| Title | : | And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published August 18, 2020 |
And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles Reviews
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I'm a hardcore Beatles' fan of several decades and have read scores of books about them, but it sure doesn't stop me from jumping at the chance to read more. I find it amazing how 50 years after their breakup new books are still being written. I always hope to extract some new kernel of information out of each new book since I am somewhat of a Beatles expert myself. This author actually used several books I own from many years ago as sources for this book.
First off, it's depressing to read about this particular part of The Beatles history. I always feel a joy and excitement in my heart reading about their childhoods and rise to fame, but books about their demise are a slow moving tragedy. As this book begins The Beatles are embarking on recording and filming what became the "Let it Be" project. It was a very gray and melancholy time in their career. George Harrison often referred to it as "the winter of discontent". Paul had hoped that they could find a rebirth of sorts by documenting an album in the making. Crucially, Paul hoped for the band to tour small clubs again and get a fire in the belly like they had when they were hungry for success. John Lennon thought Paul was daft and wanted no part of it. In the end they settled for a hastily planned concert on the roof of their offices on Savile Row in London, Apple Corp. Their company was bleeding money because they weren't businessmen, they were just artists and idealists. The employees and hangers on at the Apple offices were taking advantage of The Beatles with caviar from Harrods, liquor and all sorts of largesse. After their manager Brian Epstein died Paul tried to guide the band through different projects, but it was time to find a new manager to deal with all the contracts. As much as Brian Epstein loved his Beatles with a passion, he was a novice and didn't make the best deals for the band. Brash and boisterous Allen Klein of New York who already managed The Rolling Stones always dreamed of snagging The Beatles. He managed to ingratiate himself to John Lennon and Yoko Ono after a meeting in a hotel where he flattered John with his knowledge of John's work. This convinced John to hire Klein to manage his own affairs, and he pressed fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr to follow suit. The only holdout was Paul McCartney, who was immediately turned off by Allen Klein's uncouth and burly personality and dicey reputation. More importantly, his new wife Linda Eastman came from a wealthy family of New York entertainment lawyers that were also vying for the position. They clashed in ugly, argumentative meetings that resulted in Klein getting the endorsement of Lennon, Harrison and Starr, but Paul never consented to his management deal.
Klein immediately set out on three fronts to renegotiate deals. He wanted to buy out Brian Epstein's NEMS Holdings company from which Epstein would draw 25% of The Beatles earnings. In the wake of Epstein's death, his brother Clive and mother Queenie were the heirs. Another huge issue was Lennon-McCartney's publishing company "Northern Songs Ltd" of which The Beatles did not have a controlling interest. Klein was wheeling and dealing to find a way to get The Beatles to 51% controlling shares. Lennon was blindsided when he found out that Paul had purchased some additional shares behind Lennon's back. The third problem was re-negotiating The Beatles record deal with EMI as they were getting paid poorly in comparison to other musical acts like The Rolling Stones. Klein only succeeded in this last negotiation, but literally as The Beatles congregated to sign the new record contract Lennon dropped a bomb on McCartney that he wanted a divorce from the band, just like he divorced his first wife Cynthia. According to longtime Beatles assistant Mal Evans, once the other Beatles left following this outburst, Paul was bereft in tears. Ultimately, Klein demanded that John Lennon keep his news a secret, for with a new and much improved record contract, news of a Beatle quitting would destroy everything.
The relationship of John and Yoko put a great strain on the established working structure of The Beatles. They wanted to be together 24/7. Prior to this, no Beatles wives ever entered the domain of the recording studio. Now suddenly they had a large bed being delivered to Abbey Road Studios from Harrods, to be installed in full view of The Beatles working space so she wouldn't miss anything. Yoko, John, her daughter Kyoko (with former husband Tony Cox) and John's son Julian (with first wife Cynthia) had recently been in a car accident in Scotland. The final icing on the cake was when she asked for a microphone to be suspended over the bed in case she needed to comment on the musical proceedings.
Linda was pregnant with Paul's first child, and he had adopted Linda's adorable young daughter Heather from her previous marriage. John and Paul married Yoko and Linda within about a week of each other, and their lives were growing apart. Still, somehow Paul managed to lasso his bandmates to make an album "like we used to" with their regular producer George Martin at the helm. The "Let it Be" sessions were a debacle and it took veteran "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector to gloss them over into a pleasantly listenable album. Producer Glyn Johns hadn't been able to satisfy The Beatles with his version of the disc. Paul was angered, however, with how Spector used a girl's choir on his song "The Long and Winding Road". Martin only agreed to produce what would become The Beatles last album "Abbey Road" if they all agreed to let him produce them like he always had, without the chaos and rancor that had culminated in their last album.
This all was very heavy on the heart, but the detailed account of the recording of "Abbey Road" was my favorite part of the book. Hearing how The Beatles sang 3-part harmony at the same time for the gorgeous "Because" track, how they created what is known as the suite on side two with snippets of unfinished songs, melded together into a seamless masterpiece, how they convinced Ringo to perform the first and only Beatles drum solo on a Beatles album on the bridge between "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry that Weight", and how exactly photographer Iain Macmillan photographed The Beatles crossing Abbey Road- was a delight to read.
