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phoneybeatlemania · 2 years

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A Man Of Wealth And Taste: John Lennon and the personality of Klein

All Good Children series: the personality of Klein

Allen Kleins reputation as a business man, and as well the exasperated financial conditions apple corps was in throughout 1968/69, no doubt impacted John Lennon’s first-impression of Klein, and made him a viable figure for for next manager. Whilst I wouldn’t want to downplay the importance financial-insecurity had in influencing John’s decision to advocate Klein as being the next manager for the Beatles, I would argue as well that the personality of Klein—who he was as an individual, his social and economic background, his contrast to Lee Eastman—indeed affected too his appeal for John. Today I’d like to look at and evaluate a few quotes on Klein, and discuss how this personality became a factor which rapidly drew John towards him—but as well, Id like to explore why this factor even mattered to John.

When I read Ken McNabs book And In The End: the last days of the Beatles last year, there was a quote which immediately piqued my interest. McNab described the first meeting between Klein, Lennon and Ono* on January 27th 1969, and what stood out to me were the rather unorthodox business tactics used by Klein in attracting Lennon. He writes:

“[Klein] emphasised the uncanny ways in which his own rough childhood has parallels with Johns.

Klein never knew his mother, who died when he was young. Lennon's mother Julia had died in a road traffic accident when he was seventeen. Klein's father, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant, worked in a butcher's shop, and since he couldn't afford to raise four children on his own, had placed the infant Allen in an orphanage, where he remained until he was at least nine (some sources say older). Eventually he was placed in the custody of an aunt (just like Lennon had been). (pg. 25)

[*Note: Lennon had actually encountered Klein in December of 1968 at the rock and roll circus concert show, but to the extent of my knowledge, it seems this brief meeting didn’t have much impact on John. Hence why I refer to the business meeting in January as being their first actual meeting.]

McNab rarely cites sources in his book, but I managed to trace this claim back to Peter Browns The Love You Make: an insiders story of the Beatles (potentially other sources corroborating this exist, but Im yet to locate them):

“They spent the night talking over a long dinner of macrobiotic rice that Klein had thoughtfully arranged to be served by the hotel. Over the course of the evening, Klein’s fascinating story unfolded. Like John, he was an orphan who had lived with an aunt, but Klein's story was even more dramatically tragic. The son of a Hungarian butcher from New Jersey, Klein's mother had died when he was only a few months old, and his distraught father had put him in an orthodox Jewish orphanage in Newark, where he lived until he was fifteen, when an aunt took him in. He worked his way through accounting school at night, a profession for which he had perfect affinity.” (pg. 294)

Peter Brown it should be noted, is a tricky source, as Im sure many of us already know*. So really, with no further evidence (again, that Im aware of) to support the claim that Klein detailed his childhood to Lennon and Ono upon their first meeting, it's up to you to decide how much validity you feel the extract holds. I for one feel that this likely did occur during their first meeting, but whether it did or did not crop up throughout their talk on January 27th, it’s still a relevant part of Klein and Johns relationship, considering John made a sympathetic note of it in his 1971 interview with Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfield**:

LENNON: And [Klein is] so insecure. He was an orphan. How insecure can you get, with nothing to hang on to?

ONO: Can you imagine? He has to be a genius to make money. He was a penniless orphan.

The appeal I feel Kleins disadvantaged and often difficult childhood had for John, is that it humanised him in a way I assume is rare amongst businessmen. Where someone like Eastman was difficult for John to relate to, Klein was able to introduce himself as just a mate; a friend; one of the lads. He wasn’t a business-associate or a ‘suit’—instead, he was someone John believed was down-to-earth, and sincere in their motivations (someone over thirty who, to the dismay of all hippies, could be trusted!). Where Eastman was east egg (old money), Klein was west (new money), and it seems it was this rejection of traditionalist values that in part appealed to John.

John continued to characterise him as such throughout the same interview and Lennon, Remembers***, making note that he felt “understood” by Klein:

LENNON: Well, Allen's human, whereas Eastman and all them other people are automatons. Sure you can hurt Eastman's feelings, or anybody's feelings, but you can tickle Allen, and I can't imagine tickling Eastman.

ONO: No sense of humour, Eastmans lot.

LENNON: And when Allen's not doing his bit, he’s one of the lads, you know. I would go on holiday with Allen, because he's a lad, he pisses about. When him and his crew go on tour, they piss about like school kids, pretending to be deaf and dumb, whatever kind of crazy thing. He's always having fun, trying to go into hotels with the wrong clothes, wearing crazy clothes. Just games like that. So he's good fun to be around, you know.

[…]

LENNON: And like I say, he likes having a laugh with the lads, that sort of thing, whereas you can't imagine them others doing anything but playing golf or crushing Beatles. And one of the early things that impressed me about Allen and obviously it was a kind of flattery as well—he went through all the old songs we'd written, and he really knew which stuff I'd written. Not many people knew which was my song and which was Paul's, but he'd say, “Well, McCartney didn't write that line, did he?” And I'd say, “Right,” you know, and that’s what really got me interested (in him), because he knew what our contributions were to the group. Most people thought it was all Paul, or all George Martin. And he knew all my lyrics, and he understood them, not that there's much to understand, but he was into it, and he dug lyrics. So I thought, “Well, anybody who knows me this well, just by listening to records, is pretty perceptive.”

(Interview w/ McCabe/Schonfield, 1971, pg. 41–43)

‘He not only knew my work, and the lyrics that I had written but he also understood them, and from way back. That was it. If he knew what I was saying and followed my work, then that was pretty damn good, because it’s hard to see me, John Lennon, amongst that. He talked sense about what had happened. He just said what was going on, and I just knew.

He is a very intelligent guy; he told me what was happening with the Beatles, and my relationship with Paul and George and Ringo. He knew every damn thing about us, the same as he knows everything about the Stones. He’s a fuckin’ sharp man.

There are things he doesn’t know, but when it comes to that kind of business, he knows. And anybody that knew me that well—without having met me—had to be a guy I could let look after me.’

(Interview w/ Jann Wenner, 1970)****

Theres various reasons why John would have been dissuaded from partnering with Lee Eastman (and Id like to explore this reasoning in more depth in future essays), but from his own commentary, part of it was just the who Lee Eastman was as a person. He describes Eastman as being an “automaton”, perceiving as a passionless person. Further to this, he often made remarks in which he took offence to Eastmans classism (“Allen was sitting there, taking it, you know, just takin’ it. Eastman was abusing him with class snobbery.”). On the other hand, Klein understood his artistry and was able to engage with Lennon on a more intimate level. In retrospect, we might argue Klein had studied Lennon's past works only as a business-tactic in order to manoeuvre his way into gaining Johns trust (consider that John would later express frustration around Kleins lack of interest in the creative processes involved in art, during his McCabe/Schonfield interview: “He’s not avant-garde or anything like that […] And it irritates me sometimes when I try and sing him a song before recording and he cant hear it until its a finished record.”)—but its important to keep in mind that what were looking at today is not so much Kleins real motivations, but rather what John would have perceived these motivations as being.

It seems this interest and engagement with his work mattered to John, because it distinguished Klein as someone real and in-artificial: driven by a love of art and the artist, rather than financial gain. Relatability amongst his business-associates built trust for him—after all, he discussed in Lennon, Remembers a weariness and nervousness about businessmen and meetings, characterising himself as someone out of their depth in these dealings:

“We [were] both very nervous. He was nervous as shit, and I was nervous as shit, and Yoko was nervous. We met at the Dorchester, we went up to his room, and we just went in you know.

He was sitting there all nervous. He was all alone, he didn’t have any of his helpers around, because he didn’t want to do anything like that. But he was very nervous, you could see it in his face. When I saw that I felt better. We talked to him a few hours, and we decided that night, he was it!”

For him to have met a business man who seemed palpable lightened this nervousness. Where the Eastmans—Linda being an exception here—were people John felt he had nothing in common with (whether this be because of generational, class, personality etc. differences), Klein could engage with John as a friend, attaining his trust by presenting himself as someone who wouldn’t take advantage of him, for he understood who John was as a person (“And anybody that knew me that well—without having met me—had to be a guy I could let look after me”).

John himself said in Lennon, Remembers:

“I liked Allen but I would have taken Eastman if he would have turned out something other than what he was.”

There are many avenues one could explore with this quote, and different contexts might shape our understandings of Johns meaning here—but one angle to look at it from is perhaps its simplest: that Lee Eastman just wasn’t someone who resonated with John.

Furthermore, it’s arguable that the immediate appeal for John towards making Klein business manager contained an element of egotism. In the McCabe/Schonfield interview, he notes the importance of Klein coming to him first rather than Paul, stating, “[Klein] knew to come to me and not go to Paul, whereas someone like Lew Grade or Eastman would have gone to Paul.” (pg. 43). How much the role of the leader in actual fact mattered to John is subject to debate, but if he had been struggling with insecurities surrounding feelings of inadequacy around this time, then having someone take an interest in him specifically—and not Paul—I can imagine would have an inspired a positive response from him. In the same interview, John brings up a dichotomy, be it real or imagined, between how others perceived of Paul (“wonderful Paul”) as opposed to their perceptions him (“crazy John”)****. If John was experiencing an inferiority complex from contrasting himself with Paul, then having someone assume he was in a more important and powerful position to Paul could have felt like a victory—a victory exasperated by ongoing feelings of irrelevance.

John mentions in Lennon Remembers that for a period of time he was even prepared to sign the Eastmans over as manager of the band. However, he makes it clear that this was an unenthused choice, and again touches upon those feelings of having nothing to offer:

“…we almost signed ourselves over to the Eastmans at one time, because when Paul presented me with John Eastman, I thought well . . . when you’re not presented with a real alternative, you take whatever is going. I would say “yes”, like I said “Yes, let’s do Let It Be. I have nothing to produce so I will go along,” and we almost went away with Eastman. But then Eastman made the mistake of sending his son over and not coming over himself, to look after the Beatles, playing it a bit cool.”

What this quote illustrates is that before Klein, John was stuck in a rut. He felt himself lacking any initiative, going along with other peoples choices, not quite enthusiastic about them, but too disimpassioned to object either. Upon meeting Klein though, and finding inspiration and empowerment through him, John had gained an incentive. For better or for worse, when it came to Klein he wasn’t passive.

Conclusion:

Overall, while Im sure financial insecurity and Pauls relationship to the Eastmans, amongst other things, both informed Johns decision in advocating Klein as the next manager, I feel that the personality of Klein was also a major factor at play. Conceivably, if Lee and Jon Eastman had been able to relate to John better, John might have had more enthusiasm about the prospect of employing them (regardless of the wider Paul/Linda-contexts). But if there was little he could engage with them with, its understandable why have fallen for a businessman like Klein, who was socially more in tune with him.

None of this is to say Klein was a better choice then Eastman, or that Klein in actual fact understood and cared for John and his lifes works. Its only an attempt to understand the appeal of Klein for John, and why he became so rapidly hooked by the prospect of employing him.

[*Note: For further discussion about Peter Brown being a dubious source, perhaps check out Erin Torkelson Webbers article, And In The End: Book Review: Peter Brown’s “The Love You Make”]

[**Source: John Lennon: For The Record interview w/ Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfield c. 1971, published c. 1984]

[***Source: Lennon, Remembers interview w/ Jann Wenner, Dec. 8 1970, published c. 1971]

[****Note: “[Klein] told me what was happening with the Beatles, and my relationship with Paul and George and Ringo”—given that we know Klein had some input in the lyrics to How Do You Sleep?, one has to when he began commentating negatively about Paul to John. Based on this quote, its arguable Klein instigated this as early as his first meeting with John.]

[*****Full quote: “Its the same as the myth about Paul. Wonderful Paul, and crazy John.” (pg. 91)]

#alright luvs. here's an essay :)#its not as comprehensive as id like it to be and just The Writing through a lot of it I really dislike #but im have a slow evening and will be on holiday in 2 days so I won't have time to work or post much (if at all) until I get back #so I wanna put Something out there #idk. if you like it then Wop Bop A Lula if you dont then....I still think theres some good sources here #so go start your own discussion lol #anyway I dont think ive explained my self particularly well here #but if you wanna chat and get me to explain go ahead lol #allen klein #all good children series #klein eastman #john lennon #beatles #johns psyche #analysis

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