a never-ending legal nightmare for the members after 1969. It helped to breed discontentment with one another as well as a lack of general trust among each of the men. While Ringo, John and George decided to go with Allen Klein as their manager in May 1969, Paul never wanted to go with Klein. Ironically ties would be ended with Klein who turned out not to be the ideal manager that the 3 members thought he would be.
While the legal and financial problems do take a center stage in the book, the story does not simply gloss over the solo careers of the band members or even their personal problems. We are treated to the constant sniping at one another throughout the 1970s and even into the 1980s and 1990s. Drug usage, alcoholism, failed marriages, and death play a role in their life after 1969. Even though the solo careers of Paul and George were very successful by most standards, they were simply unable to escape the past. George Harrison was a man who wanted nothing more than to leave his years as a member of The Beatles behind, but he was never quite able to. The curse for all the men was that no matter what they did in their solo careers, the comparisons to what they did together from 1962 to 1969 forever haunted them. It was always right on their heels nipping at them.
This is a book that simply must be read if you are a fan of the Beatles, or a music fan in general. The lasting influence of the band simply cannot be measured in quantifiable terms. But their story was not all fun and games. It shows how men who achieved so much together, could simply be reduced to bitterness in the face of success most can only dream of accomplishing. They represented the spirit of the 1960s unlike no one else and embodied the idea of living for the moment. Yet in living for the moment, many mistakes were made as a result and the mistakes would ultimately end their run together.
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
If only they had paid attention to their own song.
Peter Doggett lays down the story of the Beatles from the late 1960s through the present day. It is perhaps the most honest assessment of the band that has been put into print. Make no mistake about it, Doggett does acknowledge he is a big Beatles fan, but the book does not turn into a hagiography which can happen quite easily. In spite of his preference for the band, he simply lays down a story backed with facts, and it never feels as if he is telling the reader what to believe. Certainly some may disagree with things he says, but the reader can read the book without feeling pushed into accepting a certain view of the group. Many have chosen to remake the image of the late John Lennon so he appears as a saint. Doggett's book while not a look at Lennon specifically, shows a man who was quite human and made mistakes just like the rest of the members did, or even any one of us. People often lament the fact that the band never got together for a true reunion before Lennon's death in 1980, but Doggett's story makes it clear as to why it never happened. In some regards it probably was for the better even though many may disagree with that assessment.
Their end in 1969 was facilitated by several factors from Yoko Ono to Allen Klein to the Apple Corps. There was no one specific cause for the breakup of the band. It took several factors that when combined made it really impossible for the band to continue on due to the bickering over financial issues. Doggett does a wonderful job of laying out the problems that the Apple Corporation created for the group. The company was created with the best of intentions, yet it turned into a never-ending legal nightmare for the members after 1969. It helped to breed discontentment with one another as well as a lack of general trust among each of the men. While Ringo, John and George decided to go with Allen Klein as their manager in May 1969, Paul never wanted to go with Klein. Ironically ties would be ended with Klein who turned out not to be the ideal manager that the 3 members thought he would be.
While the legal and financial problems do take a center stage in the book, the story does not simply gloss over the solo careers of the band members or even their personal problems. We are treated to the constant sniping at one another throughout the 1970s and even into the 1980s and 1990s. Drug usage, alcoholism, failed marriages, and death play a role in their life after 1969. Even though the solo careers of Paul and George were very successful by most standards, they were simply unable to escape the past. George Harrison was a man who wanted nothing more than to leave his years as a member of The Beatles behind, but he was never quite able to. The curse for all the men was that no matter what they did in their solo careers, the comparisons to what they did together from 1962 to 1969 forever haunted them. It was always right on their heels nipping at them.
This is a book that simply must be read if you are a fan of the Beatles, or a music fan in general. The lasting influence of the band simply cannot be measured in quantifiable terms. But their story was not all fun and games. It shows how men who achieved so much together, could simply be reduced to bitterness in the face of success most can only dream of accomplishing. They represented the spirit of the 1960s unlike no one else and embodied the idea of living for the moment. Yet in living for the moment, many mistakes were made as a result and the mistakes would ultimately end their run together.
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
If only they had paid attention to their own song.
December 23, 2011
Peter Doggett takes his title from the opening lyrics of the "Abbey Road Medley", and it is apt on multiple levels. Ringo Starr is referred to throughout the book as Richard Starkey, who admonished the author "Don't use my stage name." Doggett quotes my favorite George Harrison line: Avant garde is French for bull shit. Also, Doggett covers in detail the contributions of Neil Aspinall and Derek Taylor. Aspinall started off as the road manager for the Beatles in 1961 and worked as the chief executive of Apple until 2007. After Aspinall was fired, Apple press officer Geoff Baker stated "I fear for the integrity of the Beatles' legacy without Neil." (347) Derek Taylor worked for Apple from 1968 until his death in 1995 and was instrumental in pushing the creation of the Beatles Anthology. Far too often, the contributions of these two in the history of the Beatles is ignored.
You never give me your money/you only give me your funny papers
This book is about money, first and foremost. Consider that EMI and Apple took roughly 23 years to conclude their lawsuits over the Beatles catalogue; that Harrison and Lennon spent most of the 1990s and 1970s respectively being close to bankrupt; that all four Beatles spent most of the 1970s and 1980s having no idea how much money they had or where it was going. Business is something not usually covered in histories of rock bands, but here it is essential. Even though the Beatles were no longer a working rock band after 1969, they were a corporate entity until 1972 and Apple still exists today. Doggett's work is excellent, and he lets all those involved speak for themselves.The title stems from Paul McCartney's opinion of Allen Klein, the manager favored by Harrison, Starkey and Lennon. It also steals from Harrison, who said that all of the legal documents at Apple Corps were equivalent to funny papers.
She came in through the bathroom window
The she is, of course, Yoko Ono. Doggett avoids the trite "she broke up the Beatles" nonsense. This is perhaps the first book about the Beatles that I have read that did not cast her as a villain or a victim, but as a person. That in itself is very refreshing. Doggett's comparison of the media coverage of Ono and Linda McCartney is quite interesting. McCartney wrote this after a female fan climbed into his house through, you guessed it, the bathroom window.
Boy/You're gonna carry that weight/Carry that weight a long time
The breakup is really secondary to the rest of the book; in a sense, it is the least important item in the book. It happened, and Doggett treats it as the Beatles themselves treated it, a decision made over the course of several years. The Beatles attempted throughout the 1970s and then the 1980s to not be the Beatles. The music industry would not let them, and neither would the fans. I was constantly reminded of Lester Bangs, who wrote this for the LA Times on Dec 14, 1980:
John Lennon at his best despised cheap sentiment and had to learn the hard way that once you've made your mark on history those who can't will be so grateful they'll turn it into a cage for you. Those who choose to falsify their memories -- to pine for a neverland 1960s that never really happened that way in the first place -- insult the retroactive Eden they enshrine.
All of them wanted to escape the cage, and, as Starkey's quote at the beginning shows, they are still attempting to escape. Doggett writes "Almost alone of their generation, they did not want the fantasy to continue." (x) Who could blame them? Fame made them rich, yes. It also made them bitter, recriminatory, jealous and paranoid. Harrison was nearly stabbed to death by a fan in 1999, an event that Eric Clapton and others tied to the recurrence of cancer in Harrison. (320-325)
Doggett has extensive credentials covering the media and popular music, and his views considering the differing coverage of McCartney's divorce in the early 2000s with the failed marriages of the other three Beatles are sharp and well constructed.
This book is recommended.
