All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circle

by Peter Brown, Steven Gaines

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A comprehensive guide to the Beatles utilizing never-before-seen interviews not just with the musicians themselves, but from the inner circle they kept with them. This is not a mere appreciation book, it digs into the highs and lows for a complete profile of the iconic band.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

An oral history of The Beatles from never-before-seen interviews.

All You Need Is Love is a groundbreaking oral history of the one of the most enduring musical acts of all time. The material is comprised of intimate interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, their families, friends and business associates that were conducted by Beatles intimate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines in 1980-1981 during the preparation of their international bestseller, The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list in 1983 and remains the biggest selling biography worldwide about the Beatles

Only a small portion of the contents of these transcribed interviews have ever been revealed. The interviews are unique and candid. The information, stories, and experiences, and the authority of the people who relate to them, have historic value. No collection like this can ever be assembled again.

In addition to interviews with Paul, Yoko, Ringo and George, Brown and Gaines also include interviews from ex-wives Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Harrison Clapton, and Maureen Starkey, as well as the major social and business figures of the Beatles’ inner circle. Among other sought-after information the interviews contribute definitively as to why the Beatles broke up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250285027
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	18,267
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

PETER BROWN is the former COO of Apple Corp, the Beatles’ financial empire. He’s been a Beatles intimate since their earliest days in Liverpool. Their passports were locked in his desk drawer. He was best man at John and Yoko’s wedding, he introduced Paul to Linda Eastman, and perhaps the most charming of his credentials is that he’s the only real person ever mentioned in a Beatles song, “Peter Brown called to say, you can make it okay, you can marry in Gibraltar near Spain,” from the “Ballad of John and Yoko.” Mr. Brown is now chairman of the international public relations firm of BLJ Worldwide.

STEVEN GAINES is the New York Times bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons and The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown). His journalism has appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and New York magazine, where he was a contributing editor for 12 years. Mr. Gaines is the co-founder and a past vice-chairman of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2024

Forty years after The Love You Make, Brown, former COO of Apple Corps, the Beatles’ media corporation, and journalist Gaines reunite for a revealing oral history of the forces that spurred the band’s breakup, which was first announced in 1970. Drawing from a trove of never before published conversations with each band member, except for John Lennon, and their intimates, the account touches on shifty characters within the group’s orbit, including “Magic” Alexis Mardas, who almost talked the Beatles into buying four Greek islands; Lennon’s descent into heroin addiction; and the fraying friendship between Paul McCartney and Lennon as the two fought over shares in the Beatles’ business ventures. There are also plenty of tender moments, including Yoko Ono’s musings on the genesis of her relationship with Lennon while he was still married to his first wife, Cynthia; their love was “bigger than both of us,” Ono claims. Taken together, the interview transcripts reveal that “the time had come” for the band’s split: “Realistically, how long could they go on being a Beatle and feel creatively satisfied?” Brown and Gaines write. Nearly all the interviews were conducted in the two months before Lennon’s 1980 murder, casting a melancholy shadow over his estrangement from McCartney, who seemed to have been softening toward his former bandmate (“I still do feel for the guy.... I still see that he thinks he’s the one who was hurt”). Beatles fans will be impatient to get their hands on this. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for All You Need Is Love:

"I can think of no one better placed to tell the story behind the Beatles than Peter Brown" —Pattie Boyd

"Brown and Gaines’s new book... goes even deeper into Beatle lore than their first." —The New York Times

“An illuminating page turner” —New York Post

"Insider oral history... Recalled with the split still reverberating, unresolved grievances are aired and scores settled, but recrimination is tempered with perspective." —Mojo

"a valuable, historical, and utterly enlightening collection of chats about the chaps from Liverpool. The book could be twice as long and still enthrall and enlighten." —Houston Press

"For those interested in the interplay of personalities and the ambience of the Beatles era, this is a treasure trove. A rich collection of Beatles material, reported by those closest to the band during its heyday." —Kirkus Reviews

"[A] revealing oral history of the forces that spurred the band’s breakup...drawing from a trove of never before published conversations with each band member, except for John Lennon, and their intimates...Taken together, the interview transcripts reveal that “the time had come” for the band’s split...Beatles fans will be impatient to get their hands on this." —Publishers Weekly

"Want to know why the Beatles broke up? Reveal[s] previously unknown details about the band’s story, including that devastating breakup. Brown is himself a long-time Beatles insider, having known the Fab Four since their early days as a band; he was best man when Lennon and Oko married in 1969. Steven Gaines is a journalist and author. For the new book, the pair have mined archival interviews with members of The Beatles, as well as with the women who were among their inner circle, including Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Harrison Clapton and Maureen Starkey." —From the People Magazine Announcement

Praise and reviews for The Love You Make:

"Finally the real story.” —Rolling Stone

“Literate, complex…more than sensationalism…a hard-hitting yet sympathetic book that unflinchingly captures the highs and lows.” —The Boston Globe

“The best backstage memoir yet of the most amazing musical phenomenon of our times.” —The Washington Post Book World

“The definitive book on the Beatles.” —New York Post
“A gothic tale of drugs, sex, music, greed, booze, and genius…an entire generation’s loss of innocence.” —People

“Fascinating.” —The Indianapolis Star

“The most sensational Beatles biography…emotionally involving.” —Esquire

“The definitive book on the world’s greatest rock group…tells the truth with surprisingly little varnish.” —Chicago Tribune

“A dramatically good story....Peter Brown catches us with the headiness of it all.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

04/05/2024

Brown and Gaines coauthored 1983's The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles, and their new title is a collection of interviews conducted from 1980 to 1981 for that previous book. In light of Peter Jackson's 2021 three-part documentary series Get Back and perennial interest in the Beatles, this is a fun, deeper-cut addition for fans. From the first page, this book is chock-full of anecdotes and additional context for well-known stories in Beatles lore. Nearly all interview subjects are easily recognizable names, but a few outliers help round out the interviews and get another side of the story. The book's overarching focus is figuring out why the band broke up, how impactful the death of the Beatles' manager was, and the effects of other business decisions that culminated in the late 1960s. Some interview transcripts seem more rambling than others, but this can easily be overlooked for the trivia and reminiscences that make this an entertaining book for fans. While Brown and Gaines insert some biases and not all the participants are portrayed positively, they allow readers to judge for themselves. VERDICT Recommended for Beatles fan and for readers who want more insight into why the group broke up.—Amanda Ray

Library Journal