Allen Klein: The Man Who Transformed Rock & Roll

by Fred Goodman

  In the year before Klein’s death, at least one old partner turned nemesis had been recognized and embraced. Frustrated after decades of ABKCO keeping The Holy Mountain and El Topo out of circulation, director Alejandro Jodorowsky finally claimed the films were his and released them in Europe. ABKCO responded by suing him in England and France. But it soon became obvious that both sides had grown weary of the feud.

  Jodorowsky and Klein, who hadn’t spoken in nearly thirty years, agreed to meet informally at the Lanesborough Hotel in London. When Klein opened the door of his suite, he encountered his mirror image: an old Jew with a shock of silver hair. The two men fell into each other’s arms.

  “I don’t know why we’re fighting,” Klein said.

  “Allen, you look so good!”

  The lawsuits were dropped. ABKCO paid Jodorowsky to remaster the films for video release, and a love fest was the order of the day. Jodorowsky, with a set of beautiful new teeth and a beautiful new wife and still hustling to make his movies, was Allen’s kind of guy.

  Klein gave him the limo tour of Newark and treated him to dinner at Jimmy Buff’s.

  Acknowledgments

  IN 2011, I RECEIVED A CALL from a record executive I had written about, Lyor Cohen. He said Jody Klein, the head of ABKCO Records, wished to meet me. I didn’t know Jody, but I certainly recognized ABKCO and understood that he was the son of its founder, the music-business lightning rod Allen Klein.

  On meeting me, Jody explained that after his father died, two years earlier, the obituaries in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in the British press, had left him in a quandary. “Some of what was said about him was true,” he told me. “And a lot of it wasn’t.” Since then, he’d been thinking that a more in-depth look at his father’s life and career could help sort rumor from fact and illuminate a key period in popular culture and the music business.

  His proposal was straightforward: If I was interested in undertaking such a project, he would provide access to personal and corporate records, including correspondence, contracts, and documents from legal and civil cases. There would be no monetary arrangement or quid pro quo; he wasn’t looking for a particular result or verdict and would have no editorial control or approval. He just wanted an outsider with a working knowledge of the music business to take a long, hard look at Allen Klein and let the chips fall where they may. When I said the project interested me but that the results might not make him happy, it gave him pause. And then we shook hands.

  Jody gave me my own moment of pause when he showed me the skids of documents sitting in a New Jersey warehouse. Allen Klein was obsessive and litigious. He might have been happiest when he was plotting legal strategy, and it didn’t seem to matter to him whether he was the plaintiff or the target of someone’s ire—it was all good, it was all a challenge; it was like playing tennis without having to change your clothes or get up from your desk. Sifting through the mountains of records, decoding contracts, and extracting Allen Klein’s narrative proved to be heavy lifting and I sometimes wondered what I had gotten myself into. But Jody Klein never let me down.

  I know Jody loved his father deeply and that reading much of this book cannot be easy. I hope, in the end, that I wrote something that makes that worthwhile.

  I also owe a deep debt to Allen’s daughter Robin and his wife, Betty, who spoke freely and at length with me—sometimes with difficulty, but always with great candor and affection. I hope they see the person they knew in these pages.

  The people at ABKCO made me welcome, but I am especially grateful to Maria Papazahariou and Val Collin, who worked most closely with me and who were particularly helpful with locating documents. Their enthusiasm was an enormous encouragement. I also owe a special thank-you to Michael Kramer, who spoke at length and with great feeling about his uncle Allen and his years at ABKCO. Likewise, I’m indebted to Andrew Loog Oldham, whose own remarkable story is so closely entwined with the one I set out to tell. In speaking about Allen Klein, Andrew seemed torn, and it was a revelation when I realized that he couldn’t decide what was worse: talking about him or not talking about him. Thanks also to Bill Flanagan, a great student of music and its business, for sharing his thoughts and advice.

  My publisher and editor, Eamon Dolan, surpassed all expectations. Spending years on a book is like swimming in the ocean: not only can’t you see the shore, but you cease to believe it exists. Eamon has been a thoughtful, challenging, and patient pilot; I hope he’ll let me get him wet again.

  Copyeditor Tracy Roe’s sharp pencil and sharper mind saved me from more gaffes than I’ll confess to committing, and I’m particularly grateful for the enthusiasm she brought to the project. My thanks also to the staff at Eamon Dolan Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Lori Glazer, Ben Hyman, Stephanie Kim, Rosemary McGuinness, and Ayesha Mirza.

