All You Need is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words - A Book Review

 

Here are a few of Peter Brown's Photos from the book. In the bottom photo, Peter is with Queenie Epstein.

One of the most controversial Beatles books of the 20th Century is The Love You Make by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown. I reviewed it in 2016. I wanted to review it through a modern eye and found it to be a bit outdated and confusing. It was sensational with gossip, but at the end of the day, it was a truthful book (all except that silly claim that Paul re-recorded Ringo's drumming on Beatles songs and Ringo didn't care).  

The new book All You Need is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words is full of transcripts from interviews with most everyone Brown and Gaines interviewed to write the first book.  I have to thank them for doing this for Beatles historians.  I wish ALL of the major Beatles books that were written in the past 60 years would release the interviews.   Gaines and Brown interviewed insiders such as Maureen Starkey, Queenie Epstein, John Eastman, etc., etc., etc., that I don't recall ever being interviewed before.  The only thing better than reading these interviews would be to hear them (more on that in a bit). 

I have always been critical of the original book.   This book helped me understand more about that book from the early 1980s.   As many of you told me in the comments of the book review, it was written by Gaines and Brown was part of the book, but did not have anything to do with the writing of it.   You quickly learn that Gaines conducted the meat of these interviews, with Peter Brown chiming in when he could add to the narrative because he was there.   

Gaines did his research before he spoke to the insiders. He knew the gossip about who slept with whom, who sued whom, drug usage, and the breakdown of Magic Alex's lies. Being familiar with the material in the book, I was fascinated to see how the interviewees told the stories that were so shocking in 1983. And let me be honest -- I am here for it.  I really enjoyed reading these interviews and, at times, couldn't put the book down.  

All of the interviews (except for the one with Yoko) were conducted in 1979 and 1980 before John died.  Many of the people (especially the former Beatles) were brutally honest about their feelings about John.  There is no way they would have been so honest about John if these interviews had been conducted after his murder.   I thought George's interview was sad when it came to John.   I really enjoyed Ringo's interview because what Ringo says hasn't faltered at all through the years.  But he states that he and Paul weren't on speaking terms.   I wonder what had happened in 1980 that put their relationship in turmoil.  I would suppose that John's murder was part of them becoming friends again because, in early 1981, Paul invited Ringo to record with him.  

This all goes back to my original thought about this book -- did we need to read all of this gossip in the first place?  Should Gaines have published all of these juicy bits of information?  At the end of the day, all of the gossipy information from the Beatles story would have come out with or without Gaines' interviews.  At least Gaines received the information directly from the mouths of those that were there, and it was 2nd or 3rd hand information.  So, while initially I disliked The Love You Make, after reading All You Need is Love, my mind has changed.    If you are a fan who does not care about the personal lives of The Beatles, then like the original book, this book is not for you.  If you focus just on the music, then you will be highly disappointed.   However, if you like to know about the ins and out of the business and personal issues of the Beatles, then I highly recommend this book.  So many great interviews and nuggets of information.

I also want to recommend the latest episode of Robert Rodriguez's podcast, Something About The Beatles.   He interviewed Steven Gaines, and this interview also helped me re-think the original book.  Many of the things I disliked about the original book were choices made by the publisher and not Gaines.  He actually disliked the same things.   In the interview, he states that he wants to donate all of his interview tapes to university archives so that fans can hear them.  He understands the historical significance of interviews and wants them to be available for Beatle researchers.   I look forward to the day when we all can listen to the full interviews and thank Steven Gaines for working so hard to preserve them for future Beatles historians. 

The link below is an affiliate Amazon link.  If you decide to buy this book or anything else through this link, a small percentage goes to Sara.  She uses the money earned from the affiliate Amazon link to pay for the upkeep of this site.  Thank you for your support. 

https://amzn.to/447KmZ5