All in all, for me this was a sometimes painful but lovely nostalgia trip on a subject I always love to revisit, The Beatles. I found the intricate business dealings quite confusing to grasp, but reveled in the rest of the history. This is a very good book about the final chapter of The Beatles. Someone who knows nothing about The Beatles would learn a lot about the band's demise, and even if you already know a lot like me, you would still appreciate the quality of this book.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press / Thomas Dunne Books for providing an advance readers copy via NetGalley. -
“And in the End” is a meticulously researched chronicle of the last year of the Fab Four, the one and only Beatles. There are surprisingly twelve chapters for the final year, one for each month of 1969. Perhaps you’ve heard bits and pieces of the final year, but now you get it all in chronological order. You get the bickering over the songs, the omnipresent personage of screaming Yoko, the frustrations, and the financial machinations.
The Beatles’ business affairs were a mess. Like many young bands, they trusted management and accountants and had little choice in the beginning. But, they sold off their catalog early on. And they were running Apple 🍏 Music as if it were Congress and the national budget, spending frivolously like there would never be any end in sight. They were so spread out financially that they couldn’t even get the rights to their own songs back. Two solutions presenter themselves, two dueling solutions. One was the Eastman family Paul married into who knew their way about copyright law, but not in the hard nosed music industry. The other was Klein, the kind of businessman who promised the world and rarely delivered.
John was consumed with Yoko and sleep-ins and every political cause he could find. Yet, two more albums were due, Abbey Road and Let It Be.
It’s a tragic tale in that these four (still young men) had accomplished so much, but never found a way to continue together, not even sporadically. There could have been another decade of triumphs or perhaps fading away into obscurity. By splitting up so young at the end of the Sixties, the Beatles fixed themselves in time and never suffered the mediocre years other bands did.
Great book. So much information. If you are not intimately familiar with all the names involved, you might need to research independently as this book assumes you know roughly about the earlier Beatles years. Overall, a fantastic boon for those of us who love rock history. -
4 stars
You can read all of my reviews at
NerdGirlLovesBooks.
This was a fascinating non-fiction book about the last year or two that the Beatles were officially a band. It focuses on the business fights regarding band managers, royalties and control of Paul and John's original songs, as well as the philosophical differences of the band members.
Considering how influential The Beatles are, it's crazy to remember they were only together as a band for 10 years, and stopped performing live the last couple of years. This book starts with events in January 1969, just as the band starts working on the "Get Back" film and album project. Right away the author sets the scene, describing the frayed nerves and tension between band members. We then take a rollercoaster ride of hurt feelings, betrayals, egos, and business and legal positioning. It's shocking that they were actually able to produce an album during the chaos.
It's clear the author did his research. He weaves band member interviews throughout the book to tell the stories, as well as interviews he conducted of people that witnessed certain events. Not having a head for business, I must confess that most of the business shenanigans went over my head. There is A LOT of that in this book, so reader beware. After a certain point, I found myself skimming those sections because it was just too much for me.
While public opinion largely blames Yoko Ono for the break up of the Beatles, the author doesn't bash her too much in this book. She was definitely an odd, quirky "artist" and a polarizing personality. It's clear, however, that there were many reasons for the band's split, and she was just an easy scapegoat. Don't get me wrong, she definitely seemed to have hastened the band's break up, but based on everything else that was going on, it was just a matter of time before the foursome parted ways.
There are too many issues discussed in the book to go into detail, but if you're interested in the Beatles and want to know what REALLY happened right before, and during, their break up, this is the book for you.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. -
This book tells the story of the last year of The Beatles, 1969, as the Fab Four headed off into 4 (or more!) different directions. They pull together to create one of the greatest albums of rock 'n' roll, *Abbey Road*, while still struggling with the recordings from the previous album attempt, called *Get Back* here but eventually turns into *Let It Be*.
It details both the management and artistic struggles the band went thru, starting with the (in)famous last concert on the roof top. McCartney and Lennon are, not surprisingly, the main actors, although one of the big storylines is the rise of George Harrison, as he becomes a confident artist and songwriter in his own right. Besides John Lennon's crazy personality, I think Harrison's disillusionment with how he is being treated by Lennon / McCartney is probably the biggest reason for the break up.
It was well written, with a chapter for each month. He covers plenty of history and histrionics, as Lennon begins to flex his muscles as "the world's most famous person", like his famous sleep in and the Toronto "Give Peace A Chance". Between this book and *
Tune In*, Lewisohn's tome about the early Beatles, I don't think he was a very nice person. But when you have 3 (even 4!) very talented artists, the writing was on the wall for the end of The Beatles.
So this was a heartbreaking book to this Beatles fan but well written and engrossing. The biggest negative was the incessant business wrangling, with the "bad guy" new manager Alan Klein. It is, of course, necessary to the history of The Beatles, but it doesn't make it any more interesting. I mean, the music business is just so screwed up. How is it possible that Lennon/McCartney lose control over their own damn songs? It's not like the company that "owned" them was taking any chances. I mean, at least the record company puts out some money, but the song owner does nothing. It is truly insane how they lost control over their own work, as "cigar smoking Company guys" took over the company that owned the songs.
The other minor niggle was the sporadic British (more likely, Scottish) slang that was a bit of a mystery. Oddly enough, one of the words he used, *outwith*, was the "Scottish Word of the Day" by the always memorable Ms. PunnyPennie
here. But it certainly didn't mar the narrative all that much.
So a nice read and with enough juicy tidbits to make it worth it, even for lukewarm Beatles fans. -
Mick Jagger has a quote about The Beatles that pretty much sums up their existence: “The Beatles were so big that it’s hard for people not alive at the time to realize just how big they were.”
Amen to that. And if you were alive at the time, you get it. There was nothing but Beatles day and night, every day. Radio stations played only their songs. Department stores sold Beatles wigs, shoes, jackets. The arrival of a new doubled-sided single by the group eclipsed everything. Their lyrics were poured over as if they were messages from another civilization. There is simply nothing comparable today.
And all that explains why it’s so hard for any writer to make current day readers understand why he’d want to tackle yet again the magnetic pull of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Literally every moment of the Beatles existence has been combed over by the best journalists out there. There is almost nothing new to say.
Ken McNab, author of And in the End, is the latest journalist to give it a go, and he does a very credible and worthwhile job of making The Beatles’ last picked over year quite interesting. His conceit is to tackle--month by month--the Beatles last days they existed as a foursome creating music that would last forever even as the group itself was circling the drain.
McNab, to his credit, has tracked down some people who crossed paths with the boys in that fateful year of 1969. And yes, these folks sometimes have some good yarns to spill.
One standout story is the recording of “Give Peace a Chance” in a hotel suite in Montreal. The now-iconic song was “created” by record producer Andre Perry who entered John and Yoko’s room carrying a 4-track recorder and a bag containing four microphones and two speakers.
“Seconds later,” McNab writes, “he was face to face with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a room swarming with people that included scandal-hungry journalists, celebrity liggers, prurient hangers-on and mantra-chanting devotees from the Canadian chapter of the Radha Krishna Temple. ‘It was complete chaos,’ recalled Perry, then Montreal’s most in-demand record producer and a man with impeccable credentials.”
John was very chill that day. He watched Perry set up the mics and then said, “That looks fine to me.” The lyrics to the song were pinned up “on huge signs on the walls, like hippie graffiti.” There were some 50 people in the room including Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory, and Allen Ginsberg.
One can imagine the daunting challenges in trying to get some reasonable sound from such a room with such a gathering of so many people. One of the few actual singers in the room was Petula Clark. She was hurt by an audience reaction to her performance in that Canadian city and sound out solace from, who else, but John Lennon whom she barely knew.
There was no security in those days, and Clark waltzed into John and Yoko’s room where John threw his arms around her and gave her a bit of advice on how to deal with adversity, advice that she does not repeat to this day. But Clark stuck around for the recording of John’s song.
She always thought she was on that famous recording, but Perry reveals how unlikely that is. After recording the song, he went to his studio and listened to it. John’s voice and guitar shone through but the sound from the backup singers was horrendous, mainly because of the poor setting it was recorded in. Perry kept what was good and then pulled in some professional backup singers, banged on a garbage can, put some echo on the record and brought it back to John. “That’s fantastic,” he said and so the legendary peace chant was born.
Stories like that are the reason to read McNab’s book, and there are quite a few that will make even the most knowledgeable Beatles fan smile.
The problem with dissecting the year 1969 is that McNab must deal with odious Alan Klein, the businessman whom only three of the Beatles trusted. Paul famously never gave the American an inch. If one never reads about Alan Klein again, it will be too soon—although McNab does a credible job. It’s just a very tired story.
Everyone knows how vitriolic that last year was among all the members of the group except perhaps Ringo. John and Paul had major problems, and George was sick of being the forgotten songwriter. The most amazing thing is that the Beatles alchemy—despite all fights and arguments—shone through and the boys produced what is arguably their finest album Abbey Road. Producing that gem in the middle of all they were going through proves, once again, that The Beatles were not just a band but a magic act. -
We know how this story begins. The Cavern Club, Beatlemania, George Martin, India. Ken McNab knows he doesn't need to set this book up. He just drops us right into the thick of the action on January 2, 1969, as the Beatles gather in Twickenham Film Studios for a recording session that was meant to be a fun and easy-going return to their roots. Instead, it was the beginning of the end for the biggest band in the world.
It's fair to ask whether the world needs another Beatles book, but it's hard to argue with McNab's decision to focus his new book on 1969: the last year the Beatles were a band. And In the End is a reminder of just what an eventful year it was, and details the dynamics that were inexorably pulling the Fab Four apart. The book unfolds almost cinematically, moving from one unforgettable moment to the next.
I reviewed And In the End for The Current. -
Staying in the Southwest of France in the summer of '21, I took the Beatles time machine to the year 1969, carefully constructed by the Scottish journalist Ken McNab.
As Steve Turner did in Beatles '66 (2016) McNab tells his story in chronological order with little sidesteps: taking off on the 2nd of january 1969 in a London filmstudio, called Twickenham, where the first material for the album/movie Get Back was shot and closing of with a new year message by John Lennon.
I have really enjoyed McNab's style of writing. Especially his ability to weave Beatles lyrics into his story telling.
On page 1 he starts with a simple but effective hint to the chorus of Get back: 'It was in these desolate surroundings that The Beatles hoped to get back to where they once belonged'.
McNab's masters this trick in the closing paragraph of the epilogue: 'In the weeks and months to come Lennon would find instant karma on his own while telling everyone he didn't believe in Beatles. Harrison would go in search of his sweet lord while proving that, ultimately, all things must pass; Starr would dolefully admit it don't come easy without a little help from his friends; and McCartney would weep, like the whole world over the loss of his dear friend, his irreplaceable collaborator, in December 1980'.
