Beatles Biography by Mark Lewisohn (6th edition)- plus Lewisohn news. *

I don't worry too much about how he is portrayed, but my impression is that Klein was always a shark.

For instance, his attempting to play both sides by buying the publishing company that was suing George Harrison over My Sweet Lord. Because that gave him a vested interest in both sides, it got the lawsuit thrown out [if I recall correctly, which I probably don't]. Call it shrewd business dealing if you want, but I'd call it pretty slimy...

 

I absolutely agree that Hey Jude [lp] was one of the best moves Klein made. It serves[served] as a great compilation of Beatles' hits.

However, it wasn't enough to spur the Beatles to authorize a career-spanning greatest hits. That didn't come until the "release" of Alpha Omega in 1972.

Just like it took the release of the Hamburg tapes to spur the release of the Hollywood Bowl album...

 

He's too busy putting his finger in the fish pie. That's the problem ...

 

"It wasn't enough to spur the Beatles to authorize a career-spanning greatest hits" because by 1971, the game has seriously changed.

After McCartney served the lawsuit in December 1970, and the Beatles' earnings went into receivership, the last product any of the members wanted hitting the streets was any sort compilation LP tying back to the Beatles "brand," as it were... These four guys were now building solo careers and all eyes were on the future -- no ex-Beatle wanted a new Beatles compilation floating around the major US market when they wanted fans to zero in on, say, "Ram" and "Imagine."

The "red" and "blue" comps were definitely the idea of Klein, but as you point out, the ex-Beatles had a vested interest at that point -- to torpedo the "Alpha Omega" creation that was racking up some pretty good sales number for a pirate.

 

IIRC the coach got stuck at a bridge or something and there was a massive queue of traffic behind following them so they couldn't turn it around. John lost it, had a go at Paul, and tore off one of the stickers from the side of the bus. Neil Aspinall was quoted as saying "They should have filmed that."

 

Let's start one.

Of the three volumes, I would think this next one has the most potential sales wise and the publishers might want to cash in on an anniversary, they may have hoped to have it out for John's 80th (or 40th since his death) but that's not going to happen. If 2021 begins to look like it might creep into 2022 then they may settle for Paul's 80th or the 60th anniversary of "Love Me Do" and the Christmas market, so if I had to place a bet, I'd go with October 2022.

 

I nominate this for the 'Post of the Year' award. Short, well-said, thought-provoking and hilarious too!

 

Bought Tune In in a local library, 8 dollars, begin of this month because of work, i am now on 1960, for what i read, easily my favorite Beatles book (probaly will end and no volume 2 yet ).

It´s a miracle for we have a near perfect Beatles biography for stories from 50 years ago, tune in for the next part, hope soon

 

I wonder if the release of the Red and Blue albums wasn't an apology of sorts by Klein to Paul, George, and Ringo for having used their Apple money to pay for Yoko's inordinately expensive art gallery in upstate New York...

 

I think that whole period of 1968-1973 was just too overwhelming -- Rishikesh, The White Album, John and Yoko, Let It Be, Apple, Allen Klein, The Beatles splitting up, but then there were George's own personal issues too. For instance, from late 1969 through the making of All Things Must Pass he was driving up to Liverpool to take care of his mother after she got cancer, and at one point both his parents were in hospital at the same time. Then his mother died, and in the meantime he was taking care of Phil Spector and everything at Friar Park. Then there were all the issues he had with the Concert For Bangladesh and being sued in 1971 for My Sweet Lord, which was a major blow to his confidence.

Within all of that were affairs on both sides, drugs, and George going through a crisis of faith v.s. being a rock star. Plus I'm sure it started to sink in how intense the 60s had been. It's no wonder he became depressed.

With George and Pattie's relationship, I think they loved each other, but they got married too young, and when things got really hectic they couldn't handle it. It makes sense to me that George needed to be alone for long periods of time, but I can also understand why that was difficult for Pattie. It's interesting that after he met Olivia his life became very different. He tried to remove himself from that Beatle life as much as possible and even found a whole new group of friends. This is just my theory, but I get the impression it made a big difference that Olivia was a regular person from a working class background. I definitely credit her with saving his life a number of times.

 

I doubt it. As jmxw, the driving catalyst behind Red/Blue was the unauthorised Alpha/Omega compilations.

You've just reminded me of that ridiculous video of "Pete Best drumming on A Day In The Life". It doesn't seem to be available on YouTube anymore... a shame, as it was great for a stupid laugh!

 

Got the audiobook version of Tune In today as part of an Audible trial. Have watched a bunch of Lewison interviews as part of my huge Beatles kick the last few weeks so I am ready to dive into this 43-hour journey that is Tune In.

 

Does anyone know if the Audible Audio Book version is the Extended Special Edition?

 

I think its just the standard edition. I only assume this because you can purchase the audible version at a discount when you purchase the Kindle version. The extended edition comes in two volumes on Kindle and didn't have the option to purchase the Audible version at a discount.

 

He might do, seeing as he now claims that Ringo stole his drumming style...

 

Planet Of The Apes.

“give me my stinking vol 2”.

 

And a fairly serious car crash as well 1971/72. Some bootlegger used the press photo of George with blood pouring down his bandaged head on the cover of the LP and titled it "Bloody Hell!"

 

Really? Wow.

 

Oh yes! I forgot about that one.

 

OK, Thanks!...I was wondering about that.

 

The car:

 

It’s true - he made the comment in this interview:

I’m fairly sure it’s near the beginning

 

So is Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and Bonham