You never give me your money/you only give me your funny papers
This book is about money, first and foremost. Consider that EMI and Apple took roughly 23 years to conclude their lawsuits over the Beatles catalogue; that Harrison and Lennon spent most of the 1990s and 1970s respectively being close to bankrupt; that all four Beatles spent most of the 1970s and 1980s having no idea how much money they had or where it was going. Business is something not usually covered in histories of rock bands, but here it is essential. Even though the Beatles were no longer a working rock band after 1969, they were a corporate entity until 1972 and Apple still exists today. Doggett's work is excellent, and he lets all those involved speak for themselves.The title stems from Paul McCartney's opinion of Allen Klein, the manager favored by Harrison, Starkey and Lennon. It also steals from Harrison, who said that all of the legal documents at Apple Corps were equivalent to funny papers.
She came in through the bathroom window
The she is, of course, Yoko Ono. Doggett avoids the trite "she broke up the Beatles" nonsense. This is perhaps the first book about the Beatles that I have read that did not cast her as a villain or a victim, but as a person. That in itself is very refreshing. Doggett's comparison of the media coverage of Ono and Linda McCartney is quite interesting. McCartney wrote this after a female fan climbed into his house through, you guessed it, the bathroom window.
Boy/You're gonna carry that weight/Carry that weight a long time
The breakup is really secondary to the rest of the book; in a sense, it is the least important item in the book. It happened, and Doggett treats it as the Beatles themselves treated it, a decision made over the course of several years. The Beatles attempted throughout the 1970s and then the 1980s to not be the Beatles. The music industry would not let them, and neither would the fans. I was constantly reminded of Lester Bangs, who wrote this for the LA Times on Dec 14, 1980:
John Lennon at his best despised cheap sentiment and had to learn the hard way that once you've made your mark on history those who can't will be so grateful they'll turn it into a cage for you. Those who choose to falsify their memories -- to pine for a neverland 1960s that never really happened that way in the first place -- insult the retroactive Eden they enshrine.
All of them wanted to escape the cage, and, as Starkey's quote at the beginning shows, they are still attempting to escape. Doggett writes "Almost alone of their generation, they did not want the fantasy to continue." (x) Who could blame them? Fame made them rich, yes. It also made them bitter, recriminatory, jealous and paranoid. Harrison was nearly stabbed to death by a fan in 1999, an event that Eric Clapton and others tied to the recurrence of cancer in Harrison. (320-325)
Doggett has extensive credentials covering the media and popular music, and his views considering the differing coverage of McCartney's divorce in the early 2000s with the failed marriages of the other three Beatles are sharp and well constructed.
This book is recommended.
September 17, 2015
A gripping, enthralling record of the grotesque side effects of global fame and enormous riches
"You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle For The Soul Of The Beatles” concludes with....
“The soul of the Beatles turned out to reside not in the boardroom of Apple Corps or the bank accounts of four multimillionaires, but in the instinctive, natural grace of their songs. Their collective genius created something that not even money could destroy.”
It’s the perfect end to a fascinating book as, for all the jaw dropping feuds and legal battles that characterised much of the aftermath of the Beatles, Peter Doggett never loses sight of what made them so special in the first place.
This is only the second book I have read about The Beatles, the first was the magnificent "Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties" by Ian Macdonald which is an indispensable guide to each and every track, contextualising each song and thereby reminding the reader of why they're unique and the most important pop group of all time.
This book, by contrast, is a grimly compelling look at the downside of fame - and a global level of fame that few people can ever get to experience. I suppose with the staggering amount of money at stake it is no surprise just how many people and organisations wanted a slice. This, and the byzantine contracts and companies set up during their brief career, meant that simply walking away when they got sick of each other was never an option. Instead there followed decades of feuding, legal battles and lawsuits between The Beatles, Apple, EMI/Capitol, Allen Klein and his company, numerous other individuals, even a lawsuit by Paul McCartney against the other Beatles to finally extricate himself from the group. It’s all here and it is absolutely fascinating.
Meanwhile the love/hate relationships between the four ex-Beatles, and their partners - especially Yoko, continued, along with endless questions about a possible reunion (which nearly happened more times than I’d realised).
The book opens with John Lennon’s murder which is also explored later in the book. This seismic event had huge implications for those that were left, and even Lennon’s death could not stop the clamour for a reunion.
Ultimately what emerges here is just how damaging the experience of being a Beatle was to the four men in the eye of the hurricane, and how it would always define and haunt them no matter what was to follow. A gripping, enthralling record of the grotesque side effects of global fame and enormous riches.
5/5
"You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle For The Soul Of The Beatles” concludes with....
“The soul of the Beatles turned out to reside not in the boardroom of Apple Corps or the bank accounts of four multimillionaires, but in the instinctive, natural grace of their songs. Their collective genius created something that not even money could destroy.”
It’s the perfect end to a fascinating book as, for all the jaw dropping feuds and legal battles that characterised much of the aftermath of the Beatles, Peter Doggett never loses sight of what made them so special in the first place.
This is only the second book I have read about The Beatles, the first was the magnificent "Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties" by Ian Macdonald which is an indispensable guide to each and every track, contextualising each song and thereby reminding the reader of why they're unique and the most important pop group of all time.
This book, by contrast, is a grimly compelling look at the downside of fame - and a global level of fame that few people can ever get to experience. I suppose with the staggering amount of money at stake it is no surprise just how many people and organisations wanted a slice. This, and the byzantine contracts and companies set up during their brief career, meant that simply walking away when they got sick of each other was never an option. Instead there followed decades of feuding, legal battles and lawsuits between The Beatles, Apple, EMI/Capitol, Allen Klein and his company, numerous other individuals, even a lawsuit by Paul McCartney against the other Beatles to finally extricate himself from the group. It’s all here and it is absolutely fascinating.
Meanwhile the love/hate relationships between the four ex-Beatles, and their partners - especially Yoko, continued, along with endless questions about a possible reunion (which nearly happened more times than I’d realised).
The book opens with John Lennon’s murder which is also explored later in the book. This seismic event had huge implications for those that were left, and even Lennon’s death could not stop the clamour for a reunion.
Ultimately what emerges here is just how damaging the experience of being a Beatle was to the four men in the eye of the hurricane, and how it would always define and haunt them no matter what was to follow. A gripping, enthralling record of the grotesque side effects of global fame and enormous riches.
5/5
February 20, 2022
I've been a Beatles fan since I was 10, which is also when I read my first John Lennon biography. There are many books about the Beatles out there and a lot of them are not worth reading, especially if you've read some of the others. "You never give me your money" is interesting because it focuses on a time that is often neglected in other biographies: the time leading to their break up and after. The book is well-written and engaging, and although it gets a little less exciting once John Lennon is dead, it's still interesting. As the title implies, there is a lot about the lawsuits in there, and some of it can be a bit technical, but my eyes never really started to glaze over. Besides, the 350 pages amount to a rather quick read, especially as far as Beatles biographies are concerned.
October 15, 2013
As a longtime Beatles fan I was looking forward to reading this book. After having finished it, I thought it had been worth my while, but barely. Doggett is very gifted writer whose prose flows effortlessly; I never felt like I was bogged down while reading "Money". However, I was left somewhat disappointed by two things. First, Doggett would often mention a circumstance or event that would pique my interest, only to then treat it in a fleeting manner and swiftly move on to something else. More seriously, I felt that Doggett did not have any overarching argument or point to make in everything he reported. In a way, that's admirable; perhaps he wants the reader to come up with his or her own conclusions. But sometimes I felt like it was harder to make sense of all the material without some sort of guide who'd help me interpret what it meant.
