The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles

I read this book three times through out my life. It does a really great job of making a reader feel as if they were right there, and actually know the Beatles. The author has no problem gossiping over the Beatles' use of groupies and drugs, which may seem kind of harsh to some, for someone who was a trusted friend to the Beatles. I am interested to know what all the "inaccuracies" claimed by other reviewers are.

Peter Brown was one of the few guys who managed to make it out at the other end of the Beatles Blitzkrieg reasonably intact. In this book he shares his experiences and observations in a very matter of fact style. He takes on the whole Beatles madness in one felled swoop. The hard-core fan who has read everything out there on the Beatles might not find a whole lot of new information here, but for a beginning fan (or someone who has a moderate knowledge of the Beatles) Brown's book is one of the better historical assessments of the band. This is partly because Brown is not an ego-maniac or embellisher: in fact, the writing in this book is far from flowery. It is also partly due to the fact that Brown had such a long-time working relationship with the Beatles (he was witness at both John's marriage to Yoko and Paul's to Linda, and is one of the few people immortalized by name in a Beatles' song.) Brown essentially took over a lot of managerial duties after Epstien died and became a bigwig at Apple. In fact, he was so well respected by the Beatles that he was one of the few people to have survived Allen Klien's purges (at the Beatles request.) But enough about his credibility. This book provides an insider's look at the Beatles phenomenon. Brown has an intimate perspective on each of the four because he worked so close with them over the years and he is able to tap this wealth of nostalgia to give the reader a great overview of those fab years. He has co-written this book with another fellow, Steven Gaines, who does a decent job of holding the narrative together. I am always a little wary of books that are co-authored by someone (seems kind of wrong to me, like co-sex or co-taking a dump) but I suppose I can cut some slack to Brown seeing as he is not a writer by trade. Plus, it is hardly uncommon. A unique thing about this book, also, is that its author had a close relationship with Brian Epstien. What this book is able to offer, in addition to the regular biographical stuff on the Beatles, is a fair amount of insight into what made their manager tick. This aspect of the book reminds the reader what an important factor Epstien was in the success of the Beatles. So there it is. A little less snazzy of a read that Hunter's book, but a more thorough and well-rounded job. The right balance of detail and readability.

This is one of my favorite Beatles books. Call it guilty pleasure, if you will. It was the first one I read that told the Beatles' story like a movie, where you could actually "see" what was happening to them. I read it when it had just been published. I couldn't put it down and I've read it more than once. I also remember the angry reactions it got from the most faithful fans. More than 20 years have gone by and most of the revelations contained here have been confirmed by other insiders. Even some names that the authors chose to change have been revealed (like the dentist who turned the Beatles on to LSD). Interestingly, Pattie Boyd has only kind words for Peter Brown in her recently published book "Wonderful Tonight". She never even mentions Brown's book, which Paul and Linda chose to burn without reading (and Linda "photographed it as it burned page by page", as she told Playboy). Why did Peter Brown choose to break his code of silence? Greed? Something personal? The ironic thing is that this book may have been the reason why Albert Gouldman went too far in his book about John Lennon. Someone had beat him to the real thing, so he had to "embellish" some stories to make them more scandalous. And the outcome was that he lost his credibility as a writer. If you feel that, as a Beatles fan, you should remain loyal to your idols, don't buy this book. But you will miss one of the best narrations of their story as it really happened.

Who knows how much of what Peter Brown says is true? It's clear that many of the anecdotes he relates have been discredited (i.e., John Lennon's one night stand with Brian Epstein), but this is still an entertaining light read for anyone who likes or loves The Beatles. The opening chapter makes you sad--Brown begins with Cynthia Lennon coming home from a weekend trip to find Yoko Ono casually counging around the house in Cynthia's bathrobe. You can almost feel how humiliated she must have been. Five stars as a good beach book, with the caveat that it's far from complete and not completely reliable.

This is an amazing book because it's written from the inside, with the help of the Beatles themselves and their wives and girfriends, so it's full of gossip. But it also seems pretty authentic that this was the way it really happened. John, Paul, George and Ringo became real people to me. The book was fascinating, it was like ten biographies in one.