Warning: at least 15% of this book consists of a reconstruction of the business side of the Beatles break-up. McNab introduces Brian Epsteins successor, Alan Klein, on page 23 and unravels the financial details of old and new contracts with entities like EMI, NEMS and Northern Songs. Although I am used reading financial statements I sometimes got bored and turned from reading to scanning mode.
Nevertheless McNab's time machine landed in my Beatles books Top 3. Surrounded by Beatles '66 (Steve Turner) and the heavy weight biography by American journalist Bob Spitz. I most admit that Mark Lewisohn 'Tune in' (2013) is still on my reading list. -
Another take. Another piece of Beatles history dissected. I can’t get enough.
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Kimley and I will be discussing this book on our next BOOK MUSIK podcast on October 1, 2020.
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I didn't follow the behind the scenes Beatles information at the time. Not sure if Fake News, was a term use then. Great read that provides a lot of information about the Title. Enjoy!
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Excellent month-by-month breakdown of the Beatles’ tumultuous final year.
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Fantastic, and excellently written. This book goes month-by-month through 1969, and each chapter is absolutely fascinating. I was glued from the first page. I'm looking forward to reading other things Ken McNab puts out.
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This is a fine account of the Beatles' 1969 exploits, with a chapter dedicated to each month. As such we get a very detailed account of the year, and how it set up the sadness and further despair and inexorable doom of the band in 1970 and beyond. I won't bother to give a book report type of summary of what I've learned, as the tale of the Beatles' breakup has been recounted many times over the years, by more eloquent and learned and suitable minds than mine. In fact there is a concise Wikipedia page on the matter, for your viewing pleasure, right
here. Wikipedia has many very specific articles on a wide range of Beatles minutiae. Topics include "Lennon-McCartney" (an analysis of their songwriting partnership), "Religious Views of the Beatles", "Cultural Impact of the Beatles", and many more. Strangely, I've found, there is no page on "Beatles Studies", which I expected would exist, after uncovering
Madonna Studies. That is a bit odd, considering you can now get a
master's degree in the subject of the band. But I digress.
So, rather than summarize the book, I will select a few passages that I found to be questionable, funny, or worthy of note in some regard. I will call out a few things and compliment some other things. In terms of the book's informational content, most of the material is rehashed, which is totally fair and expected, but to McNab's credit, there are a few new kernels which I, at least, have not heard before. These are worthy of mention and I will outline a couple below:Wholesome reminiscing by Dr. David Milne of Lawson Memorial Hospital:
Besides those two kernels of new (to me) information, I also enjoyed McNab including some contemporaneous commentary on the band's doings and records. Quotes from witnesses, and also the remarks of journalists and newspapers. The reviews are quite interesting. Here are two examples:
The author interviewed this pleasant, humble country clinic doctor, and got him to share some nice memories of John, Yoko, and their children's time in his care in 1969 following their Scotland car crash. I appreciated this unique, in-depth account into the particular occasion.
the second kernel:
Country duo Delaney and Bonnie claim to have given George the idea for "My Sweet Lord", and, critically, consciously using "He's So Fine" as melodic inspiration:
I'm not making this up:
In an interview with Harrison biographer Marc Shapiro, Bramlett alleged: ‘George came up to me one night after a show on that tour and said, “You write a lot of gospel songs and I’d like to know what inspires you to do that.” And so I gave him my explanation. I told him that I get things from the Bible, from what a preacher may say or just the feelings I felt toward God. George said, “Well, can you give me a for instance?” He wanted to know how I would start.
‘So I grabbed my guitar and started playing The Chiffons’ melody from “She’s So Fine” and then sang the words, ‘My Sweet Lord/Oh My Lord/I just wanna be with you’. George said, “Okay.” Then I said, “Then you praise the Lord in your own way”.
‘As it happened, Rita Coolidge, who was on the tour, and my wife at the time – Bonnie – were sitting there and so I told them that when we got to this one part, they should sing ‘Hallelujah’.They did. We ran down the example a few times. George seemed satisfied. He said okay and that was the end of it.’
Except, of course, it wasn’t. Whatever the truth of the matter, it wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last, that Harrison would find himself accused of stealing biscuits from another musician’s cookie jar.
If this allegation is true, it means that George was lying when he said he came up with the song all on his own, and, most saucily, that "He's So Fine" didn't inspire the melody and rhythm.The Beatles Monthly magazine publisher, Sean O'Mahoney, and his priceless chastising of the Beatles' slipping image:
Now I will get into some parts of the book that made me raise an eyebrow, because of the author's choice of words, perhaps something I see as not entirely fair, or in one case, a simple error he's made. Four gripes:
McNab explains how the magazine was "entrenched in the past" and presented its subscribers with the band's erstwhile moptop image, even when it clashed with reality. Much like how the Beatles themselves, in 1966, didn't play any songs more recent and elaborate than "Nowhere Man", because they didn't have the technical capabilities onstage, and so their sets were incongruous with their musical development.
O'Mahoney's complaining:
The real reason why The Beatles Monthly is stopping publication is because it was The Beatles’ publication of the Sixties while The Beatles were in their twenties. Now, as The Beatles approach their thirties, I feel – and I believe they do too – that we can’t do the job in the Seventies. This is the real crux of the matter.
‘The magazine was first published to keep the fans informed about the activities of The Beatles because John, Paul, George and Ringo were very happy to accept the one identity. I don’t think this is true anymore. Two of The Beatles have made quite a number of statements about their future intentions. Indeed, if one took them literally, one can only assume that they are rejecting The Beatles’ ‘image these days.’
‘I can’t close The Beatles book without mentioning the drug problem. On several occasions, The Beatles have made it very plain that they have experimented with drugs. Many of their close associates have said that they consider mild drugs like pot are okay. I had always hoped that The Beatles would have come out with a straight-forward condemnation of drugs. Although I’m sure at least one will, eventually, personally I believe that to experiment with drugs is utterly stupid. To accept the theory that your own mind is not good enough without taking extra, dangerous chemicals to alter its natural processes seems to display a certain lack of self-respect. The pro-pot brigade will say that pot is no worse than alcohol or smoking and it doesn’t lead the user on to more dangerous drugs like heroin. The facts don’t bear them out … too many girls and boys have died already, starting on pot and going on to something stronger, for there to be any real argument.’
"Unfortunate Image of Hippy Earnestness"
The British press again lined up behind the establishment to target Lennon’s activism. ‘There is an unfortunate image of hippy earnestness directing liberal causes from the deep upholstery of a Beatle’s income,’ sniffed The Times that month.
This is real great stuff to read. Very interesting and informative, it sure shines a light on the times, and what people were thinking. I appreciate McNab including such commentary, because it nicely breaks up the cold hard facts and chronological reporting constitute most of the book."Preachy" Harrison
Now I will mention the error I spotted:
Devoid of the preachy overtones that weighed down some of his more recent songs, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ was warm, exuberant and brimful of optimism with a chorus that was delightfully infectious. On hearing it for the first time, McCartney must have winced at its effortless-sounding melody, one that could just as easily have sprung from his own well.
McNab probably isn't wrong, but I still feel the need to call him out. It is just his opinion though. There is a bit of a jab at Paul here though. It is just a smug theory, with no proof cited as to how Paul actually felt.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is "Universally Hated"
Over the next two weeks they maintained slow but steady progress in honing ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘Something’, and the universally hated ‘Maxwell’ while tackling McCartney’s ‘Oh! Darling’.
Definitely not hated by all. Maybe the other Beatles. They grew to hate it after having to do multiple takes over multiple days. John was the most vocal about it.
Non-Photogenic Ringo
And all he had to do was act naturally. Ringo Starr may not have been the most photogenic Fab, but the movie camera loved him.
Maybe it's true, and/or subjective. Judge for yourself.
Dissing “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”
After recording a new Harrison lead guitar overdub for ‘Let It Be’ Lennon and McCartney excavated an eighteen-month-old track. It was a curious choice. ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’, a Lennon creation, had absolutely no commercial value and bordered on Goons-like comedy. Yet McCartney would strangely later recall the session as one of his favourites. A multi-part song containing a nightclub cabaret pastiche and a host of silly voices and effects, ‘You Know My Name’ had been initially recorded in the weeks after the completion of the Sgt. Pepper album and then left on the shelf. In truth, though, it was an old note which should have remained unopened.
This is where I draw the line! This song absolutely deserves to exist, and I don't think it's strange or confusing at all as to why Paul would remember the song's sessions so fondly. They had so much fun! Paul calls the tune his #1 favourite Beatles song because of the great fun they had recording it. This results in fantastic memories whenever he looks back on the track. Makes sense to me.Film called "Smile"
And to wrap things up, I will conclude by selecting two instances of shining Lennon wit that I found interesting and humorous, respectively:
Lennon and Yoko occasionally broke cover, notably on 10 September, when they hosted a screening at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London of a new film they had made. It was called Smile, a fifteen-minute slow-motion study of Lennon’s penis becoming erect. John wittily predicted the critics wouldn’t touch it.
According to the film's
IMDb article, the film is called Self-Portrait, and it is 42 minutes long. McNab has slipped up in terms of its title and runtime. Also, I am not sure about John's "prediction", but I can safely say that Yoko's remark that "the critics wouldn't touch it" is the more famous one, so perhaps McNab is confused here as well.Is that The Art of War he's referencing?
Because of the book's subject matter, I would be lying if I said I "really liked it". So from me it will receive a mere three stars despite being soundly written. It was the same case with Peter Brown's book,
He continued: ‘A lot of people say, now, if you had only done it straight, it would have been much more effective. And it’s the same as if you’d only get your hair cut and wear a straight suit, you’d be more effective. One, I wouldn’t be myself. Two, I don’t believe people believe politicians, especially the youth. They’ve had enough of short hair and suits saying this is, as if, you know … It’s like … is every priest a holy man just coz he’s got a dog collar on, you know. Nobody believes that any more. And we do this intuitively. But after we’ve done it for a few times, we always had some irrelevancy or something in the campaign, you know.
And Yoko’s telling me about this ancient Chinese book that tells you how to conduct a battle. And it says the castle always falls from within. Never from without, you know, hardly ever, like America. And it also says, don’t have all the doors closed when you’re fighting, you know. Don’t have every door shut. Coz the enemy will put all the pressure on and you might crumple. Always leave one door open and the enemy will concentrate their fire there and then you’ll know where it’s coming. So our door open is long hair, nudism, nudity whatever the word is, mentioning “Cold Turkey” in such a serious thing as Biafra and Vietnam, you know, and let the people point their finger, you know. “Oh, he’s … they’re naked,” you know. “They look like freaks.” But it doesn’t interfere with the campaign, you know. Nobody attacks peace.’
“Whoever heard of a bald Beatle?”