Still, it is hard not to conclude that what this book is, at least in part, is a cautionary tale. Paul, John, George and Ringo don't come off looking all that good because of the arrogance, insensitivity, cynicism, greed and foolishness they often display in this chronicle - whether toward the people they're dealing with, or each other. What readers will likely be left with is an implicit lesson to not put fallible human beings on such a high pedestal, no matter how wonderful and enduring their creative works are.
Still, it is hard not to conclude that what this book is, at least in part, is a cautionary tale. Paul, John, George and Ringo don't come off looking all that good because of the arrogance, insensitivity, cynicism, greed and foolishness they often display in this chronicle - whether toward the people they're dealing with, or each other. What readers will likely be left with is an implicit lesson to not put fallible human beings on such a high pedestal, no matter how wonderful and enduring their creative works are.
October 16, 2017
Speaking as a "super fan" of the Beatles, I can honestly say I was never one of those people who thought the group should reform as it seemed that the results could only be disappointing. However, that doesn't mean that informal collaboration should have been impossible. It took years for the acrimony to die down sufficiently - especially between John and Paul. Then, in 1976, they made tentative plans to get together in New Orleans to write songs together. Lennon's "Lost Weekend" was ending and he had just released Walls and Bridges. (And perhaps just as importantly, he was still with May Pang who McCartney did not view as an antagonist).
However, an afternoon meeting with Yoko that was to last perhaps an hour or two, turned into an invitation to stay permanently. He never went back to the apartment he and Pang shared and remained a recluse in the Dakota until shortly before his murder in 1980. Did Yoko exert some strange mind control over John? Perhaps not, but this strange story is just one of the frustrating tidbits that make you wonder if things might have turned out differently if he had not had not gone back. However, Yoko was not the only problem as it turns out George still resented Paul for being bossy during the Let It Be sessions.
Although there is nothing radically new here (the battles involving Allen Klein are well known and he doesn't actually come off all that badly); I am not used to such a relentless barrage of unpleasantness when reading about the Beatles. They fared better than other 1960's bands whose entire earnings were stolen outright by thoroughly dishonest crooks and never recovered. However, a lot of money was wasted on lawyers for no good reason.
For me, the most depressing parts of this book deal with the deaths of John and George (and the effects on the survivors). A lot has been written on John Lennon's last day, but I didn't have all the details on George, who was famously the victim of a crazed intruder. The hideousness and extent of his injuries was downplayed at the time and are revealed here. His pre-existing cancer, which was in remission, almost certainly came back because of the physical and psychological injury resulting from being stabbed 40 times.
Hell, even good-natured Ringo does not come away entirely unscathed. I'm glad I read this, but it is definitely not for anyone looking for a fun nostalgia trip.
However, an afternoon meeting with Yoko that was to last perhaps an hour or two, turned into an invitation to stay permanently. He never went back to the apartment he and Pang shared and remained a recluse in the Dakota until shortly before his murder in 1980. Did Yoko exert some strange mind control over John? Perhaps not, but this strange story is just one of the frustrating tidbits that make you wonder if things might have turned out differently if he had not had not gone back. However, Yoko was not the only problem as it turns out George still resented Paul for being bossy during the Let It Be sessions.
Although there is nothing radically new here (the battles involving Allen Klein are well known and he doesn't actually come off all that badly); I am not used to such a relentless barrage of unpleasantness when reading about the Beatles. They fared better than other 1960's bands whose entire earnings were stolen outright by thoroughly dishonest crooks and never recovered. However, a lot of money was wasted on lawyers for no good reason.
For me, the most depressing parts of this book deal with the deaths of John and George (and the effects on the survivors). A lot has been written on John Lennon's last day, but I didn't have all the details on George, who was famously the victim of a crazed intruder. The hideousness and extent of his injuries was downplayed at the time and are revealed here. His pre-existing cancer, which was in remission, almost certainly came back because of the physical and psychological injury resulting from being stabbed 40 times.
Hell, even good-natured Ringo does not come away entirely unscathed. I'm glad I read this, but it is definitely not for anyone looking for a fun nostalgia trip.
December 13, 2011
This is a really interesting account of the business side of being a Beatle which, up until now, has not really been discussed. As a Beatles fan myself, it was very interesting to learn about how draining and frustrating it was for all people involved in this enourmously successful band after John, Paul, George, and Ringo decided to go their seperate ways. This book can get stuck on financial details at times but also satisfies many unanswered questions about their lives after the breakup. This book is definately an important addition to their story as it also stays clear of most of the redundant accounts of their early years and peak of fame wich have been so well documented.
January 5, 2024
3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK or decent reads
========================
I grew up listening to the band and my older brother was a huge fan of them. I have all the discography on CD and films on DVD.
I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't anything new for those who followed their career.
My favorite Beatle was always George Harrison followed by Paul.
You notice exactly who wrote the music and every nuance and style of each of them.
========================
I grew up listening to the band and my older brother was a huge fan of them. I have all the discography on CD and films on DVD.
I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't anything new for those who followed their career.
My favorite Beatle was always George Harrison followed by Paul.
You notice exactly who wrote the music and every nuance and style of each of them.
October 19, 2016
As a Beatles fan who has read, watched and listened to most of the Beatles-related material available, I was a little surprised to find that this book has passed me by (it didn't make me cry, but a little blue). Peter Doggett is also a long-time Beatles fan who has written many articles on that topic. In "You Never Give Me Your Money", he focuses on probably the least popular aspect of Beatles history, their financial, legal and personal battles after the group broke up. Though it paints each member of the band, and most of their wives, in the least flattering manner, it brings to light many of the backroom and boardroom shenanigans that were kept from the public and also kept the band from ever properly reuniting. If you want to keep your fantasy image of the Beatles as four lovable mop-tops who went hippie and remained friends, this is not the book for you.
As depressing and tragic as much of the story is, it is also a page-turner with many "new to me" tidbits that explain a lot regarding the post-Beatles relationships of John, Paul, George & Ringo, and the dozens of other well-known people in their orbits. It is almost traumatic to watch as the financial missteps of Brian Epstein in the early days of managing the group, grow into a many headed hydra of lawyers, advisers, crooks and corporations that helped to not only kill the golden goose but break every egg it ever produced. Even sadder is how the four lads went from friends who had each others' backs to four virtual strangers who didn't much like each other, all because of how their money and legacies were (mis)handled. It is a cautionary tale that doesn't end happily for anyone.
As depressing and tragic as much of the story is, it is also a page-turner with many "new to me" tidbits that explain a lot regarding the post-Beatles relationships of John, Paul, George & Ringo, and the dozens of other well-known people in their orbits. It is almost traumatic to watch as the financial missteps of Brian Epstein in the early days of managing the group, grow into a many headed hydra of lawyers, advisers, crooks and corporations that helped to not only kill the golden goose but break every egg it ever produced. Even sadder is how the four lads went from friends who had each others' backs to four virtual strangers who didn't much like each other, all because of how their money and legacies were (mis)handled. It is a cautionary tale that doesn't end happily for anyone.
June 26, 2024
This is a well-researched and thought-provoking account, more melancholy in tone than some other works that explore a similar subject. I am once again surprised that Ringo has made it to his age in apparently good health, considering what a trainwreck he was living for an extended period of time.
