The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away [Mass Market Paperback]

Allan Williams (Author), William Marshall (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 12, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345270746
• ISBN-13: 978-0345270740
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars?? But Yes!!, April 8, 2003

By 

"strummer7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away (Mass Market Paperback)

How could I give 5 stars to a boozy little clod of memoirs like this? Easy. Since there are probably thousands of books written about the Beatles, it stands to reason that there must be a few good ones in the bunch: and I've looked for them. THIS is one of those few: it actually tells stories we haven't heard before, with the impressive authority of Allan Williams, a clubowner and crucial promoter of Merseyside Beat music. His barstool companion chat about the old days fills a long volume of stories that are Fun, Fun, Fun! in a grimy, speedy sort of way. I recommend this book to just about everyone, because it's just plain fun, with enough bittersweet musings to make the whole thing edifying to read. But I especially recommend it to people who HATE the Beatles, because you will see them in appealingly different ways from the Legend: awkward, goofy, drunk, mean, broke, cheap, powerless, and vulnerable. All too human. As is Williams himself, who proves to be utterly empathetic as well as entertaining, and who hopefully made a bit of money off this book. Every modern rocker who reads this should end up enthralled by the unexpectedly punk rock early years of these stone gods. Even a disinterested nonrocker would find the hardscrabble life of Williams to be intriguing and a little bit heart-wrenching. This book surpasses in scope all the typical "chronicle of (x) times with the Beatles" and proves to be an intriguing illumination of success, failure, aspiration and hope. It's a tragedy that it's out of print while so many tiresome retellings of the band's halcyon days go on and on in endless repetition. Buy this one; it's well worth it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1 of a few books on this fascinating period, October 20, 2001

By 

Douglas B. Barr "doug barr" (san lorenzo, california United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away (Mass Market Paperback)

I first heard of this book back in 1976, John Lenon said in an interview how the Hamburg days were his funnest as a Beatle, & if anyone wanted to know about them they should get this book. Since then 2 other books have come out about the period,"Beatle", by Pete Best, & "The Beatles Live", by Mark Lewisohn. Taken all together, the 3 books paint a vivid picture of one of the greatest stories in rock n roll history,(a side of the Beatles that Brian Epstein did his best to hide from the public when he took over from Williams as their manager)by the way, in the film "Hard days night", the character of the Beatles manager was based on Alan Williams, not on epstien.Alun Owen, the screenwriter for the film is also a godparent to alan williams kids. Epstein brought the Beatles to America, but 4 years earlier it was Williams who had brought them to Hamburg,where they played 6+ hours a night & forged the sound that would take over the world. But to his credit, it was Epestein who saw their potential as the greatest act in all of rock music, not Williams.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking back in anger- *%$~^++@!!!, August 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away (Mass Market Paperback)

Allan Williams was the Beatles' first manager in Liverpool. He helped John, Paul, & George keep body and soul together as they were learning to play their instruments, struggled to keep finding drummers for them, and took them to Hamburg where they became the frenzied on-stage performers soon to conquer the world. After some disputes over unpaid debts, he grew disgusted with their ingrate attitudes and gave them to Brian Epstein to manage shortly before they became the most famous and successful entertainers in history. This book is brilliantly written and hysterically funny, an absolute must for anyone who rues the opportunities in life that have slipped through the fingers.