The story of how Lennon and McCartney lost the most valuable song publishing catalogue in the world. This is a staggering saga of incompetence, duplicity and music industry politics.
Northern Songs
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About the Author
After 10 years as a journalist, including working for Melody Maker and Disc, Brian Southall joined A&M Records between 1973 and 2003 and worked for EMI Records as a consultant to Warner Music International, HMV Group and the British Phonographic Industry. He has written books including the History of Abbey Road Studios, The A-Z of Record Labels and the Story of the Brit Awards.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, the full story of the business side of Lennon & McCartney,
By
This review is from: Northern Songs (Hardcover)
As a life-long Beatles fan and avid Beatles collector for the past 30 years, I have, like most serious fans, read all the major books on the Beatles over the years. Up until now, the best serious attempt at trying to explain the business side of the Beatles was Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfield's "Apple to the Core". Well-researched and decently written, it focused on how Apple's legal and financial mess tore the Beatles apart. But it was published in 1972 and thus covers only a small piece of the full history of the Lennon and McCartney songwriting legacy.35 years after that book was published, we now have "Northern Songs: The True Story of the Beatles' Song Publishing Empire" by Brian Southall with Rupert Perry. This excellent book documents the full story behind the management (and mismanagement) of the Beatles song publishing rights over the past 40+ years. And what a fascinating story! Northern Songs was the company set up in 1963 by Brian Epstein (the Beatles' manager) and Dick James, a fledgling London music publisher recommended by George Martin, to handle Lennon and McCartney's song publishing. The deal that Brian cut meant Dick James (and his partner) owned just over half of Northern Songs, with the remainder being split between Lennon, McCartney and NEMS (Brian Epstein's company). Whether purposeful, or simply a byproduct of Epstein's lack of experience, the ownership design of Northern Songs kept Lennon and McCartney from having any controlling interest in the company that was formed to manage the rights to their own songs. By 1965, Northern Songs decided to go public - leaving John and Paul with even less control over the company -- minority stakeholders answerable to the thousands of other shareholders. Probably the single greatest act of incompetence by Brian Epstein was the fact that he didn't even negotiate a "first right of refusal" agreement that would have required Dick James and his partner to give Lennon & McCartney the first rights to purchase their share of Northern Songs should Dick ever decide to sell out. And so, in 1969, when Dick James and his partner decided to sell their shares to Lew Grade's ATV, neither John nor Paul were notified of the impending deal. In the midst of all of the financial turmoil at Apple and their weakening relationship, Lennon (who wants Allen Klein to manage the Beatles' affairs) and McCartney (who wants his brother-in-law, Lee Eastman, to run things) can't coordinate any strategy to try to gain ownership of their songs -- and they both end up selling out to ATV under some bad advice. It's at this point (just 70 pages into the book) where the story really begins to shed a tremendous amount of new light as we follow Northern Songs through the Lew Grade/ATV ownership period and beyond. We see John and Paul going through the 1970s as they try to ensure they can at least control their own solo songs - while they continue to negotiate separately with ATV, now being run by Lew Grade, a very shrewd business person who is, at least, honest in his business dealings. When Lew Grade decides to sell ATV in 1982, he offers McCartney and Yoko a chance to buy ATV Music together. In recent years, McCartney has put the blame on Yoko for not wanting to pay Lew Grade's asking price. While true, the fact becomes clear that Paul could have likely pulled the deal off himself - and would have multiple opportunities to purchase the catalog over the years (though at increasingly higher prices). The most eye-opening element of this excellent book is the 1982-1985 period when ATV was purchased/owned/run by a ruthless millionaire from Australia named Robert Holmes a Court. So little has been previously known of this period until now -- but it's Holmes a Court who tears the ATV empire apart and sells off its assets for a quick (and substantial) profit, leaving the entire staff of ATV Music out of work, and selling the ATV Music publishing catalogs (which includes Nothern Songs) to Michael Jackson (though forcing him to "gift" the rights to "Penny Lane" to his daugher - who still owns it today!). The remaining years are an often-told story - where Jackson gets in financial stress and sells half his interest to Sony. But even then, the book sheds a tremendous amount of new light on the actual deal to form a new company, Sony ATV - half owned by Jackson. Seems Michael Jackson is quite a shrewd and aggressive dealmaker (though his personal issues are certainly well-known). The author Brian Southall and his co-author, Rupert Perry, are both true record industry insiders - with decades of experience as executives at EMI and other record companies -- and are well-qualified to tell this story. But unlike so many other books by Beatles "insiders", they do not attempt to interject their own personal opinions or views, relying on the the first-hand accounts of the many lawyers, publishers, songwriters, and others involved in the many negotiations and business dealings. And this is what makes their effort so admirable -- and so much easier to read. We aren't subject to personal theories, hunches or interpretations that can frustrate the reader of so many other Beatles books. The authors let the story unravel naturally through the words and recollections of the people who where there (and the letters and memos of those where are no longer here to tell their story). And they assume the reader is smart enough to make their own interpretations and conclusions. The bottom line is: this is a must-read for Beatles fans - or anyone wanting to better understand the complexities (and huge financial potential) involved in song publishing.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, An Understandable Explanation of the Beatles' Song Publishing Labyrinth,
This review is from: Northern Songs (Hardcover)
Even the youngest Beatle fans who have followed the recent financial travails of Michael Jackson know that John Lennon and Paul McCartney long ago lost the publishing rights to their own songs. Exactly how that happened is one of several important topics covered by Brian Southall's latest book on the greatest musical act the world has ever known.The book provides, perhaps for the first time in one place, a detailed, understandable explanation of music publishing in general...and a history of the Beatles' Northern Songs publishing empire in particular. Specifically, it describes what music publishers do, how they make money, and to what extent, if any, publishing profits are shared with song composers. Southall starts out by providing a quick history of music publishing practices and norms from its beginnings in the 18th century, followed by a vivid snapshot of the industry as it existed in the U.S. and Britain in the early 1960's when the Beatles sprang forth upon an unsuspecting world. For John Lennon and Paul McCartney, a truly pivotal moment in their lives occurred on a cold morning in early 1963 when they were taken to an office to sign a contract...one which they apparently hadn't read, didn't understand, and didn't even ask questions about. What that document did was to give a guy named Dick James, a struggling London song publisher looking for a musical gold mine, a one-half ownership share in the future songs written by Lennon and McCartney. Why he deserved to own half of their songwriting catalog is never satisfactorily explained, mainly because it cannot be explained, but the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein offered it to him, and he quickly accepted it. The remaining half was divided between Lennon, McCartney, and Epstein...so that the two main composers of the Beatles songs began their commercial song-writing careers with a minority interest in the ownership of their own songs. Southall presents a lot of quotes from a lot of people who knew the players involved in this deal, many of whom seem to insist that Dick James and Brian Epstein truly believed they were looking out for the Beatles' best interests in this and subsequent deals affecting their song catalog. The reader is of course free draw his or her own conclusions. It just seems terribly ironic that a musical group known for such astonishing musical innovations was utterly lacking in imagination from a business perspective. If Epstein truly believed at the outset that the Beatles would be as successful as he claimed they would be, he might have obtained some expert advice and arranged for John and Paul to own 100% of their songs in their own publishing company...and to hire someone like Dick James to administer their song catalog in exchange for, say, 10% of the gross publishing profits, more than enough to make anyone rich given the prolific output of the Beatles' two main composers. Instead, Brian Epstein did what he did, Lennon and McCartney signed off on it, and Dick James gleefully made more money from those great songs than John or Paul ever did until he eventually sold his interest to ATV in 1969 behind the backs of the Beatles. That episode and many others that followed in subsequent years eventually resulted in Northern Songs being owned by Michael Jackson and Sony Corp. instead of Paul McCartney and the estate of John Lennon. All of it is covered in this fascinating and understandable account of an area of Beatles' history rarely discussed and little understood. Highly recommended.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent...,
By Randy Remote (Laytonville, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Northern Songs (Hardcover)
...however, this book will mainly appeal to those interested in the fields of publishing, and, to a lesser extent, songwriting. Extremely well written and researched, it provides the missing pieces to the Lennon/McCartney legacy, and bursts a couple of bubbles as well.
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