A long and winding road

Jul 14 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Lennon and McCartney wrote the most sung songs in the world, but they don’t own them because they were only Northern Songs. David Charters reports on an extraordinary saga

HE BOUNCES on stage, the melody man – still quite lithe despite the relentless tick of time, with his hair the colour of chestnuts and a hint of the old cherub shining there in the brown of his long-lidded eyes.

He is unmistakable, our Paul McCartney. His face is known in the high apartments of steaming cities and the shacks of tiny fishing villages.

And when he picks up his guitar, he sings for us his songs of love and passion and memories, his personal offerings to the world as a young man.

But they are not his songs.

Can you believe that? Yesterday, Hey Jude, Penny Lane with its barber’s shop and blue suburban skies, the Fool on A Hill and all the rest don’t belong to Sir Paul. Yes, the tunes are his, the words and the chord progressions are his. The sweat and the genius were his as well. But the songs, along with almost the entire Beatles’ catalogue, are owned jointly by a multi-national corporation and a troubled song and dance man from America.

So when Sir Paul performs his songs on stage, he is earning royalties for Sony and Michael Jackson, who, through a labyrinthine process, acquired Northern Songs, the company which originally published The Beatles’ songs written by John Lennon and Sir Paul and George Harrison.

Now the story is to be told in an hour-long Radio 2 documentary, Only A Northern Song. This, of course, comes from George’s song of the same name, in which he expressed his disillusionment with the money men behind the music business. Some said it was also a side-swipe at John and Paul, who had used so few of his songs on their albums.

In it, George wrote: “It doesn't really matter what chords I play, what words I say, or what time of day it is, as it's only a Northern Song”.

Although intended for Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), the song ended up on the Yellow Submarine album the following year.

From an early stage, George seems to have been more conscious of the financial tangles in which the group would become enmeshed. In his song Taxman, on the Revolver album (1966), he wrote, “Now my advice for those who die (Taxman!), declare the pennies on your eyes (Taxman!)”.

In 1963, when The Beatles were big in Britain and on the brink of becoming an international phenomenon, Northern Songs Ltd was founded by the group’s manager Brian Epstein and the music publisher Dick James to publish Lennon/McCartney songs.

Although it wasn’t appreciated at the time, this turned into a songwriting partnership unmatched in the world. Not only were the group’s own records huge sellers, but versions of their songs recorded by other people added millions of pounds to the pot.

Two years later, the company went public. John and Paul then each owned 15% of the shares, while Epstein, who died in 1967, and his company, NEMS, had 7.5%. James and his partner Charles Silver (Northern Songs’ chairman) had a controlling 37.5%. George and Ringo Starr had very small shareholdings.

In 1969, Silver and James sold their share to Associated Television (ATV), then owned by Lew Grade, the impresario. Paul and John, who were contracted to keep writing for Northern Songs until 1973, also sold their shares to ATV, which became the company’s new owner.

In 1985, Northern Songs was bought by Michael Jackson and 10 years later he merged it with Sony Music in a deal estimated at $95m, though there is some uncertainty about the division of the spoils.

Radio 2’s show is being produced and presented by Paul Sexton, 47, a music journalist and broadcaster. “When you get into the nuts and bolts of this story, you realise how complicated it is,” he says.

Some estimates now suggest that the Sony/ATV catalogue of songs is worth $2bn or more. These days, a successful songwriter will expect about 85% of the royalties with the publisher taking the rest.

“If you consider Northern Songs, it sounds like a pretty rough deal, but you have to put it into the context of the time,” says Paul. “Dick James took 50% with the other 50% being 20% each for Paul and John and 10% for Brian Epstein.

“But now the irony is that, if Paul McCartney wants to play his own songs at a concert, he has to pay someone else a royalty. He is contributing to someone else’s coffers which must be incredibly galling.”

Although Sexton has interviewed Sir Paul in the past, he is not in this documentary. But there are contributions from Stephen James, son of Dick; Michael Eaton, former lawyer for Northern Songs; Tony Hatch, composer, who knew Epstein; Graham Gouldman, of 10cc; and Brian Southall, who wrote Northern Songs – The True Story of the Beatles Song Publishing Empire.

But Sir Paul himself owns songs written by other composers including the Buddy Holly catalogue, which keeps the tills playing a merry melody.

ONLY A Northern Song is being broadcast on Radio 2 between 10.30 and 11.30pm on July 24. Cover picture taken at The Beatles Shop, 31 Mathew Street. Liverpool, www.thebeatleshop.co.uk – tel 0151 236 8066.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk