Description:

From Booklist

Doggett says the four Beatles’ individual efforts will never match the magic they created as a foursome. Yet the story of the post-breakup Beatles is intriguing and fascinating in its own right. Doggett begins at the end, with the 1980 murder of John Lennon outside the Dakota apartment building in New York, then turns back to the late-1960s, when Sgt. Pepper was released and the glow of the group’s innocent days had long dimmed. In that tumultuous time, the foundation of the band’s eventual demise several years later was laid. Doggett captures the competitive sparks that flew among the four men, especially between Lennon and Paul McCartney, and also the mutual affection that formed the basis of their complicated relationships. He covers all the many lawsuits and legal maneuverings that consumed so much of their time as well as the feelings of anger and betrayal and the weariness of it all. And he discusses each member’s solo albums. A must for Beatles fans and good for more casual pop-music enthusiasts, too. --June Sawyers

Review

“Elegant and deeply researched...You Never Give Me Your Money posits a nuanced afterlife for the Beatles. [Peter Doggett] has found a new lens (and much new information) through which to consider the band.” (Los Angeles Times )

“Fascinating…Doggett captures the competitive sparks that flew among the four men, especially between Lennon and Paul McCartney, and also the mutual affection that formed the basis of their complicated relationships…A must for Beatles fans and good for more casual pop-music enthusiasts, too.” (Booklist )

“I had such a ball reading You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup that once I finished, I returned to page one and read it all over again.” (Newsweek )

“Doggett has crafted an authentic and enlightening book full of myth-busting surprises and insight.” (Library Journal )

“Doggett documents rock’s most agonizing four-way divorce. Rigorously researched, You Never Give Me Your Money is a dark but compelling endnote to rock’s greatest story.” (Rolling Stone )

“Peter Doggett’s book about the Beatles’ split is a real page-turner.” (Annie Lennox )

“Doggett’s book charts an admirably unstarry-eyed path through the break-up of the band and beyond.” (Metro London )

“a gripping account that portrays [The Beatles] as something much more interesting than the airbrushed Gods we’ve recently seen: damaged, eternally bickering men, left punch-drunk by the group’s success” (The Guardian )

“[Doggett’s] identification of the forces that drove The Beatles apart and kept them so for the best part of 30 years is not new, but his forensic tenacity and unyielding gaze are.” (Mojo )

“a breathtaking record of uncontrolled fame’s grotesque side-effects” (Q )

“Doggett, a music journalist, offers refreshingly straightforward and highly readable portraits of the leading players” (Daily Telegraph (London) )

“What Doggett has achieved is a laying bare of the darker consequences of enormous fame and wealth. Yes, there is the glory but there’s also the concomitant pressure of how to deal with the myth and the legacy – while trying to keep four very different voices in harmony.” (Irish Times )

“an enthralling new book on [The Beatles]…impossible to put down” (The Independent )