The anecdote comes from the upcoming oral history of The Beatles called 'All You Need Is Love'
A new oral history of the acclaimed band called All You Need Is Love is set to be released on April 11. The book is comprised of interviews taken from the controversial book The Love You Make (1983), which was written by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown, the personal assistant to Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
Upon the book’s original publication, the Beatles were not pleased with its contents, with Gaines claiming to The Times that “Paul and Linda [McCartney] tore the book apart and burned it in the fireplace, page by page.
“There was an omerta, a code of silence around the Beatles, and they didn’t think anyone would come forward to tell the truth.”
Now, Gaines and Brown will release All You Need Is Love, inspired by director Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back. The book is set to unveil even more revelations about the band, including an anecdote between Lennon and Jagger that left the latter feeling “uncomfortable”.
Following the death of their manager, The Beatles hired Allen Klein, a move that Mick Jagger warned John Lennon against. Klein had worked with The Rolling Stones as well, and Jagger felt that it would be a terrible idea for The Beatles to hire him. He called Lennon to try to warn him, but Lennon wouldn’t listen. Several years later, though, he realized Jagger had been right.
According to Brown, the awkward encounter happened when Allen Klein took over as The Beatles’ accountant in 1969, firing everyone they were working with at the time. Though Paul McCartney reportedly didn’t like Klein, Gaines claimed the “interviews suggest it is because Allen Klein offered Yoko a million dollars for her movie project. “She was enticed and John would do anything Yoko said.”
Brown requested Jagger to attend a meeting with The Beatles to “explain who this Allen Klein was”. Klein previously managed The Rolling Stones back in 1965, but Jagger’s distrust of Klein led to his eventual replacement in 1970, which prefaced years of litigation between the two.
However, Brown said that Lennon, “in his wonderful way, had Klein turn up to the same meeting, which was deeply embarrassing” and “made Mick very uncomfortable”.
ALLEN KLEIN- THE WORST MAN IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC
In 1971, after the Beatles break up, George Harrison releases ‘My Sweet Lord’. Turns out that the song sounds a lot like ‘He’s so fine’.
They sues Harrison for stealing the song. Allen Klein is George’s manager and he has a really great idea. Klein’s approach is “since we are richer than god, why fight this? It would be cheaper for us to just buy the song.
In fact, it would be cheaper for us to buy the entire company that owns this song.”Klein is working with the publishing arm of the Chiffon’s song. This is where it gets super, duper, horrible.
Behind George’s back, Klein goes ahead and buys the catalogue that owns that song. Problem solved, right? No. He fucking turns around and sues George for plagiarizing (what is now, technically) his song. Klein also knows how much George is worth, so he quadruples the damages he wants… since he has seen the Beatle’s money ledgers.