May 14, 2021
When it comes to the eternal philosophical question of “Beatles vs. Stones,” I’m always going to side with Mick and the boys. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a good eye for landmark musical history. In the canon of the modern Western world’s pop-culture mythology, there’s no story that tops that of the Fab Four. Even the Elvis mythology pales in comparison. In 1961 The Beatles are a house band at a strip club located on the sleaziest street in all of Germany and, four short years later after conquering England and the United States, they were well on their way to fulfilling St. John’s prophecy that they were more popular than Jesus Christ. Even more amazing, they still probably hold that title some 50 years later! In 2000, a compilation of the group’s #1 hits, The Beatles 1, was released. It’s in the top 5 of the best-selling albums of the 21st century at an astounding 31 million copies sold. From a band that hasn’t recorded a note together since 1970.
And that’s the problem with most of the Beatle books I’ve read. They only tell what is about 1/7th of a story that’s alive and well into its seventh decade. They get to the end of Abbey Road, usually cover John Lennon’s murder, and they end the story there. The first of these I read, probably like most Beatlephiles, was Philip Norman’s Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation. I remember it being rushed out pretty quickly after John Lennon’s assassination, and it is little more than a Cliff’s Notes version of the band’s rise through the 1960s (although I haven’t read what’s being pushed as the “updated version”). Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography comes in at a much meatier 1,000 pages and should probably be considered, as one of the blurbs says, “the definitive biography,” certainly one I’d recommend. But what comes next? There’s 50-some more years of story to go! And that is where this book comes in. It brings the tale into the 21st century with an eye for detail over those years that few other books have attempted.
Admittedly, it may not be for everyone. A good amount of time is spent wading through the legal battles of the 1970s with one of rock music’s most vile weasels, Alan Klein, who weaseled into the position of the band’s manager. Author Peter Doggett makes the best sense possible of this densely-tangled legal web, but it may not fascinate everyone. For those interested in the band members' artistry, little attention is given to the music being made besides some quick, and often snarky, knee-jerk judgments with no depth or insight. This unappealing snark can work its way into other areas of the book, as well. There's times when Doggett chooses to editorialize rather than letting facts speak for themselves, and, far too often, he allows an unappetizing negativity to bleed through his writing. But Doggett can’t be faulted for not doing his research. I can’t imagine how many newspapers, magazines, biographies and memoirs he waded through to put so much of this story together in detail that has never been given to the band’s members after the break-up. He pretty much hits all the major post-break-up milestones, from the compilation I mentioned above to the 1990s “reunion” that had the surviving members recording with a Lennon song vocal for the Anthology releases. And, of course, it includes the tragedies that no mythology is complete without, as two of the band’s members are attacked by murderous psychopaths, one ending in an untimely death that shocked the world and, probably more than any other single event, transformed a rock & roll band into a timeless legend.
I think any fan that really wants to see one of our modern era’s most fascinating stories in the closest thing to its completion will forgive the book’s faults for the story of the band's 50 years apart that's almost as compelling as the one of their 10 years together.
And that’s the problem with most of the Beatle books I’ve read. They only tell what is about 1/7th of a story that’s alive and well into its seventh decade. They get to the end of Abbey Road, usually cover John Lennon’s murder, and they end the story there. The first of these I read, probably like most Beatlephiles, was Philip Norman’s Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation. I remember it being rushed out pretty quickly after John Lennon’s assassination, and it is little more than a Cliff’s Notes version of the band’s rise through the 1960s (although I haven’t read what’s being pushed as the “updated version”). Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography comes in at a much meatier 1,000 pages and should probably be considered, as one of the blurbs says, “the definitive biography,” certainly one I’d recommend. But what comes next? There’s 50-some more years of story to go! And that is where this book comes in. It brings the tale into the 21st century with an eye for detail over those years that few other books have attempted.
Admittedly, it may not be for everyone. A good amount of time is spent wading through the legal battles of the 1970s with one of rock music’s most vile weasels, Alan Klein, who weaseled into the position of the band’s manager. Author Peter Doggett makes the best sense possible of this densely-tangled legal web, but it may not fascinate everyone. For those interested in the band members' artistry, little attention is given to the music being made besides some quick, and often snarky, knee-jerk judgments with no depth or insight. This unappealing snark can work its way into other areas of the book, as well. There's times when Doggett chooses to editorialize rather than letting facts speak for themselves, and, far too often, he allows an unappetizing negativity to bleed through his writing. But Doggett can’t be faulted for not doing his research. I can’t imagine how many newspapers, magazines, biographies and memoirs he waded through to put so much of this story together in detail that has never been given to the band’s members after the break-up. He pretty much hits all the major post-break-up milestones, from the compilation I mentioned above to the 1990s “reunion” that had the surviving members recording with a Lennon song vocal for the Anthology releases. And, of course, it includes the tragedies that no mythology is complete without, as two of the band’s members are attacked by murderous psychopaths, one ending in an untimely death that shocked the world and, probably more than any other single event, transformed a rock & roll band into a timeless legend.
I think any fan that really wants to see one of our modern era’s most fascinating stories in the closest thing to its completion will forgive the book’s faults for the story of the band's 50 years apart that's almost as compelling as the one of their 10 years together.
January 24, 2023
When it comes to the eternal philosophical question of “Beatles vs. Stones,” I’m always going to side with Mick and the boys. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a good eye for landmark musical history. In the canon of the modern Western world’s pop-culture mythology, there’s no story that tops that of the Fab Four. Even the Elvis mythology pales in comparison. In 1961 The Beatles are a house band at a strip club located on the sleaziest street in all of Germany and, four short years later after conquering England and the United States, they were well on their way to fulfilling St. John’s prophecy that they were more popular than Jesus Christ. Even more amazing, they still probably hold that title some 50 years later! In 2000, a compilation of the group’s #1 hits, The Beatles 1, was released. It’s the best-selling album of the 21st century at an astounding 31 million copies sold. From a band that hasn’t recorded a note together since 1970.
And that’s the problem with most of the Beatle books I’ve read. They only tell what is about 1/7th of a story that’s alive and well into its seventh decade. They get to the end of Abbey Road, usually cover John Lennon’s murder, and they end the story there. The first of these I read, probably like most Beatlephiles, was Philip Norman’s Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation. I remember it being rushed out pretty quickly after John Lennon’s assassination, and it is little more than a Cliff’s Notes version of the band’s rise through the 1960s (although I haven’t read what’s being pushed as the “updated version”). Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography comes in at a much meatier 1,000 pages and should probably be considered, as one of the blurbs says, “the definitive biography,” certainly one I’d recommend. But what comes next? There’s 50-some more years of story to go! And that is where this book comes in. It brings the tale into the 21st century with an eye for detail that no other book has accomplished.
Admittedly, it may not be for everyone. It spends a good amount of time wading through the legal battles of the 1970s with one of rock music’s most vile weasels, Alan Klein, who weaseled into the position of the band’s manager. Author Peter Doggett makes the best sense possible of this densely-tangled web, but it may not fascinate everyone. For those interested in the band members' artistry, little attention is given to the music being made besides some quick, and often snarky, knee-jerk judgments with no depth or insight. This unappealing snark can work its way into other areas of the book, as well. There's times when Doggett chooses to editorialize rather than letting facts speak for themselves, and, far too often, he allows an unappetizing negativity to bleed through his writing. But Doggett can’t be faulted for not doing his research. I can’t imagine how many newspapers, magazines, biographies and memoirs he waded through to put so much of this story together in detail that has never been given to the band’s members after the break-up. He pretty much hits all the major post-break-up milestones, from the compilation I mentioned above to the 1990s “reunion” that had the surviving members recording with a Lennon song vocal for the Anthology releases. And, of course, it includes the tragedies that no mythology is complete without, as two of the band’s members are attacked by murderous psychopaths, one ending in an untimely death that shocked the world and, probably more than any other single event, transformed a rock & roll band into a timeless legend.
