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Apple to the Core : The Unmaking of the Beatles
The truth that's never been told before about the breakup of The Beatles!
- GenresNonfictionMusicBiography
Paperback
First published October 30, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 25, 2018
If I had read this back in the 1970s, I might have been surprised by a lot of it. It does a fairly good job explaining the legal mess the Beatles found themselves in. However, the first half of the book reads like a Cliff Notes history of the Beatles as written by Walter Winchell.
While the authors agree that Brian Epstein may not have gotten the greatest deals for the group, they give credit to his integrity and vision, pointing out that they might never have gotten out of Liverpool without him. If Epstein had not died when he did, it's possible the legal mess could have been contained. McCartney had always been the most difficult Beatle to deal with, but Brian was somehow able to manage him.
Strangely enough for a book like this, Allen Klein comes off fairly well (as he also did in You Never Give Me Your Money), while the Eastmans seem petty and vindictive. It makes me wonder if the authors had an axe to grind as they dismiss Linda as a groupie with zero talent, even as a photographer.
While the authors agree that Brian Epstein may not have gotten the greatest deals for the group, they give credit to his integrity and vision, pointing out that they might never have gotten out of Liverpool without him. If Epstein had not died when he did, it's possible the legal mess could have been contained. McCartney had always been the most difficult Beatle to deal with, but Brian was somehow able to manage him.
Strangely enough for a book like this, Allen Klein comes off fairly well (as he also did in You Never Give Me Your Money), while the Eastmans seem petty and vindictive. It makes me wonder if the authors had an axe to grind as they dismiss Linda as a groupie with zero talent, even as a photographer.
June 26, 2018
While I do have shelf categories for music biographies, scenes, etc "Apple to the Core" is more about the business side of the Beatles than the music. That is what make it quite different from the many other Beatles books I've read.
Peter McCabe does give the reader some essential bits of Beatles history to help the story along but it is really about Brian Epstein being replaced by Allen Klein who had epic battles with Lee and John Eastman regarding control of the Beatles asserts. None of the Beatles come off as very likable as they each scrounge for their piece of the pie. Allen Klein is seen as a shrewd businessman who knows the power of confusing your adversary with abrupt changes in direction, though he often sounds like our current President. The climax is a scramble by various stock-holding factions to get a controlling interest in Northern Songs, the music publishing house of the Beatles. I think I understand now how Michael Jackson eventually wound up owning much of the Beatles' catalog.
It is probably much more fascinating for a banker or broker, but as a Beatles fan I was interested enough to keep reading, even when it sounded like the wonkier pages of the Wall St. Journal.
Peter McCabe does give the reader some essential bits of Beatles history to help the story along but it is really about Brian Epstein being replaced by Allen Klein who had epic battles with Lee and John Eastman regarding control of the Beatles asserts. None of the Beatles come off as very likable as they each scrounge for their piece of the pie. Allen Klein is seen as a shrewd businessman who knows the power of confusing your adversary with abrupt changes in direction, though he often sounds like our current President. The climax is a scramble by various stock-holding factions to get a controlling interest in Northern Songs, the music publishing house of the Beatles. I think I understand now how Michael Jackson eventually wound up owning much of the Beatles' catalog.
It is probably much more fascinating for a banker or broker, but as a Beatles fan I was interested enough to keep reading, even when it sounded like the wonkier pages of the Wall St. Journal.
March 7, 2023
The book is about the business side of the Beatles. It's just plain boring.
April 22, 2024
Last time, I reviewed a book about the management of Led Zeppelin and all the chaos that followed. One of the main points in the story is that the band and legendary manager, Peter Grant, started their owned record label called "Swan Song" in order to achieve full artistic direction without interference. Unfortunately, everyone wanted to "own" it but no one knew how to "run" it. Thus, only successful artists from the label were Led Zeppelin, Dave Edmunds, and Bad Company, although they had several potential bands and LOTS of demos being sent (such as Iron Maiden or Heart). This reminds me that there was yet another vanity label with similar problems. It's Apple Records, which owned by, of all people, The Beatles! How did the tragic happen? Well, "Apple to the Core: The Unmaking of the Beatles" reveals some of the interesting details on that issue...but maybe too detailed.
.
Unofficially, the book can be divided in two parts. The first one tells the story of the band during the management of Brian Epstein. It's mostly the story you've heard before, with useful insights on business and marketing aspects. The second part is basically about their new manager named Allen Klein and how he ruined everything from The Beatles to Apple Corps. It's THAT black-and-white in terms of storytelling. Although it shows Brian as a drug addict, it paints him as a saint who solved a lot of problem for the band and thinking in long-term when it comes to money. Allen, however, is basically a bossy mafia who used the "my way or highway" method on management as well as luring the band into thinking that they would get higher sum of money, although they would lose the rights on some issues. This created tension between Paul McCartney (who thinks his father-in-law is more trustable) and the rest of the band who enjoyed higher sum of revenue share, as Allen promised. It sadly led to the end of the band.
.
