Allen Klein
The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll
-
-
2.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $2.99
-
- $2.99
Publisher Description
The story of the notorious rock and roll manager, revealing new, behind-the-scenes details about some of the biggest bands in music history.
Allen Klein was like no one the music industry had seen before. Though he became infamous for allegedly causing the Beatles’ breakup and robbing the Rolling Stones, the truth is both more complex and more fascinating. As the manager of both groups—not to mention Sam Cooke, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Kinks, and numerous others—he taught young soon-to-be legends how to be businessmen as well as rock stars.
While Klein made millions for his clients, he was as merciless with them as he was with anyone, earning himself an outsize reputation for villainy that has gone unchallenged until now. Through unique, unprecedented access to Klein’s archives, veteran music journalist Fred Goodman tells the full story of how the Beatles broke up, the Stones achieved the greatest commercial success in rock history, and the music business became what it is today.
“Fred Goodman makes this world come alive, and any fan of rock or insider tales of the music industry will be in heaven reading about this fascinating, troubling character.” —Judd Apatow
“Writing about contracts, percentages and deals can be tedious, but Goodman makes it as exciting as reading about an artist’s sex life. The book explodes with inside dope.” —Daily News (New York)
“Succeed[s] both as a compelling work of rock-’n’-roll history and as a cautionary business primer.” —The Wall Street Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Allen Klein revolutionized the rock and roll business, spinning money out of record sales, song publishing rights, and forceful readjustments of contracts that were wildly unfair to artists. "Pugnacious and foul mouthed," Klein and his ABKCO Records became one of the first independent record labels and music publishers, persuading artists that he "can get you a million dollars." It wasn't purely altruistic, as his many enemies noted. "He robbed from the rich and kept it," an approach that contributed to his lasting negative reputation. His hard-nosed negotiations with Andrew Loog Oldham, the first manager of the Rolling Stones, both ensured the band's financial fortunes and eventually gave him a huge percentage of their early royalties as well as control over their early back catalog. Klein's greatest fame came in the four years he served as manager of the Beatles, bringing some financial order to the chaos of their hippie business umbrella, Apple Corps. Goodman (Fortune's Fool), an accomplished journalist, goes over these triumphs in exhaustive detail, painting a portrait of a man with horrific impulse control and a combative personality who got embroiled in ruinously expensive litigation with his most famous clients. While the ins and outs of Klein's wheeling and dealing are well documented here, Goodman rarely provides adequate context for how his approach differed from the practices of the time, and it's tough to see an obvious audience for this book-length portrait of the accounting behind the music.
