Yeah, that brother of the girlfriend guy in charge of talent was one Peter Asher. He basically discovered James Taylor, among others after he left Apple, as well being one of the most noted producers of the Seventies.
It's one thing to look at the whole thing in hindsight, but there was literally no template for the kind of business that was evolving in music in the Sixties. The old paradigms of managers and record companies running everything and artists being in thrall to them wasn't going to work with artists who wrote their own material and wanted to control their own destinies. Listen to the long litany of artists from the Fifties and early Sixties who ended up with nothing -- cheated out of their royalties, their earnings, and their futures by unscrupulous record executives and bookkeeping designed to ensure that they never saw any money.
Brian may not have been a financial whiz -- he never claimed to be -- but none of the Beatles ended up impoverished. And a guy like Ron Decline -- I mean Allen Klein -- was not the answer, as John, George,and Ringo later learned.
Yeah, that brother of the girlfriend guy in charge of talent was one Peter Asher. He basically discovered James Taylor, among others after he left Apple, as well being one of the most noted producers of the Seventies.
*nods* Indeed. And other Apple discoveries included Mary Hopkins, who sang the Number One which dethroned the Beatles' own Hey Jude. There were some genuinely talented people supported by Apple. Yes, it couldn't have worked the way it was done, but as you say, the opposite traditional manager model often didn't get the artists much of anything, and that was what the Beatles were responding to when creating Apple in the first place.
Brian may not have been a financial whiz -- he never claimed to be -- but none of the Beatles ended up impoverished.
I agree with all of your comments, and particularly this one. I hate seeing Brian's business sense denigrated, including by Beatles themselves, because it seems he did the best he could with an enormous amount of responsibility and no roadmap at his disposal.
He basically discovered James Taylor, among others after he left Apple, as
well being one of the most noted producers of the Seventies.
It's one thing to look at the whole thing in hindsight, but there was literally
no template for the kind of business that was evolving in music in the Sixties.
The old paradigms of managers and record companies running everything
and artists being in thrall to them wasn't going to work with artists who
wrote their own material and wanted to control their own destinies. Listen
to the long litany of artists from the Fifties and early Sixties who ended up
with nothing -- cheated out of their royalties, their earnings, and their
futures by unscrupulous record executives and bookkeeping designed to
ensure that they never saw any money.
Brian may not have been a financial whiz -- he never claimed to be -- but
none of the Beatles ended up impoverished. And a guy like Ron Decline --
I mean Allen Klein -- was not the answer, as John, George,and Ringo
later learned.
Reply
He basically discovered James Taylor, among others after he left Apple, as
well being one of the most noted producers of the Seventies.
*nods* Indeed. And other Apple discoveries included Mary Hopkins, who sang the Number One which dethroned the Beatles' own Hey Jude. There were some genuinely talented people supported by Apple. Yes, it couldn't have worked the way it was done, but as you say, the opposite traditional manager model often didn't get the artists much of anything, and that was what the Beatles were responding to when creating Apple in the first place.
Reply
none of the Beatles ended up impoverished.
I agree with all of your comments, and particularly this one. I hate seeing Brian's business sense denigrated, including by Beatles themselves, because it seems he did the best he could with an enormous amount of responsibility and no roadmap at his disposal.
Reply
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