McBean was amazed when he viewed the four Beatles through his viewfinder – and even more amazed that they were still together. He recalled: ‘In 1963 I asked John Lennon how long they would stay as a group, and he said, “Oh, about six years, I suppose – whoever heard of a bald Beatle?” Well, it was just six years later that I was asked to repeat the shot with The Beatles as they now looked – very hairy indeed.’
The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles . A worthwhile account, notably for the instances of personal insight only he could provide. But he does tend to focus on the negative, ugly, depressing stories of the band, and riled some tempers in the process. Famously Paul burned his copy. But anyway, I gave that one three stars because it wasn't all that pleasant to read. And it is the same case here, but in a less salacious way, and rather due to the nature of the facts presented: that they painstakingly detail, with grim sobriety, the disintegration of the world's greatest band. -
And In The End by Ken McNab is a book about the last year the Beatles were together. It is told in a monthly format, and it starts with January of 1969. Each month something happens that leads to John Lennon finally saying "The Groups over, I'm Leaving". I loved how this read like a documentary I could watch on TV. There was so much information and you can tell the author put in a lot of time meticulously researching the Beatles. Thank you Ken McNab for writing such an awesome book full of memories... I found myself singing along every time you mentioned a song name. Thank you for that!! 4⭐
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Very good insider info in this book. It made me sad though. For the breakup of the Beatles and their friendship and the deaths of John and George. And my own youth, I suppose, as it takes place the year I was 14. Some of the stories I knew from being a fan but there was a lot of backstory about the making of their last two albums which I really enjoyed.
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And in the End is a January-December chronicle of the triumphs, struggles, banalities, and curiosities of the Fab Four in 1969, the year the Beatles broke for good. McNab correctly predicts that readers will need no introduction or backstory due to the endless subject matter already published on the band and dives right into the narrative, covering momentous events such as the band's Apple rooftop performance, Let It Be/Abbey Road sessions, and the legal struggles over Lennon/McCartney's songbook. Lingering in the background of the entire story is the gradual dissolution of the group mentality of the band into what would become four distinct and increasingly Beatle-weary personalities: new father Paul, spiritual and confident songwriter George, actor Ringo, and Plastic Ono Band John.
While the majority of this year and every other aspect of the Beatles has been covered in countless other books and media, McNab keep things interesting throughout with a variety of interviews with people close to the band as well as interesting tidbits about the members that I'd never heard before (who would have imagined that Ringo offered himself up as Samwise Gamgee if Lord of the Rings was made into a film?). Give this book (and peace) a chance.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to St. Martin's Press** -
If you enjoyed Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary but wanted to know what the Beatles did next - first of all, bad news for you. But you may want to pick up And In The End, which chronicles 1969 month by month through increasing acrimony and historical turning points for the band.
The official split is surprisingly held back until the epilogue (perhaps owing to its occurring in 1970), as is a quick summary of the inter-Beatle litigation that probably marked the low point of the group’s relationship. The book is more about the choices and struggles that led to that; history allows us to treat the actual end as a foregone conclusion. And it’s not all bad news, as the band’s sheer talent, musicality and magnetism get the better of them long enough to make Abbey Road, before they then start pursuing their own careers and ideas.
It’s excellently researched and quite balanced, allowing everyone their share of the limelight and/or blame. It is inevitably a sad book, as we track the breaking apart of a friend group and unit that maybe was too special to endure any longer. If you simply want to know how it happened, then Ken McNab weaves it together very readably, though he can’t resist a few arguably too glib song titles snuck into his prose. But can I blame him really, with this subject matter. -
Spoiler they break up :( really great, comprehensive read. Couldn't help but feel as though the author was filling in the gaps at times with negative commentary and it did feel a bit fan-fictiony at times (i.e 'paul was off in the corner crying' and 'yokos presence...') I've read better beatles books.
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Written as a recap of each month in 1969, detailing the events, both minor and major, that assisted in breaking up the biggest band of all time, with pictures and interview excerpts from the past, plus new ones conducted by the Ken McNab even the biggest Beatles fans might learn something new with all of the information packed into 300 pages.
I finally got around to watching The Beatles: Get Back documentary on Disney+, which I loved by the way! But I felt the ending of the documentary lacking in that I just wanted more. I get that the show was only supposed to show that one month but I wanted to dive further into the break up, and the documentary basically just touched the tip of that iceberg. Even though I've been a huge fan of The Beatles music growing up (thanks Mom!), I admit I didn't know much about the breakup, other than "it's Yoko's fault". Obviously, I knew there was more to it than that, but I never really read up on it. (Spoiler Alert: It wasn't just "Yoko's fault", there was so much more to it than that!) Anyway, fast forward to a recent trip to Indigo with my kids and I found myself in the music section where I found this book. This was just what I needed to fulfill my thirst for Beatles knowledge. And it didn't disappoint! It starts off exactly where the documentary starts, so I felt like reading the first chapter, January 1969, was a recap, but it was still enjoyable. It mentioned things that the documentary didn't (surprisingly!).