  Concurrent with this book, I spent a good deal of time with Irving Azoff and got to know him. His insight into both business and human nature—gleaned over six decades of managing careers, running assorted music and film companies, and making trouble—is nonpareil. Watching Irving work is a little like losing your virginity; it’s also a master class at the School That No One Gets to Attend. Though he doesn’t know it, he had an indirect but significant impact on how I viewed Allen Klein. I thank him for that—and for his generosity.

  In 2014 Jeffrey Ressner, my colleague and friend of more than thirty years, died. We were fellow galley slaves back in the day, then went to Rolling Stone together before his long stint at Time. Anytime I landed at LAX, you could find me forty-five minutes later in Jeffrey’s kitchen. He was an open-minded and attentive reader of words and people; I valued his opinion and admired his goodness. I feel as if Jeffrey’s passing has transformed Los Angeles into a ghost town.

  A special thanks to Paul Feinman and Adam White for letting me rant.

  Tea and Sympathy Department: Paula Batson, Arlene and Barrie Bergman, Lori Berk and Geoffrey Rolat, David and Cathy Booth, Crescenzo and Alicia Capece, Dan Doyle, Rina Echavez, Jim and Pam Eigo, Ruth Fecych, Bill Fuchs, Laurie Jakobsen, Eddie and Nancy Karp, Larry Miller, Barbara Orentzel, John and Patty Shuckle, Al Slutsky, Larry Solters, Sam Sutherland, John Swenson, Will and Julie Tanous, Roy Trakin, Jim Whelan.

  Hi, Goodmans.

  Thanks always to Chuck Verrill, who said yes.

  Notes

  Unless otherwise noted, all quotes attributed to Allen Klein are taken from approximately fifty hours of previously unpublished conversations with music historian Bill Flanagan conducted between October 2000 and August 2003, which ABKCO recorded, transcribed, and made available to the author. Additional unpublished interviews with others who knew and worked with Klein, conducted by Flanagan and Joe McEwen, are specifically credited throughout the book.

  Prologue: London, August 1969

  [>] “We’ve fuckin’ had it”: Jann Wenner, “John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview,” part 1, Rolling Stone, December 8, 1970.

  [>] “Don’t talk to me about ethics”: Craig Vetter, “Allen Klein: The Playboy Interview,” Playboy, November 1971.

  [>] “very much ahead of his time”: 25X5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones, documentary, directed by Nigel Finch, 1990.

  1. A Foundling’s Tale

  [>] “I really loved my grandfather”: Allen Klein with Bill Flanagan, February 14, 2001.

  [>] “I think she really carried her weight”: Ibid.

  [>] “My sister Esther was working”: Naomi Henkle, interview with the author, December 5, 2011.

  [>] “It was very strange”: Allen Klein with Bill Flanagan, January 21, 2001.

  [>] “painting behind the radiators and in the closets”: Ibid., February 14, 2001.

  [>] “I’ll tell you what I got from my father”: Ibid., January 24, 2001.

  [>] “‘Who is this guy’”: Bobby Vinton, interview by Jody Klein, May 14, 2008.

  [>] “I was tired and couldn’t be bothered”: Betty Klein, interview with the author, November 10, 2011.


  [>] “Allen would have been a great psychologist”: Alan Steckler, interview with the author, July 24, 2013.

  [>] “Women were a pushover”: Leonard Leibman, interview with the author, November 12, 2011.

  [>] “Klein could recognize a vacuum”: Harold Seider, interview with the author, December 10, 2012.

  2. Allen Klein and Company

  [>] “In the beginning, it was Don Kirshner”: Joe Smith, Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music (New York: Warner, 1988), 128–29.

  [>] “Marty knew nothing about economics”: Eric Kronfeld, interview by Joe McEwen, March 3, 2008.

  [>] “We wooed him”: Betty Klein and Jody Klein, interview with the author, September 25, 2012.

  [>] “Henry Newfield was a very easygoing guy”: Joel Silver, interview by Joe McEwen, March 18, 2008.

  [>] “We were somewhat friendly”: Marvin Schlachter, interview with the author, November 2, 2013.

  [>] “I’d go over the books”: Vetter, “Allen Klein.”

  [>] “I was signed to ABC/Paramount”: Lloyd Price, interview with the author, no date.

  [>] “The only [underpayment] he found was ten thousand copies”: Steve Blauner, interview with the author, November 19, 2012.

  [>] into production deals with UA: For an in-depth examination of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster’s dealings with United Artists, see Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 78–91.

  3. Sam Cooke

  [>] “I said to myself, what the hell is this”: Mark de la Vina, “Jocko: A Philadelphia Original; His Radio Style Rapped Up Fans,” Philadelphia Daily News, February 18, 1992.

  [>] “My economic situation”: American Bandstand, broadcast April 4, 1964.

  [>] “Well, what do you think”: Peter Guralnick, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke (Boston: Little, Brown, 2005), 474.

  [>] “Talk about my reputation”: Vetter, “Allen Klein.”

  [>] “I pray to the Blessed Mother”: Brian T. Olszewski, “Faith Keeps Fame in Perspective for Bobby Vinton,” Catholic Herald, May 17, 2012.

  [>] “These performers aren’t children”: Vetter, “Allen Klein.”

  [>] “Allen wanted a new relationship where he was the focus”: Jerry Brandt, interview with the author, March 3, 2013.

  [>] “Allen taught me something”: Laurence Myers, interview with the author, October 22, 2011.

  [>] “There were so many wild rumors”: Joe McEwen, phone conversation with the author, 2013.

  [>] “Allen comes in when your harvest”: Andrew Loog Oldham, remarks at Allen Klein’s memorial service, New York City, July 2009.

  [>] “He just got it quicker than everybody else”: Michael Kramer, interview with the author, October 10, 2011.

  [>] “His whole thing going in was ‘I’m Robin Hood’”: Laurence Myers, interview by Joe McEwen, November 13, 2007.

  4. The Yiddish Invasion

  [>] “I thought they were awful”: “Life of Brian,” Brianepstein.com, accessed December 26, 2014, http://www.brianepstein.com/brian.html.

  [>] “He looked to his dad for business advice”: John Robinson, “Get Back and Other Setbacks,” Guardian, November 21, 2003.

  [>] his own clubs for the insurance: Eric Burdon, I Used to Be an Animal, but I’m All Right Now (London: Faber and Faber, 1986), 41.

  [>] “I was frontman for a band”: Nick Hasted, “The Making of the Animals’ ‘House of the Rising Sun,’” Uncut, May 2009.

  [>] “It was fun performing”: John Tobler and Stuart Grundy, “Mickie Most,” The Record Producers (New York: St. Martin’s, 1982).

  5. “People Keep Asking Me If They’re Morons”

  [>] “I still can’t go by a watch shop”: Andrew Loog Oldham, interview by Dave Haslam, Liverpool Sound City keynote, May 3, 2013.

  [>] “We didn’t mean shit”: Allen Klein and Andrew Loog Oldham, interview with Bill Flanagan, December 11, 2002.

  [>] “He was smarter and sharper”: Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (Boston: Little, Brown, 2010), 169.

  [>] “as attractive as Natalie Wood”: Andrew Loog Oldham, Stoned (London: Secker and Warburg, 2000), 21.

  [>] “He taught me how to work”: Ibid., 144.

  [>] “Phil looked more like an act than most acts”: Ibid., 170.

  [>] “like Napoleon and Hitler”: Oldham, interview by Haslam.

  [>] “There was nothing calculated”: Oldham, Stoned, 172.

  [>] “Brian gave me the job”: Oldham, interview by Haslam.

  [>] “I heard the whole world screaming”: Oldham, Stoned, 163.

  [>] “He was the young, hip youth about town”: Peter Jones, interview with the author, May 1, 2014.

  [>] “authentic and sexually driven”: Oldham, Stoned, 190.

  [>] “He looked at Jagger as Sylvester looks at Tweetie Pie”: George Melly, Revolt into Style: The Pop Arts (London: Faber and Faber, 2012), Kindle edition.

  [>] “he was in awe of what he saw”: Paul Easton, interview with the author, May 30, 2014.

  [>] “God, the Rolling Stones had so little work”: Jann Wenner, “Mick Jagger Remembers,” Rolling Stone, December 14, 1995.

  [>] “He was our age”: Bill Wyman with Ray Coleman, Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock ’n’ Roll Band (New York: Penguin, 1990), 184.

  [>] “Andrew’s music input was minimal”: Richards and Fox, Life, 169.

  [>] “It was nothing to do with what we were doing”: Ibid., 129–30.

  [>] “I honestly don’t like Andrew Oldham as a person”: Bill German, “Boogie with Stu,” Beggars Banquet 20 (newsletter), March/April 1981.

  [>] “The Beatles looked like they were in show business”: Tim Nudd, “What the Man Who Invented the Rolling Stones Can Teach You About Branding: Image Making by Andrew Loog Oldham,” Adweek, September 25, 2013.

  [>] “They look like boys”: Judith Simons, “Rolling Stones Gathering No Moss,” Daily Express, February 28, 1964.

  [>] “hair-combing is rare”: in “Would You Let Your Sister Go with a Rolling Stone?,” Ray Coleman, Melody Maker, March 14, 1964.

  [>] “terrible things to the musical scene”: Maureen Cleave, “The Rolling Stones: This Horrible Lot—Not Quite What They Seem,” Evening Standard, March 21, 1964.

  [>] “There’s a theory”: Wyman and Coleman, Stone Alone, 162, 184.

  [>] “Brian was loath”: Oldham, Stoned, 288.

  [>] “It was Andrew”: Wyman and Coleman, Stone Alone, 214.

  [>] “Once it got to America”: Robert Greenfield, “Keith Richard [sic]: The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, August 19, 1971.

  [>] Andrew “slung his fur coat around his shoulders”: Alexis Petridis, “Straight and Narrow: How Pop Lost Its Gay Edge,” Guardian, February 28, 2012.

  [>] “nothing about music whatsoever”: German, “Boogie with Stu.”

  [>] “I think Andrew frustrated my dad”: Paul Easton, interview with the author, May 30, 2014.

  [>] “Andrew was a lover of speed”: Richards and Fox, Life, 188.

  6. The King of America

  [>] “I never saw a guy so much affected by fame”: Ibid., 189.

  [>] “Don’t be so fucking mercenary”: Wyman and Coleman, Stone Alone, 394.

  [>] “the best move Oldham made”: Richards and Fox, Life, 178.

  [>] “because of your phenomenal success”: Two letters written on behalf of Oldham and Easton signed by Andrew Loog Oldham, July 29, 1965.

  [>] “[Klein] raised my royalty rate”: Marianne Faithfull, interview with the author, March 8, 2012.

  [>] “I thought he was crazy to make that deal”: Michael Kramer, interview with the author, August 7, 2012.

  [>] “our Mafia promo man”: Wyman and Coleman, Stone Alone, 421.

  [>] “Klein was magnificent”: Richards and Fox, Life, 179.

  [>] “The Rolling Stones weren’t as big as the Beatles”: Bobby Vinton, interview by Jody Klein, May 14, 2008.

  [>] “You got talen
t”: Details of Klein’s negotiations on behalf of the Kinks in Ray Davies, X-Ray (New York: Viking, 1994), 299–303, 353.

  [>] “The whole time”: Oldham, Stoned, 243.

  [>] “We shook on it”: Christina Most, interview with the author, May 18, 2014.

  [>] “He had an amazing memory”: Paul Mozian, interview with the author, February 28, 2013.

  [>] “Flashes would go off in his mind”: Gideon Cashman, interview by Joe McEwen, January 23, 2008.

  [>] “Allen would get very angry”: Beverly Winston, interview by Joe McEwen, February 11, 2008.

  [>] “He would have you do things a thousand ways”: Emily Barrata Quinn, interview with the author, September 18, 2013.

  [>] “We never had an argument”: Clive Davis, interview with the author, April 2, 2014.

  [>] “What did I want”: Donovan Leitch, interview with the author, February 10, 2014.

  [>] “He didn’t sweat about money”: Julian Schlossberg, interview with the author, March 19, 2012.

  [>] “going out for a cheeseburger”: Author interview with longtime ABKCO employee who asked to remain anonymous.

  7. ABKCO

  [>] What kind of schmuck: Abbey Butler, interview with Joe McEwen, February 14, 2008. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes attributed to Abbey Butler are taken from this interview.

  [>] regularly spotlighted them on the show: For an in-depth examination of Clark’s relationship with Cameo-Parkway, see John A. Jackson, American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock ’n’ Roll Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).