McCartney on Letterman

The guy was a pop/rock star. I'm a big fan of the Beattles' music. That doesn't mean I have to like everything he does for the rest of his life.
Earth to Paul: You're too old to be a rock star. Retire.

 

Lots of different stories here, but the basic theory is that in the late 60's Lennon and McCartney had the opportunity to buy the majority of Northern Songs (the publishing company that had most of the Lennon/McCartney copyrights). The Allen Klein/John Eastman rift caused problems, and the bid was basically stopped when Lennon complained about getting "fucked by men sitting on their fat arses in the city" or something to that effect. Control of Northern Songs goes to a company called ATV and Lennon and McCartney are screwed.

Fast forward to the 80s, when ATV wants to sell. McCartney recommends to Jackson that he should get into publishing as an investment. Jacko says, "I'll buy your songs, Paul." Paul laughs. Not so funny when Jackson does buy ATV when Paul and Yoko Ono aren't able to get together on a bid. Paul's even more fucked when he wants to renegotiate royalty rights with Jackson and gets a "HEE hee hee" from MJ. End of MJ/McCartney relationship. Jackson sells half the catalog to Sony, puts the remaining half up as collateral for loans, etc.

Don't weep for Paul, however: his MPL company owns publishing rights to songs by people like Buddy Holly, Ella Fitzgerald, and of course Paul's post-1970 stuff, which is pretty damn lucrative in its own right.

 

Very good show...I flashed back to the Farley interview when Dave asked Paul about the rumors of him being dead. I also liked Paul's line "You didn't read your little cards" when Letterman got flummoxed late in the interview.

Plus, he sang "Get Back", which I think was one of the songs from the actual rooftop concert, so that was cool.

I have -- and like -- the Fireman album. The second song is not bad at all.

 

why? the guy likes performing. folks like to see him do the old stuff. you no like? don't go.

pretty simple, really.

 

He also owns the publishing to some Beatles stuff which came before Northern Songs was formed - "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" among them. Which is fitting, in a sense - he wrote both songs and they were the A and B sides of the first Beatles single.

The real tragedy, of course, is how Paul and John were put in the position of bidding for their own songs in the first place. They never controlled their own publishing, thanks to the utter ineptitude of Brian Epstein, who arranged for them to sign the rights away. These were two kids from the north of England; no one ever said, "hey, guys, this is how the world of song publishing works."

Of course, today, every person who burps on a record has a publishing deal in which they control their "works."

 

He's filling a 40,000-seat stadium in NY. It's not like he's playing the back room at Sam's Grill for two dozen old hippies.

 

Jackson outbid a combined bid by Paul and Yoko (on behalf of John's estate). They apparently thought Jacko was bluffing or planned to sell the catalog to them for a quick profit; instead, MJ decided to keep them as a long-term cash-cow (which may have saved his ass financially the last few years).

Since Paul and Yoko put together have (and had) more money than God, if they didn't want to pay the price, they have no bitch coming (and basically haven't, at least not much).

 

Thanks for sharing. Fascinating profile.

 

I think two things about that were particularly infuriating to Paul - first, that ATV didn't feel he was worthy of a discount since he was Paul McCartney and it was his name on those songs, and, second, that Yucko publicly commented afterward that she was happy Jacko had ended up with the songs.

He remains incredibly bitter to this day that he has to share with Yucko the songwriting royalties for "Yesterday." No word on whether he turns down the money that comes his way for "Give Peace A Chance."

 

Not sure I'd utter "Yesterday" and "Give Peace A Chance" in the same sentence. But I get your point. Pretty cool stuff. I just watched it. That said, McCartney was a better drummer than Ringo and Sutcliffe would have been out of the bad long before he was had he not been Lennon's best friend.

 

He wouldn't have been in the band in the first place if not for being John's best friend.

And, if you'll look again, you'll see that I cleverly avoided doing what you did - utter the names of those two songs in the same sentence! ;D

 

For the record, I liked Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.

That said, I don't think McCartney solo/Wings product ever got better than Just Another Day. Yeah, I think Lennon post-Beatles was better than McCartney post-Beatles and even with Harrison post-Beatles. And as much as I love McCartney, he needs to give Lennon full credit for In My Life.