The bi-monthly Journal of Beatles Studies was launched by Liverpool University Press in October 2022 and aims to “innovate and challenge cultural-historical and musicological eccentricities about the Beatles” – as such, it is a natural by-product of the postgraduate programme. of Beatles studies also offered by the university.
No doubt a strand of this course, like ‘What were the causes of the great war?’, has necessarily been devoted to ‘The Seven Year Itch: Was the breakup of the Fab Four inevitable?’ If so, this collection of interviews, apparently locked away for more than 40 years, will be required reading.
All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines
Cheap and manufactured
Co-author Peter Brown has all the necessary credentials of a key witness. He was hired by Brian Epstein in 1961, initially to run his record stores and then to look after the day-to-day management of the Beatles.
He became a close friend of all four – he introduced Paul to Linda and was best man at John and Yoko’s hastily arranged wedding in Gibraltar – he was also present at all the increasingly “ill-formed” convention meetings which, after Epstein’s drug-induced death in 1967, they made the end of the band inevitable.
Brown told this story, with the help of music writer Steven Gaines, in his 1983 book The Love You Make (labeled by Beatles fans at the time as cheap and contrived). Upon receiving a copy from Brown, McCartney’s family reportedly ritually burned the book, while Linda photographed the remains. The transcribed texts on which it was based, interviews not only with the protagonists of the drama but also with 30 or more bystanders in their personal and business daily dealings bore witness to an untold story.
For example, here he talks about Yoko: “We didn’t like her at first, and people called her ugly and stuff, and that must have been hard for somebody who loves somebody…”
Peter Brown with Yoko and John / Photo: YouTube
What did McCartney say about Lennon?
The interview with McCartney, which took place a month before Lennon’s murder, is instructive not only about the former Beatle’s state of mind a decade after the breakup, but also about the motivations of Brown and Gaines, whose questions are indicative of some of their concerns: The band members’ promiscuity and drug use, Epstein’s behind-the-scenes tragedy, the effect of Linda and Yoko’s arrival on John and Paul’s creative marriage – and above all, the extreme acuity for the contracts and business of their Apple Corps company.
McCartney, with his familiar friendly candor, seems tempted to say a little more than the presence of Brown, his old confidant, would advise. For example, here he talks about Yoko: “We didn’t like her at first, and people called her ugly and stuff, and that must have been hard for somebody who loves somebody…”. Some of his reservations about The Love You Make were undoubtedly his focus on the sense of betrayal he expressed for Lennon at this point, which seemed pitiful after Lennon’s death.
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And homophobic comments
Based on this evidence, Gaines was not particularly interested in understanding the pair’s magic, only their personal discord, which culminated in Lennon’s attempts to impose Allen Klein as the band’s new manager. The interviewer seems to want to push McCartney into revelations. “How come I’ve never met a girl in America who says, ‘I had a great time with the Beatles’?”
There’s also quite a bit of questioning about how the band felt about Epst;ain being gay – “Were the kids put off by him at all?” – and about Lennon’s two-week holiday in Spain with Epstein, which fueled persistent rumors of their intimacy.
The authors’ interview with Epstein’s mother, Queenie, is also completely blunt about what is being called “the Brian problem.” Asked directly whether she believed Epstein’s death was an accident or suicide, Brown suggests, “I have no doubt that this particular case was a mistake.” Gaines immediately counters: “Freud says there are no mistakes.”
The epigraph to this book is a quote from Lennon from 1972: “I’ve read tips about ‘Oh, the Beatles sang ‘All you need is love,’ but it didn’t work out for them.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
“The Beatles sang ‘All you need is love’ but it didn’t work out for them”
This kind of research sets the tone for much of the material here. Reading the pieces back-to-back, you get the feeling that Brown and Gaines are flying between London and New York like hard-nosed crime investigators, looking for evidence of a growing feud between Klein and John Eastman, or Cynthia Lennon and Yoko, all proxy battles in the primal war between Lennon and McCartney. The epigram of this book is a quote from Lennon from 1972: “I’ve read spikes about ‘Oh, the Beatles sang ‘All you need is love,’ but it didn’t work out for them.” But nothing will ever break the love we have for each other.” The cumulative weight of the evidence here seems determined to prove the latter sentiment false.
Between Ringo’s unwavering loyalty (“I never wanted to argue with Paul”) and George’s attempts to deflect, answering direct questions with free-flowing rants about karma (“it’s like… when you’re born you have a piece of string with all of them the knots, and what you must try to do before you die is to untie all the knots’), one of the most memorable exchanges is with Bob Wooler, a DJ from Liverpool, whom Lennon allegedly punched for ‘dropping sponses to John and Brian’s trip to Spain.”
After being questioned at length about exactly why “John Lennon punched you in the nose”, Wooler turns the question around: “Peter, do you think you’ll still be friends with the Beatles when this book comes out?”
*The “All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles” by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines is published by Octopus.
*With data from theguardian.com