I think any fan who really wants to see one of our modern era’s most fascinating stories in the closest thing to its completion will forgive the book’s faults for the story of the band's 50 years apart that's almost as compelling as the one of their 10 years together.
And that’s the problem with most of the Beatle books I’ve read. They only tell what is about 1/7th of a story that’s alive and well into its seventh decade. They get to the end of Abbey Road, usually cover John Lennon’s murder, and they end the story there. The first of these I read, probably like most Beatlephiles, was Philip Norman’s Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation. I remember it being rushed out pretty quickly after John Lennon’s assassination, and it is little more than a Cliff’s Notes version of the band’s rise through the 1960s (although I haven’t read what’s being pushed as the “updated version”). Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography comes in at a much meatier 1,000 pages and should probably be considered, as one of the blurbs says, “the definitive biography,” certainly one I’d recommend. But what comes next? There’s 50-some more years of story to go! And that is where this book comes in. It brings the tale into the 21st century with an eye for detail that no other book has accomplished.
Admittedly, it may not be for everyone. It spends a good amount of time wading through the legal battles of the 1970s with one of rock music’s most vile weasels, Alan Klein, who weaseled into the position of the band’s manager. Author Peter Doggett makes the best sense possible of this densely-tangled web, but it may not fascinate everyone. For those interested in the band members' artistry, little attention is given to the music being made besides some quick, and often snarky, knee-jerk judgments with no depth or insight. This unappealing snark can work its way into other areas of the book, as well. There's times when Doggett chooses to editorialize rather than letting facts speak for themselves, and, far too often, he allows an unappetizing negativity to bleed through his writing. But Doggett can’t be faulted for not doing his research. I can’t imagine how many newspapers, magazines, biographies and memoirs he waded through to put so much of this story together in detail that has never been given to the band’s members after the break-up. He pretty much hits all the major post-break-up milestones, from the compilation I mentioned above to the 1990s “reunion” that had the surviving members recording with a Lennon song vocal for the Anthology releases. And, of course, it includes the tragedies that no mythology is complete without, as two of the band’s members are attacked by murderous psychopaths, one ending in an untimely death that shocked the world and, probably more than any other single event, transformed a rock & roll band into a timeless legend.
I think any fan who really wants to see one of our modern era’s most fascinating stories in the closest thing to its completion will forgive the book’s faults for the story of the band's 50 years apart that's almost as compelling as the one of their 10 years together.
April 21, 2021
I was a Beatles fanatic for as long as I remember, I was ten years old reading the memoir of their first manager and their time taking speed and playing all night in Hamburg strip-clubs. Since then I've held their memory very close, locked it away like a sacred part of my childhood especially after John Lennon was murdered and I clipped every news story I could and filed them away in a Beatles book. I watched Peter Jackson's teaser for his Come Together documentary being put together here in NZ and it got me all excited so I thought it was time to revisit them. After starting Frederic Seaman's excellent The Last Days of John Lennon this book popped up in my Library Audio feed and I withdrew it. I likedthe granular detail of the break-up by someone who clearly knows their stuff and it gets into the gritty details of the torturous Beatles breakup - the business, financial, creative, drug, girl-friend issues and tries to make sense of them, a heroic task and one at which he succeeds. There are huge blind spots in my Beatles knowledge having not studied them in so long. I'd no idea John was into heroin (yes cold Turkey was aclue but I didn't know much about drugs when I was a kid!) and how it was probably Yoko - an enthuisast - who introduced it to him and how they continued to take it in the seventies. I didn't know Paul was the arty one hanging out with avant garde musicians in London, John in his usual competitive way seemed determined to catch up and Yoko appeared to be part of that. The central mystery of the Beatles is the relationship between John and Paul, the magical music and the tortured breakup involving women and money, it's a fascinating complex mystery that will last for centuries. And John and Yoko, the strange pairing that somehow worked, or did it....Paul is so opaque, I'm fascinated with him more than ever, he told a girlfriend he brutally ditched "Forget about me, I'm a c**t". I can't believe I never heard George Harrison's hilarious line that "Avant garde is French for bullsh*t". This certainly applies to Yoko's drab output. I'd read enough about Yoko as a kid to know that much of the backlash against her was racist and felt chastened becasue of my own dislike of her "breaking up the Beatles". But I think I over-corrected, she really was a strange fish. Her attending the Let It Be sessions every day, even in her hospital bed - a funny scene in the book - to the incredulity and irritation of the other Beatles is a good example. John wanted her there though of course. It will be intersting to see how Peter Jackson handles this aspect of his film, with 56 hours of footage there is a lot to interpret.
May 17, 2015
Although Peter Doggett conducted several interviews of his own, the majority of the source material is stuff anyone could have laid their hands on, which just goes to show how great a synthetic work can be: this is an epic sifting-through and winnowing-down, with consistently sharp analysis and purpose. The result is that rare thing--a good Beatles book. "Good" is a horrible understatement, of course. This is a permanent addition to how we will look at that history.
Doggett makes clear some things that we may have suspected but which nonetheless are shocking. The Beatles experience was a full-blown trauma for all four members; those are obviously damaged people who limp out into the '70s, thriving only during those brief periods when some blessed creative/commercial focus bought them a little time. The intimacy and the galvanizing success they enjoyed together haunts them. Doggett also reveals how the yearning for a reunion was a constant theme in their lives. It is uncanny how things never worked out. (That said, god knows what form a reunion would have taken. It might have only been a John-Paul thing, for example. And it might have lasted all of ten seconds. There was a reason they split, after all.) Pride and misunderstanding and regret are plentiful; there's even the occasional brave or loving act. In the end the damn thing reads practically like a tragedy.
Doggett makes clear some things that we may have suspected but which nonetheless are shocking. The Beatles experience was a full-blown trauma for all four members; those are obviously damaged people who limp out into the '70s, thriving only during those brief periods when some blessed creative/commercial focus bought them a little time. The intimacy and the galvanizing success they enjoyed together haunts them. Doggett also reveals how the yearning for a reunion was a constant theme in their lives. It is uncanny how things never worked out. (That said, god knows what form a reunion would have taken. It might have only been a John-Paul thing, for example. And it might have lasted all of ten seconds. There was a reason they split, after all.) Pride and misunderstanding and regret are plentiful; there's even the occasional brave or loving act. In the end the damn thing reads practically like a tragedy.
May 15, 2013
Very detailed account of the Beatles post-break-up. In depth in terms of all the lawsuits, lawyers, contracts, drama, and presents many cases for the Beatles calling it a career as a group.
I laughed out loud near the end of the book when George Harrison was told that someone was selling crusts of bread that he didn't eat for money. Harrison said that it was all bogus due to the fact that he always ate his bread over breakfast.
The sad fact was that over the 1970's two or three of the Beatles would be up for getting together, but there was always one who would abstain.
Doggett is a master of detail and leaves nothing out. He had interviewed a lot of people with knowledge of the Beatles and is quite thorough in his research and documentation.
I highly recommend the book for anyone with an interest in The Beatles and why they called in a career in 1970.
I laughed out loud near the end of the book when George Harrison was told that someone was selling crusts of bread that he didn't eat for money. Harrison said that it was all bogus due to the fact that he always ate his bread over breakfast.
The sad fact was that over the 1970's two or three of the Beatles would be up for getting together, but there was always one who would abstain.
Doggett is a master of detail and leaves nothing out. He had interviewed a lot of people with knowledge of the Beatles and is quite thorough in his research and documentation.