I liked the style it was written in. I did find that Ken McNab would almost hint at things but not go into greater detail so I spent a lot of time then Googling certain events and then going down a rabbit hole before getting back into the book. Certain things just wrecked me, like John foreshadowing his own death, Paul crying, or just everything Ringo (after watching the documentary together, it's a little inside joke between me and my husband to just randomly say "Poor Ringo" so he'd laugh every time I said that while reading this). The documentary and the book really re-affirmed why Paul is just the best Beatle, but also introduced me to absolutely loving Ringo. I got super excited when I read that John had stayed in Mississauga, Ontario for a week in December 1969, because that's the city I grew up in (I immediately took a picture of the paragraph and sent it to my mom!) I loved that each chapter had a picture at the start taken during that particular month, but I wish there had been more pictures throughout the book, as Ken McNab would mention certain photo shoots and whatnot that I ended up having to Google. Overall, this book did exactly what I needed it to do, which was to give the documentary a proper ending. But my thirst for The Beatles hasn't been fully quenched. I now need to go back and read more about the beginning and middle of their career. This book is a definite must-read though for any die-hard Beatles fan.
And yes, I cried after reading the epilogue. -
If you were born in the UK in the early to mid-60s, the Beatles were as much part of the world you’d just arrived in as oxygen or gravity and almost as ubiquitous. As a consequence, the announcement of their split is one of the two (possibly three) news stories I can remember from back then (it would have been around April 1970, when I’d just turned six. For completists, the other one (possibility two) was the Moon Landing (July 1969) and Churchill’s funeral (Jan 1965 – as I would have just turned one, even I’m sceptical with regard to this one).
Perhaps as a result (and also because, in my teen years, The Beatles were the first group I ever really obsessed over), I’ve always had a fascination with their story and, in particular, its closing chapters. Over the years, I’ve read most of the well-known Beatles biogs and several of the lesser-known ones, this one, though, reads as the most forensic account of their tumultuous last year (1969).
With each chapter dedicated to a month, it inches towards a conclusion every reader will already know, while still managing to provide a number of new insights and minor revelations along the way. While other books have made the end seem almost arbitrary, fuelled by problems that a little time apart might have remedied, this one is more tectonic in its outlook, with four mighty plates inexorably moving out of alignment, resulting in an inevitably catastrophic outcome.
While it’s impossible not to yearn for what special edition DVDs used to promise – an alternative ending – it’s an almost immersive read (quite an achievement given that its only 300 pages long). Suffice to say as a mid-level Beatles fan, I learnt stuff and was able to make better sense of account’s I’d previously read.
With the 50th anniversary of the release of their last studio album (Let It Be), having slipped away with relatively little fanfare last April (to be fair, I think the attention of the world was elsewhere), there are far worse ways to recall the events that rocked a generation half a century ago than to invest in a couple of days with this book as company. -
My fascination with, and appreciation of, the Beatles goes back to the first time I heard them on radio in early 1964. I have vivid memories of their Ed Sullivan appearances, and even managed to see the first of two shows they did in Houston in August 1965. As I recall, that ticket cost me five dollars, but that was when minimum wage in the US was all of $1.25 an hour, so it’s all relative.
I recently spent about eight hours watching the Beatles documentary Get Back on Disney+, and I plan to watch it again in shorter chunks because there is just too much there to absorb in a single viewing. Something like fifty-six hours of old video and about 250 hours of audio produced during what became Abbey Road (album and movie), were used to produce the eight-hour, three-part documentary. Fans remember the film, and even the record album, as marking the end of the Beatles as a band. But why did it have to happen that way?
Ken McNab’s 2020 book And in the End chronicles what happened to the band after the cameras and microphones were turned off in January 1969. Via chapters dedicated to each month of 1969, McNab makes it clear that the timing of the breakup of the Beatles was inevitable, and that it happened for numerous reasons — not just because Yoko Ono became John Lennon’s shadow about that time. Ono certainly was a contributor to the band’s demise, but as it turns out, she gets more credit for the breakup than she deserves. In both And in the End and in the Get Back documentary, Ono comes across more as an irritating distraction and joke to Beatles fans than as a real reason the group decided to call it quits. The other three Beatles, who had to work with John every day, however, did find her to be more irritating than distracting - as evidenced by lots of eye-rolling and blank stares.
No, the real reasons the Beatles broke up are a lot more boring than the silliness and shallowness of Yoko Ono - and John Lennon’s utter infatuation with the woman. There were business problems: their company, Apple Corps, was almost bankrupt by 1969, and the group could not agree on whom to hire to manage their various interests. Paul McCartney insisted on one choice while John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr insisted on another. And it didn’t help that John and Yoko were now both heroin addicts, or that George Harrison was tired of having his own compositions ignored by the Lennon-McCarney songwriting team. Or that Ringo Starr was finally having some success in movies. Or that the band was terrified of performing live on stage anymore. Or that McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison were starting to enjoy creating music as individuals now that modern technology made it so easy for them to stay home and do exactly that.
No one person or event killed the Beatles, but when they reached their natural tipping point it was all over.
Bottom Line: And in the End is for Beatles fans, especially those still avid enough to spend eight hours watching the new Get Back documentary. The book picks up pretty much where the documentary leaves off and explains what happened during the rest of 1969 and beyond. It’s a sad story that will leave fans wondering, but doubting, if the band breakup could have some way been avoided. Sadly, to this fan at least, it just all seems to have been a matter of time. -
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.
Over the years I have read a few biographies on the Beatles. They have been one of my favorite bands for as long as I can remember. Most of the books I have read really focus on the rise and height of Beatlemania, and then the fall gets a small part of the end of the book. A lot of the focus ends up being on just the personality split and the polarizing, ever present Yoko Ono. What makes this book so great is that it goes really in depth to the last year of the Beatles. Ken McNab does an amazing job breaking 1969 down into the months and detailing what was going on. The amount of financial issues they were dealing with at the time, is honestly mind blowing. The bad contracts, the loss of Northern Songs, and the death of their longtime manager put incredible strain on their relationships with each other. When you factor this into the fact that musically they all were starting to want to do new things it's honestly a wonder they didn't implode earlier.
