Beatles book reveals John Lennon encounter that made Mick Jagger 'very uncomfortable'
A controversial book about The Beatles is shining a light on the band’s most contentious years.
The Love You Make was first published in 1983, having been written by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown, who was the personal assistant to the band’s manager Brian Epstein and stepped in to oversee the band’s affairs when Epstein died.
But the band were left “furious” by the revelations made in the book, with Gaines recalling: “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, inspired by Peter Jackson’s acclaimed documentary Get Back, Gaines and Brown are releasing a follow-up book filled with interview transcripts from which The Love You Make was written.
One moment in the book reveals an encounter The Beatles had with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger that left the musician feeling “very uncomfortable”.
It concerned Allen Klein, the shady accountant who came in to manage The Beatles and eventually sacked everyone the band had been working with at the time. Lennon was a big fan of Klein, with Gaines suggesting to The Times it was due to the businessman offering Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono “a million dollars for her movie project”.
At the time, Brown, attempting to steer the band away from Klein, set up a meeting with Jagger so he could “explain who this Allen Klein was”.
Source: Jacob Stolworthy/independent.co.uk