I highly recommend the book for anyone with an interest in The Beatles and why they called in a career in 1970.
July 12, 2025
An exhaustive account of The Beatles financial tribulations from the late 1960’s to the 21st century. It is, at times, tragic but always fascinating.
There is a moment in the early 70’s where it’s clear that The Beatles cannot afford to split up because of financial reasons and they cannot afford to stay together because of financial reasons. It is little wonder that McCartney ends up on a farm for six months and Lennon rages against having to work for ‘the suits’. It’s a story of a joyous, creative endeavour eventually crushed under the weight of its own success and devoured by lawyers, accountants, bankers and record company executives.
If you’ve ever wondered why mistrust and bickering overtook The Beatles this is the book. And it wasn’t because Yoko sat on an amp.
There is a moment in the early 70’s where it’s clear that The Beatles cannot afford to split up because of financial reasons and they cannot afford to stay together because of financial reasons. It is little wonder that McCartney ends up on a farm for six months and Lennon rages against having to work for ‘the suits’. It’s a story of a joyous, creative endeavour eventually crushed under the weight of its own success and devoured by lawyers, accountants, bankers and record company executives.
If you’ve ever wondered why mistrust and bickering overtook The Beatles this is the book. And it wasn’t because Yoko sat on an amp.
May 13, 2020
What an impressively detailed and seemingly thorough (although for me personally also saddening and somewhat painful) account of the Beatles's breakup and the aftermath (no pun intended Rolling Stones fans!).
I have been a Beatles' fan since my pre-teen years and although I "lived through" the events recounted in the book I was not aware (at all) of what was actually going on: how the Beatles treated each other, and how long it took to untangle them as a group. The financial, legal, and business issues were labyrinthine and extremely expensive as well as psychologically exhausting. How four awesome musicians could be expected to effectively run what eventually became a massive organization like Apple Corps became is mind-boggling.
The book continues covering the individual former Beatles through John's murder and George's survival of a hideous knife attack just to die from cancer. Both extremely painful to relive.
None of the boys, or their wives, come out unscathed. And yet their music as a group will live forever, thank goodness.
I have been a Beatles' fan since my pre-teen years and although I "lived through" the events recounted in the book I was not aware (at all) of what was actually going on: how the Beatles treated each other, and how long it took to untangle them as a group. The financial, legal, and business issues were labyrinthine and extremely expensive as well as psychologically exhausting. How four awesome musicians could be expected to effectively run what eventually became a massive organization like Apple Corps became is mind-boggling.
The book continues covering the individual former Beatles through John's murder and George's survival of a hideous knife attack just to die from cancer. Both extremely painful to relive.
None of the boys, or their wives, come out unscathed. And yet their music as a group will live forever, thank goodness.
January 25, 2024
This is a great read which, in the final evaluation, sticks too doggettly to its goal, which is to tell the story of the Beatles split and after-life in cynical, unbrown-nosey fashion. While at first this is quite refreshing, if a little forced - Doggett insists on calling Ringo Richard Starkey or Starkey throughout - it can sometimes seem very artificial, especially when he's crowbarring in examples of how apparently contradictory they all were all the time and especially given the way he chickens out right at the end and slips, just like everyone else, into eulogising them.
Having said all that, the book is a great page by page guide to how they did break down, essentially when the Epstein came off. Allen Klein and Yoko Ono emerge as the big figures in the post-68 story, with the Beatles themselves sitting in a car arguing and partying as it flies over the edge of the cliff.
Despite Doggett's best efforts to the contrary, John, Paul, George and Ringo come out of this well: when they had to create, they created great stuff which still has the power to lift the soul. Doggett chose the grubby route and comes across as someone cleverly shitting on a flower. End result though, he shows his arse and the flower keeps growing.
Having said all that, the book is a great page by page guide to how they did break down, essentially when the Epstein came off. Allen Klein and Yoko Ono emerge as the big figures in the post-68 story, with the Beatles themselves sitting in a car arguing and partying as it flies over the edge of the cliff.
Despite Doggett's best efforts to the contrary, John, Paul, George and Ringo come out of this well: when they had to create, they created great stuff which still has the power to lift the soul. Doggett chose the grubby route and comes across as someone cleverly shitting on a flower. End result though, he shows his arse and the flower keeps growing.
October 3, 2024
An extremely intense look at the Beatles from 1967 to 2009 although the book opens with a prologue about the murder of John Lennon. The book goes deep into the careers and lives of all four Beatles as well as people who were on their inner circles. I found it to be a very enjoyable read but it took me longer to get through than I had anticipated.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2022
Fascinante. Aunque son los años más horribles logra presentar una situación que lo vuelve todo más comprensible y también más humano. Describe muy bien la increíble presión bajo la que estaban por crear y seguir produciendo dinero. También muestra toda una red de amigos y colaboradores fieles asi como los buitres que los rodearon siempre vistos únicamente como una mina de oro.
Simplemente una situación tras otra, que en un ritmo normal hubieran sido manejables pero que bajo la vorágine beatle se fueron convirtiendo en avalanchas que los aplastaron. Entender que estaban viviendo una vida fuera de lo normal, algo que nadie había vivido antes y justamente eran sus lados más humanos los que detonaron el desastre: celos, cariño, rechazo, admiración.
Me encanta la historia de los Beatles, de ese monstruo creado entre 4 personas ordinarias que los terminó fagocitando después de haber cambiado todo lo que tocaban. ❤️❤️❤️
Simplemente una situación tras otra, que en un ritmo normal hubieran sido manejables pero que bajo la vorágine beatle se fueron convirtiendo en avalanchas que los aplastaron. Entender que estaban viviendo una vida fuera de lo normal, algo que nadie había vivido antes y justamente eran sus lados más humanos los que detonaron el desastre: celos, cariño, rechazo, admiración.
Me encanta la historia de los Beatles, de ese monstruo creado entre 4 personas ordinarias que los terminó fagocitando después de haber cambiado todo lo que tocaban. ❤️❤️❤️
October 18, 2013
Als viertes und (vorerst letztes) Beatles-Buch binnen kürzester Frist, muss man schon sehr gut sein, um bei mir fünf Sterne abzustauben und nicht ein müdes Gähnen zu ernten.
Doch Peter Doggett bringt die wirtschaftlichen Probleme und die persönlichen Differenzen in dieser Zwangsgemeinschaft auf den Punkt, belegt durchweg zuverlässig, woher er sein sein Wissen hat.
Das allein markiert schon den entscheidenden Unterschied zu Ames, der sich in ausführlichen Analysen von Pauls Beatles-Beiträgen verliert und bei Magical Mystery Tour schon Halbzeit feiert, dafür kaum Interesse an der Post-Beatles Musik McCartneys zeigt, sondern bevorzugt die persönlichen Defizite des einzigen noch aktiven Beatle aufzeigt. Oder auch zu einem Drecksammler wie Goldman, der alles ungeprüft aufliest, was zu Ungunsten von John Lennon oder Yoko Ono vorgebracht werden kann. Ein typisches Beispiel: Dogget schildert jenen Prozess, in dem McCartney seine ehemaligen Bandkollegen vor den Kadi zerrte, um dem verhassten Manager Allen Klein die Verwaltung des Vermögens zu entreißen auf 12 Seiten und widerlegt am Ende den Backsteinwurf der drei unterlegenen Beatles in McCartneys Fenster als Legende, Goldmann walzt den Backsteinwurf über den Großteil der Seite aus, lässt den Prozessverlauf und die Hintergründe aber im Dunklen, weil er den vermeintlichen Friedensapostel John Lennon bei jeder Gelegenheit als Heuchler bloßstellen muss.