Along with financial aspects, McNab goes into fairly intricate detail about what recording Abbey Road looked like, as well as the songs that would make up Let It Be. There were moments that were pure Beatle magic, and other times where it was so forced it's a wonder the album got made at all. He also has insights from longtime Beatles inner circle like George Martin and Peter Aspinell to name a few. This was an incredibly well researched and well written look into the final days of the Beatles. McNab does a great job of interweaving financial, fame, music, and the varying personal aspects that all played a part in disbanding the Beatles. I could probably continue for several pages, but I won't ramble on, I definitely recommend this for fans of the band, -
"This book is a bummer," said my friend Pete when he lent it to me, and he's not wrong. I should not have liked this book at all: McNab chooses to focus on one year in the life of the Beatles - 1969, aka, everyone's least favorite year in the life of the Beatles. Lots of lawsuits and countersuits and melancholy and Yoko, and watching the band break up like a slow motion car crash. To make things worse, McNab is a pretty bad writer - his prose is filled with cliches and mixed metaphors. Here's an example, plucked pretty much at random: "It seemed like mission impossible, but it turned out to be a carpe diem moment."
HOWEVER, I really liked this book! McNab's relentless focus on just a single year (each of the twelve chapters comprises a single month) is utterly compelling. And I even got used to his crappy prose - it bespeaks his status as a hardcore fan charting the breakup of his favorite band. He seems to have scored interviews with just about everyone who crossed the Beatles' path in this tumultuous year, which he weaves into a complex mosaic (see, I can mix metaphors, too).
Thanks, Pete. -
"And for an instant, the gossamer illusion of The Beatles as a working collective remained delicately preserved for an unsuspecting world."
And In The End is an in-depth chronicle of the factors that combined to ground one of the biggest bands in history.
Thank you to St. Martin Press for my ARC for review!
One must be a fan of The Beatles to dive into this story, or at least familiar with the background of their rise to fame. Author Ken McNab's detailed account wastes no time on backstory, and for the intended audience it is unnecessary.
I'm a rather big Beatles geek and have been for many years. I've read many of the numerous books available on the band from various angles.
And In The End begins with The Beatles' famous final live performance on the roof of the Apple building in January of 1969 and fans out the story of their slow descent, documenting monthly for one year.
Included is much of the behind-the-scenes dealings of the music industry, as well as specifically the issues of the band members. Recall this was the time of John and Yoko, of Paul and Linda, of "Paul is dead", of creative differences between the usual Lennon and McCartney compositions versus the George and Ringo attempts to spread their musical wings.
As with all other historical accounts, the outcome of the story is known - ultimately the breakup of the Fab Four as a band - but the route that led there is an interesting read. Again, for established fans. Recommended! -
I really found this book to be quite interesting and insightful on the Beatles' final year. It takes you through month by month during 1969 into great detail, covering from the album process behind their final two albums (more so 'Abbey Road') to what each individual Beatle was doing at the time to all the crazy, extremely messy legal troubles the band and their Apple Corp dealt with. I don't normally read quickly but I couldn't put this one down at all. I just had to read what happens next. I learned quite a bit from this book with some excellent little nuggets scattered throughout and it's a great companion to the 'Get Back' documentary since this book picks up where the doc left off. It goes a little too in depth with the band's legal troubles to a point where it gets hard to follow, but it's still quite insightful and interesting nonetheless. Highly recommended for any who is interested!
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I've been a Beatles fan since childhood. Seen all the movies, heard all the albums, and followed their solo careers. When the documentary Get Back came out last year (which was fantastic, by the way), I dived back into the world of The Beatles.
This book was hard to review. The breakup of The Beatles wasn't due to one problem but to many (and some of it was just that it was time for a change for each Beatle- not so much a problem as just a fact of life), and it's hard to know which version of certain events to trust. I think this book shone when quotes from key figures were included to add detail to important moments. Where this book languished was in explaining the tricky business matters and in the author prescribing some of his own thoughts onto The Beatles' actions. -
I've always been a huge music fan and the Beatles and the Stones were the ones that got me interested into music. It's been a lifelong interest and a major hobby of mine . I can recall the disdain of my Dad when the Beatles first hit the stage on Ed Sullivan in 1963. It's hard to believe that they would be finished by the end of 1969. But what a catalogue of great songs that they put together in their time.
This is a very good book about their last year in existence as a band . It's obvious that Ken McNab spent a lot of time in putting this book together and it shows in the quality and depth of material. A solid 4.5.
Ken McNab's in-depth look at The Beatles' acrimonious final year is a detailed account of the breakup featuring the perspectives of all four band members and their roles. A must to add to the collection of Beatles fans, And In the End is full of fascinating information available for the first time. -
A month-by-month account of 1969 for the Beatles. What a year! Get Back sessions, management change, car crashes, movie filming, weddings, loss of control of most of their IP via Northern Songs’s sale to ATV, Abbey Road recordings and record release, commencement of solo projects, and dissolution of the band. And a surprisingly detailed blow-by-blow of the business machinations of Apple, Northern Songs, and NEMS.