If you want to know how Apple Corps ran in details as well as stories about the artists and The Beatles, this is NOT the book for you. At first, I thought it would be about that as well as business issues inside the band, but the second part is basically a legal drama bullshit in details. From details on the selling of Northern Songs share to literally a text document of each party in the courtroom, it's too heavy for me even though I survived Finance, Accountancy, and Business Law classes 10+ years ago!
.
They spend too many pages on these issues while Wikipedia can summarize them in shorter and more concise way. This is the biggest issue I have for it. It's not for the Beatles fan for sure since it's more of a legal/business battles, but also not for lawyers or accountants as well since they are BORING. Plus, some of the details in this book are incorrect, such as claiming the Pete Best, Beatles' original drummer, was fired because he was too handsome or saying that Allen bought Rolling Stones rights' from Cameo-Parkway in 1967 (the truth is that he bought it few years ago from different party, Decca). It's quite a frustration for me as the pages progresses.
.
Apple to the Core shed some lights that being too relaxed on your employees, spending money like there's no tomorrow, and lack of long-term direction can sink your company, it's not an enjoyable book to read as well as not what I'm looking for: a business lesson for Beatles fan who took classes in Business and Marketing.
==========================
"They were very quickly bored with business. After the announcement on the American TV show, the invasion started and they were soon disillusioned. They had wanted to help everybody, but the Beatles in one building could not supply what everybody wanted, and everybody, it seemed, wanted something. I would spend ten hours a day just trying to please, just so people would at least go away feeling that they'd been received, even though they got nothing."
==========================
.
Score: 2.5/5
.
Unofficially, the book can be divided in two parts. The first one tells the story of the band during the management of Brian Epstein. It's mostly the story you've heard before, with useful insights on business and marketing aspects. The second part is basically about their new manager named Allen Klein and how he ruined everything from The Beatles to Apple Corps. It's THAT black-and-white in terms of storytelling. Although it shows Brian as a drug addict, it paints him as a saint who solved a lot of problem for the band and thinking in long-term when it comes to money. Allen, however, is basically a bossy mafia who used the "my way or highway" method on management as well as luring the band into thinking that they would get higher sum of money, although they would lose the rights on some issues. This created tension between Paul McCartney (who thinks his father-in-law is more trustable) and the rest of the band who enjoyed higher sum of revenue share, as Allen promised. It sadly led to the end of the band.
.
If you want to know how Apple Corps ran in details as well as stories about the artists and The Beatles, this is NOT the book for you. At first, I thought it would be about that as well as business issues inside the band, but the second part is basically a legal drama bullshit in details. From details on the selling of Northern Songs share to literally a text document of each party in the courtroom, it's too heavy for me even though I survived Finance, Accountancy, and Business Law classes 10+ years ago!
.
They spend too many pages on these issues while Wikipedia can summarize them in shorter and more concise way. This is the biggest issue I have for it. It's not for the Beatles fan for sure since it's more of a legal/business battles, but also not for lawyers or accountants as well since they are BORING. Plus, some of the details in this book are incorrect, such as claiming the Pete Best, Beatles' original drummer, was fired because he was too handsome or saying that Allen bought Rolling Stones rights' from Cameo-Parkway in 1967 (the truth is that he bought it few years ago from different party, Decca). It's quite a frustration for me as the pages progresses.
.
Apple to the Core shed some lights that being too relaxed on your employees, spending money like there's no tomorrow, and lack of long-term direction can sink your company, it's not an enjoyable book to read as well as not what I'm looking for: a business lesson for Beatles fan who took classes in Business and Marketing.
==========================
"They were very quickly bored with business. After the announcement on the American TV show, the invasion started and they were soon disillusioned. They had wanted to help everybody, but the Beatles in one building could not supply what everybody wanted, and everybody, it seemed, wanted something. I would spend ten hours a day just trying to please, just so people would at least go away feeling that they'd been received, even though they got nothing."
==========================
.
Score: 2.5/5
August 22, 2023
Sloppy, uneven and often pretentious breakdown of the Beatles’ management and financial history is slightly interesting because of its date of publication (1972), when a great deal of what it’s talking about is still current business insider info. (And already, people are complaining about the “Imagine” lyrics.) But aside from what it gleans from a grotesque sit-down interview in Allen Klein’s office, it doesn’t offer a lot of new insights and is deeply antiquated in its treatment of Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman, and the writing still is often off-putting. Still, it has the most detailed breakdown I’ve ever read of the off-kilter relationship between the two companies associated with the Beatles (NEMS and Apple) after Brian Epstein’s death, and features a moment-by-moment breakdown of Apple’s attempt at buying out Northern Songs (they were famously outbid by ATV) that might be the dullest thing ever written about anything Beatles-related. You do get the vibe of generalized ’60s ideology crashing down in real time, if you’re in the market for that, but there’s almost nothing here about the music and the judgments of the involved parties as people is one-dimensional and sometimes cruel, thus it’s hard to really care.