Damit soll nicht gesagt sein, dass Doggett, dessen Darstellung zeitlich dort einsetzt, wo Ames Halbzeit feiert, bzw. den Wendepunkt zum Schlechteren setzt, die dunklen Seiten seiner vier Helden auslässt. Tatsächlich verlieren alle, gerade im kleinlichen Mit- und Gegeneinander viel von ihrem Nimbus, obwohl mehr als deutlich wird, dass eine Wiedervereinigung, aufgrund der Vorgeschichten und charakterlichen Defizite, die große Illusion der Siebziger gewesen ist. Als größte, da unerwartete Enttäuschung erwies sich für mich der stille Beatle George, dem ich weder derartige Alkohol- und Drogenexzesse, noch ein derart nachtragendes Verhalten zugetraut hätte. Sein Leidensdruck gegenüber dem sehr von sich eingenommenen McCartney muss über alle Maßen gewesen sein.
Aber in dieser, trotz des unterschiedlichen Umfangs und Wertes des weiteren Wirkens der Ex-Beatles, sehr ausgewogenen Darstellung kommt kein Aspekt zu kurz, auch wenn sich Doggett in keinem Thema verliert, selbst wenn er auf die Vielfalt der Perspektiven achtet.
Doggett erzählt die Geschichte von Apple bis 2009 konsequent durch und verliert dabei weder die langjährige Weggefährten noch die technische Entwicklung oder die oft enttäuschten Erwartungen oder Reaktionen der Fans aus den Augen.
Durchaus möglich, dass die durchweg erfreute und erfreuliche Rezeption durch das unlängst in nicht ganz so befriedigenden Darstellungen befördert wurde, trotzdem gab es kaum Momente des Überdrusses, wenn schon, dann eher vor dem Ansteuern eines hinlänglich bekannten Themenkomplexes, doch nach den ersten paar Sätzen stellt sich eine stärkere Sogwirkung als bei vielen Thrillern ein, wenn Doggett in knappen aber bezeichnenden Worten das volle Ausmaß der Problematik aufzeigt und dabei keinem zu viel Gerechtigkeit zuteil werden lässt.
Zum Auslaufen werde ich wohl noch ein bisschen in dem märchenhaften Bilderbuch „Beatles-Anthology“ blättern. Aber, nach aktuellen Stand der Dinge werde ich eher noch einmla „You never give me your money“ lesen, als ein weiteres Beatles-Buch anfangen.
Doch Peter Doggett bringt die wirtschaftlichen Probleme und die persönlichen Differenzen in dieser Zwangsgemeinschaft auf den Punkt, belegt durchweg zuverlässig, woher er sein sein Wissen hat.
Das allein markiert schon den entscheidenden Unterschied zu Ames, der sich in ausführlichen Analysen von Pauls Beatles-Beiträgen verliert und bei Magical Mystery Tour schon Halbzeit feiert, dafür kaum Interesse an der Post-Beatles Musik McCartneys zeigt, sondern bevorzugt die persönlichen Defizite des einzigen noch aktiven Beatle aufzeigt. Oder auch zu einem Drecksammler wie Goldman, der alles ungeprüft aufliest, was zu Ungunsten von John Lennon oder Yoko Ono vorgebracht werden kann. Ein typisches Beispiel: Dogget schildert jenen Prozess, in dem McCartney seine ehemaligen Bandkollegen vor den Kadi zerrte, um dem verhassten Manager Allen Klein die Verwaltung des Vermögens zu entreißen auf 12 Seiten und widerlegt am Ende den Backsteinwurf der drei unterlegenen Beatles in McCartneys Fenster als Legende, Goldmann walzt den Backsteinwurf über den Großteil der Seite aus, lässt den Prozessverlauf und die Hintergründe aber im Dunklen, weil er den vermeintlichen Friedensapostel John Lennon bei jeder Gelegenheit als Heuchler bloßstellen muss.
Damit soll nicht gesagt sein, dass Doggett, dessen Darstellung zeitlich dort einsetzt, wo Ames Halbzeit feiert, bzw. den Wendepunkt zum Schlechteren setzt, die dunklen Seiten seiner vier Helden auslässt. Tatsächlich verlieren alle, gerade im kleinlichen Mit- und Gegeneinander viel von ihrem Nimbus, obwohl mehr als deutlich wird, dass eine Wiedervereinigung, aufgrund der Vorgeschichten und charakterlichen Defizite, die große Illusion der Siebziger gewesen ist. Als größte, da unerwartete Enttäuschung erwies sich für mich der stille Beatle George, dem ich weder derartige Alkohol- und Drogenexzesse, noch ein derart nachtragendes Verhalten zugetraut hätte. Sein Leidensdruck gegenüber dem sehr von sich eingenommenen McCartney muss über alle Maßen gewesen sein.
Aber in dieser, trotz des unterschiedlichen Umfangs und Wertes des weiteren Wirkens der Ex-Beatles, sehr ausgewogenen Darstellung kommt kein Aspekt zu kurz, auch wenn sich Doggett in keinem Thema verliert, selbst wenn er auf die Vielfalt der Perspektiven achtet.
Doggett erzählt die Geschichte von Apple bis 2009 konsequent durch und verliert dabei weder die langjährige Weggefährten noch die technische Entwicklung oder die oft enttäuschten Erwartungen oder Reaktionen der Fans aus den Augen.
Durchaus möglich, dass die durchweg erfreute und erfreuliche Rezeption durch das unlängst in nicht ganz so befriedigenden Darstellungen befördert wurde, trotzdem gab es kaum Momente des Überdrusses, wenn schon, dann eher vor dem Ansteuern eines hinlänglich bekannten Themenkomplexes, doch nach den ersten paar Sätzen stellt sich eine stärkere Sogwirkung als bei vielen Thrillern ein, wenn Doggett in knappen aber bezeichnenden Worten das volle Ausmaß der Problematik aufzeigt und dabei keinem zu viel Gerechtigkeit zuteil werden lässt.
Zum Auslaufen werde ich wohl noch ein bisschen in dem märchenhaften Bilderbuch „Beatles-Anthology“ blättern. Aber, nach aktuellen Stand der Dinge werde ich eher noch einmla „You never give me your money“ lesen, als ein weiteres Beatles-Buch anfangen.
November 23, 2017
This was a torturous book for me. The unrelenting minutiae of late and post Beatles legal and financial battles was tedious. Their relationships with each other were complicated as former close friends who shared a unique experience as worldwide idols. However, they also could be incredibly mean, bitter and petty towards each other. They all struggled with a variety of personal demons and hard times, not to mention the tragedy of John's murder and George's near deadly knife attack and early death from cancer.
I ended up skimming or even skipping long accounts of the business/legal battles which never seemed to end. Although I am a lifelong fan and relative (not hard core) expert on Beatles music, I did learn a fair amount about the group collectively and as individuals. So that was interesting.
A couple of big gripes. One of the reasons I found this book depressing is the author hits every low point for each man with little mention of what I assume were the happy moments of their lives. Very few people experience only misery and frustration for decades. But things like (happy) laughter, love, good days, fun times, etc. get next to no mention. I understand those types of experiences aren't as interesting or dramatic as huge fights, agony and disasters but the constant catalogue of downers becomes a blur. Maybe they were that miserable and couldn't enjoy family, friends and simple pleasures. However, I doubt it, even for the very messed up John.
The other thing that consistently bugged me was the way the author dismissed, belittled or downplayed almost every piece of music created by the Beatles after they broke up. Granted, none of it was The Beatles but it couldn't be and there was a lot that was not only successful but well regarded.
In his acknowledgements, the author describes himself as both a lifelong fan and professional music critic. I think in his attempt to not let his profound love for the Beatles trump his professional self, he is overly harsh in describing the music. In the acknowledgements, he writes that he would take Ram with him to a deserted island, but in the book, after a few quiet compliments for the album, he then quotes negative reactions by John and others and even seems to somewhat agree. I felt like Paul could catch no break and even his decades of commercial success were barely acknowledged. In trying not to be a fanboy, the author went way too far in the other direction.
So, I am glad I read this. But even happier I am finished.
I ended up skimming or even skipping long accounts of the business/legal battles which never seemed to end. Although I am a lifelong fan and relative (not hard core) expert on Beatles music, I did learn a fair amount about the group collectively and as individuals. So that was interesting.
A couple of big gripes. One of the reasons I found this book depressing is the author hits every low point for each man with little mention of what I assume were the happy moments of their lives. Very few people experience only misery and frustration for decades. But things like (happy) laughter, love, good days, fun times, etc. get next to no mention. I understand those types of experiences aren't as interesting or dramatic as huge fights, agony and disasters but the constant catalogue of downers becomes a blur. Maybe they were that miserable and couldn't enjoy family, friends and simple pleasures. However, I doubt it, even for the very messed up John.
The other thing that consistently bugged me was the way the author dismissed, belittled or downplayed almost every piece of music created by the Beatles after they broke up. Granted, none of it was The Beatles but it couldn't be and there was a lot that was not only successful but well regarded.
In his acknowledgements, the author describes himself as both a lifelong fan and professional music critic. I think in his attempt to not let his profound love for the Beatles trump his professional self, he is overly harsh in describing the music. In the acknowledgements, he writes that he would take Ram with him to a deserted island, but in the book, after a few quiet compliments for the album, he then quotes negative reactions by John and others and even seems to somewhat agree. I felt like Paul could catch no break and even his decades of commercial success were barely acknowledged. In trying not to be a fanboy, the author went way too far in the other direction.
So, I am glad I read this. But even happier I am finished.
August 30, 2010
It's hard to justify giving a Beatles biography 5 stars, since they are usually 1. self-serving, authorized by one camp minimizing the other band members 2. exploitive, focusing on the most lurid aspects of their lives or 3. poorly written. This is none of those.
Doggett's book focuses on the band's period I find most interesting, the last couple of years together, and their subsequent solo careers. And it's an astoundingly detailed look at the business mess that engulfed the Beatles nearly non-stop from the death of Brian Epstein until pretty much the deaths of George Harrison and their long-time Apple employees Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall. Each Beatle dealt with the breakup and the subsequent decades of legal wrangling very differently and each is given due respect.
It's engrossing, sad, unflinching, yet fair to the band members. Fascinating stuff.
Doggett's book focuses on the band's period I find most interesting, the last couple of years together, and their subsequent solo careers. And it's an astoundingly detailed look at the business mess that engulfed the Beatles nearly non-stop from the death of Brian Epstein until pretty much the deaths of George Harrison and their long-time Apple employees Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall. Each Beatle dealt with the breakup and the subsequent decades of legal wrangling very differently and each is given due respect.
It's engrossing, sad, unflinching, yet fair to the band members. Fascinating stuff.
January 5, 2011
Admittedly, I'm a sucker for books about the Beatles, but considering that about 50% of the book details the seemingly endless lawsuits the Beatles were involved in it's a surprisingly gripping read. I also like that it takes a somewhat skeptical view of the JohnAndYoko myth.
December 22, 2016
When I downloaded this book into my Kindle for only $1.99....I didn't expect much. I was wrong. The book was both longer and better than I thought it would be. I very much enjoyed the read and recommend it to all Beatles fans.
March 27, 2018
This was enthralling. It was a beautiful weekend here but I spent the entire time doing nothing but compulsively reading. And I like the Beatles, but I am not a super fan.
It seemed even handed /fair and is well written. What a mess of a time for them though.
It seemed even handed /fair and is well written. What a mess of a time for them though.
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April 12, 2025This was up there on my list of Beatle books to get to, right above Jonathan Gould's Can't Buy Me Love. Compared to the wealth of books covering the active years of the group, the scope of this title is rather uncharted territory, adding to its appeal. Placing the focus on the years following the breakup accentuates the sometimes petty but overall understandable divisions between the members of the band. The contrast between the idealism of Apple in those early years and the post-split spats is sobering indeed; yet with the premise that Apple was envisioned as a creative way of reducing the Beatles' tax burden, one comes away from this book feeling that the idealism was a lot of hot air. Then again, knowing about John's idea of moving the band to an island in then authoritarian Greece, or the logistical nightmare of playing a concert in Libya (only for the group to go up on the roof instead), us fans already have a sense of the contradiction between the band's deep desires and the cynical reality.
Doggett's authorial voice is compelling throughout, with thoughtful analysis of the messy aftermath of Apple Corps and the Beatles' breakup. I didn't get a strong sense of preferential treatment for any member over the other, but he suggests the demonization of Allen Klein has exaggerated his negative qualities. A lot of time is spent scrutinizing comments John, Paul, George and even Ringo have made over the years, as if any expression outside the realm of empty stoicism is that of a spoiled, petulant child. That aspect of the text wore thin on me after a while, though it's true that the Beatles' status as band of the decade that placed them on a pedestal and isolated them from the real world undoubtedly shaped their personalities, for better or worse.
Doggett's authorial voice is compelling throughout, with thoughtful analysis of the messy aftermath of Apple Corps and the Beatles' breakup. I didn't get a strong sense of preferential treatment for any member over the other, but he suggests the demonization of Allen Klein has exaggerated his negative qualities. A lot of time is spent scrutinizing comments John, Paul, George and even Ringo have made over the years, as if any expression outside the realm of empty stoicism is that of a spoiled, petulant child. That aspect of the text wore thin on me after a while, though it's true that the Beatles' status as band of the decade that placed them on a pedestal and isolated them from the real world undoubtedly shaped their personalities, for better or worse.
March 30, 2024
Although now somewhat dated in its research, Doggett's skillfully written book lifts the veil on many of the Beatles myths that continue even today. Most revealing is that no-one is as idealistic or intelligent as he appears.
The story of Apple Corps is mainly one of naiveté and perplexing apathy. The conflict is that four men who rose to unimaginable fame through musical instinct thought that the same mindset could coherently navigate the business world. They got a rude awakening, and even as everything crashed down around them, no-one could bring himself to fully separate from the others.
More than anything, You Never Give Me Your Money shows the Beatles' success as a truly Faustian deal. Seven or eight years of global fame netted them decades of life-draining legal troubles, divorce, murder, illness, and acrimony. It's also a critique on the pitfalls of nostalgia: we must not think that the answer to a painful future lies in an idealised past. After all, the Beatles were so influential in their time because they always faced forward.
The story of Apple Corps is mainly one of naiveté and perplexing apathy. The conflict is that four men who rose to unimaginable fame through musical instinct thought that the same mindset could coherently navigate the business world. They got a rude awakening, and even as everything crashed down around them, no-one could bring himself to fully separate from the others.
More than anything, You Never Give Me Your Money shows the Beatles' success as a truly Faustian deal. Seven or eight years of global fame netted them decades of life-draining legal troubles, divorce, murder, illness, and acrimony. It's also a critique on the pitfalls of nostalgia: we must not think that the answer to a painful future lies in an idealised past. After all, the Beatles were so influential in their time because they always faced forward.
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