Paul may finally have the key to the Lennon/McCartney publishing. It's been a long time coming. 56 years actually. John and Paul have always collected royalties as writers, but have not seen returns on publishing in many moons. Not since somewhere around 1969.
John and Paul were songwriters and performers, but knew nothing about publishing. So, Brian Epstein made a publishing deal with an unknown lucky guy named Dick James, and Northern Songs was born. Dick got a 50% cut, Epstein got 10%, and John and Paul each received 20%. It was a good deal for it's time, but no one could see what it was really going to become.
A few moves later, in 1965 Northern went public. John and Paul collected $, and still kept 15% each.
Things get hairy when Epstein died in '67. The whole thing went to shite by 1969, when John and Paul, amidst a large power struggle, a divorce from each other and a massive power grab by Northern Songs then majority shareholder, AVT, sold their shares for 1.5 Million GBP each.
Again, they still collected royalties, but without publishing, they had no say over how their music was used to create income. Selling out the Beatles became big business.
This went on for years until ATV went up for sale. Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were friends, and Paul suggested that Michael get in the publishing game. Paul had no clue that MJ would actually bid on Paul's songs. He did, and won the bidding process. MJ set-up a company with Sony for distribution. They netted hundreds of millions.
The MJ estate sold the remaining rights to Sony after MJ bit it, and there is where they have stayed for the last couple of years.
Time is the great equalizer, however. In 1976 a law passed stating that after 56 years, the ownership should go back to the original author. Paul should start getting his songs back next year, and continue until the catalog is completely returned to him or his estate.
Nothing like waiting it out, aye Paul?
Seriously though, it's awesome that Macca may actually get to call his children home. Paul has mostly been a shining example of what a humble icon should be. I wonder if patience is an acquired taste, or if it only seems like patience because Paul stubbornly won't give up and shows no sign of slowing down?
Whatever it is, Paul can protect his (and his Mates) legacy from shite like this 1988 sellout:
My Blog, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble.
Nago
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