September 9, 2007
I read this in 1972, when I was 12 years old. I believe this book came out in 1971 or even 1970. I have not read it since, but I have to testify to the influence this book had on my thinking about the Beatles. I am of the opinion that if I hadn't read this when I did, I'd have been at a major disadvantage when puzzling over the Beatles' dynamic.
To put this in historical context, this book came out in the immediate wake of the Beatles' breakup. It's hard to remember what a shocking thing it was for rock fans, even, or especially fans who were not obsessed with the Beatles, to believe that not only had they broken up but that there was tremendous bitterness in the breakup.
APPLE TO THE CORE (a pun on Apple Corps., the record label the Beatles created) makes a very strong case that what broke the group up was the thing which usually breaks up showbiz teams: money. Toward the end of their days as a group, the Beatles decided to create their own record label. The plan was to sign new artists and promote Beatles projects and projects by individual Beatles. Inexperienced in business, the Beatles oversaw a very poorly run company. Of course there were artistic differences and the pressure of fame as well as the fact that they'd spent their days as young men inextricably tied to each other. The Beatles probably would have broken up, anyway. But the fact that they tried to manage their own company, according to this book, is what splintered the group.
I no longer think the creation of Apple played a very significant role in the Beatles' breakup. But Apple as a factor in the destruction of the group has been underplayed in books which came out after APPLE TO THE CORPS.
A more lasting impression this book gave me is the idea of the Beatles as a tug-of-war between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Again, focusing on John and Paul's interdependence does not quite explain other things about the Beatles' appeal. George Harrison always provided an ironic edge ("Don't Bother Me," "Love You Too" and George's masterpiece "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" are perfect examples of a dark sensibility which, nevertheless, veers away from Lennonish mockery or the deliberate ugliness of "Helter Skelter," Paul's answer to his own penchant for sentimentality.)
But this book definitely points out that, with Paul and John at odds with each other, the Beatles had to collapse. It makes the argument that, with the death of the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein in 1967, the Beatles had lost their protector.
I really think Shakespeare could have invented the Beatles. That they united in real life for any amount of time, let alone eight years,* is a miracle. APPLE TO THE CORPS points out the sadness of their broken friendship, something which caused sorrow around the world.
* Ah, you've read as far as the asterisk. Let me say I know that the Beatles, in one form or another, lasted something like thirteen years, but I date their beginning to the year they signed with E.M.I., 1962.
To put this in historical context, this book came out in the immediate wake of the Beatles' breakup. It's hard to remember what a shocking thing it was for rock fans, even, or especially fans who were not obsessed with the Beatles, to believe that not only had they broken up but that there was tremendous bitterness in the breakup.
APPLE TO THE CORE (a pun on Apple Corps., the record label the Beatles created) makes a very strong case that what broke the group up was the thing which usually breaks up showbiz teams: money. Toward the end of their days as a group, the Beatles decided to create their own record label. The plan was to sign new artists and promote Beatles projects and projects by individual Beatles. Inexperienced in business, the Beatles oversaw a very poorly run company. Of course there were artistic differences and the pressure of fame as well as the fact that they'd spent their days as young men inextricably tied to each other. The Beatles probably would have broken up, anyway. But the fact that they tried to manage their own company, according to this book, is what splintered the group.
I no longer think the creation of Apple played a very significant role in the Beatles' breakup. But Apple as a factor in the destruction of the group has been underplayed in books which came out after APPLE TO THE CORPS.
A more lasting impression this book gave me is the idea of the Beatles as a tug-of-war between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Again, focusing on John and Paul's interdependence does not quite explain other things about the Beatles' appeal. George Harrison always provided an ironic edge ("Don't Bother Me," "Love You Too" and George's masterpiece "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" are perfect examples of a dark sensibility which, nevertheless, veers away from Lennonish mockery or the deliberate ugliness of "Helter Skelter," Paul's answer to his own penchant for sentimentality.)
But this book definitely points out that, with Paul and John at odds with each other, the Beatles had to collapse. It makes the argument that, with the death of the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein in 1967, the Beatles had lost their protector.
I really think Shakespeare could have invented the Beatles. That they united in real life for any amount of time, let alone eight years,* is a miracle. APPLE TO THE CORPS points out the sadness of their broken friendship, something which caused sorrow around the world.
* Ah, you've read as far as the asterisk. Let me say I know that the Beatles, in one form or another, lasted something like thirteen years, but I date their beginning to the year they signed with E.M.I., 1962.
January 31, 2015
The meat of this book is in the middle, with the three chapters dealing in detail with the business machinations of Allen Klein, Lee Eastman, Clive Epstein, and Sir Lew Grade, and how the Beatles lost Northern Songs and then split up acrimoniously over business managers. The book (we now know) gets a lot of facts about the group wrong, yet the business details are fresh from the affidavits of the group's breakup. For that, I highly recommend it.
January 15, 2015
Yoko is innocent. Allen Klein is guilty.
February 8, 2024
4 stars from younger me
January 27, 2016
Short, succinct even but not sweet. Okay at best.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews