zoya:
avid watchers of Pop-up Video will recall that Michael Jackson owns the rights to the Beatles’ catalog. looks like he’s leaving them to Paul McCartney.I have said this before, Sir Paul is a dweeb, most for switching the the song writing credits around after Lennon’s death. Overall I am happy to know that one of The Beatles owns the credits again.
I hate(d) Michael Jackson… but more on that later. Petra is patiently waiting for me to leave for breakfast, but a reply to this one had to be posted right away.
I’m really glad Michael Jackson gave Sir Paul his catalog back. Paul McCartney turned MJ on to the idea of investing in musical catalogs and it was a blatant betrayal when MJ outbid Paul and Yoko on the Beatles Catalog.
For the kinds of bands that Amanda likes; those founded yesterday that will likely break up the day after tomorrow (one night only at some grungey dump in an outer-borough somewhere), crediting doesn’t really matter. But for the greatest band of all time, that our great great great grandchildren will listen to with the same awe we do today 50 years after the fact, it matters a lot.
John and Paul decided early on, for simplicity’s sake, to credit every song that either of them wrote as “Lennon/McCartney.” A general rule in Beatles music is that the guy singing is the writer. Songs they sing together like We Can Work It Out (where they actually duet in unison and harmony) or A Day In The Life (where John sings most of the song and Paul chimes with the bridge, “woke up… got out of bed…”) should remain Lennon/McCartney. They both contributed meaningful parts of the writing process and L comes before M in alphabetical order (and you can’t deny that John was the leaders of the Beatles). But songs like Let It Be, Hey Jude, Yesterday, Hello Goodbye, Sgt. Pepper (the entire theme of the album and the title tracks), etc., the credits should be changed to McCartney/Lennon. I get that it’s a rough PR move for McCartney, but he’s right to want it this way, and hopefully they will be changed.
I love John Lennon too. I’ve been on a post-Beatles-John-Lennon kick these last months, listening to him almost as much as PeeJ, but you’ve got to give credit to the greatest voice in Pop Music of all time: Sir Paul McCartney. He’s talent without child molestation (more on that tonight).
