Allen Klein - Part Four

[@chriscampanozzi6516]

Fascinating how the Beatles can scream at one another, walk out, etc and a day later record a million selling single or pose for a photo that will become iconic. Family vs business vs your personal wants and needs. Incredible times.

[@christianstough6337]

Here is my recap. Paul had already decided to be managed by John Eastman (mentored by his father Lee Eastman) and tried to convince the others to go along. Lennon takes an alternative in Klein. George and Ringo agree- all three on a trial basis and then later they sign. McCartney stays with John Eastman, whom the others view as inexperienced, and forms his own company in February which becomes MPL in August. For Klein, after 9 months of trying to manage the Beatles affairs, Klein has seen his deal with NEMS sabotaged by John Eastman in a letter to Clive Epsiten leading to its sale to The Triumph Company. After getting the EMI money locked up for 6 months, Klein salvages the deal by renegotiating with Triumph and reducing their take in Beatle profits from 25% to 5% and gains full control of what used to be NEMS. Paul and John have both done a great job of alienating Dick James. He sells his shares of Northern Songs to Lew Grade. Klein attempts to outbid Grade for the remaining shares and is sabotaged by Eastman and McCartney not supporting the bid and by Lennon's comments to the press. After Grade gets a majority. Klein again almost gets a great deal for John and Paul , but is yet again sabotaged by Eastman. Afterwards he still gets a decent buy out for John and Paul. Who of course still get their 50% royalty rate as writers as they do to this day. Klein also manages to increase their royalty on American and international record sales increase from 40 cents to 55 cents (a 38.5% increase over the first two years after release AND an increase after two years of release to 75 cents per album. Plus he gets 1.5 million in royalties for Lennons live album. A set of fantastic deals for all the Beatles (who split sales 4 ways). EMI still keeps its original royalty rate in England. He also clears the way for Ringo to begin his film career by striking a deal with United Artists that includes the Let it Be Movie and clearing the Beatles form any future obligation to UA. Looking forward a bit, Klein gets Hey Jude the album released in the US and World Markets and refurbishes the Get Back tapes into Let it Be. Along with the sales from Abbey Road, these albums will generate millions of dollars for the cash strapped Beatles (until Pauls lawsuit locks up the money). Klein clears out the staff of Apple and turns it into a business focussed on the Beatles saving them millions which had been pouring out to all the people sucking off of them. For all of this, Klein gets a 20% take on any profits he generated above what they had made before he became their manager and a contract that can be terminated after a year, with notice and the bragging rights to managing the biggest band in the world. Just from album sales on Abbey Road, Hey Jude and Let it Be, The Beatles made 23.4 million dollars outside of the UK. Of that 23.4, 10 million of this money was due to Klein's deal. Of which his take was 2 million. (my figures for these three albums are based on certification numbers outside the UK and based on 1/2 of the sales coming in the first two year sand the rest coming thereafter- this is quite obviously a huge guesstimate, but it does give one an idea of how big Klein's actual take was- was not big- about 10% total. The Beatles made about .5 million in the UK from Abbey Road and Let it Be; base on sales of 2.7 million copies at a rate of 40 cents per album). None of these numbers include money they would have received form the earlier catalog which was also enjoying a much higher rate of 75 cents per album outside of the UK. The revenue form that would have been considerable. Nor does it include the revenue from the deal with UA for the Let it Be Movie. Unfortunately, this money all get locked up in early 1971 due to McCartneys lawsuit against the other three which means none of the money can be used for investments in order to grow it.

[@toddglacy1161]

Excellent 4th part. So insightful. Thank You!

[@ofb-jq5lc]

26:24 - John and Yoko came to Toronto and stayed at the King Edward Hotel, May 25-26, 1969. Having been granted a 10-day visitor Visa for Canada they flew to Montreal on May 26, 1969 and stayed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where on June 1, 1969 they sang and recorded Give Peace A Chance.

[@scotttaylor7767]

My goodness what a mess !! It’s amazing Abby Road was recorded that summer of 1969.

[@christianstough6337]

I take it all back- you guys did a great job. I'll leave my comments up to prove what an idiot I am.

[@michaelajayi8546]

10 percent is fine , why should you hand over a built building ?

[@slappyabromowitz]

Paul’s main reluctance was all based on Kleins reputation which he knew (stealing Sam Cookes and the Stones publishing for instance, extending the payout of the Decca bonus to the Stones he bragged about in 1966 for twenty years, spreading his own tax liability across his partners and paying himself off the gross, etc) and Pauls desire to sign no piece of paper that tied him to Klein who had offered up his Kingsway shares as collateral to buy Northern Songs. I’d fucking stall my ass off. You add the fact that Klein tried to physically bully Paul who had arguably written 40% of their hits and there is no way Klein walks away as nothing more than a greedy animal.

[@slappyabromowitz]

:)

[@christianstough6337]

May 9th/Northern Songs/ATV deal. The 20% is misleading. It was 20% of any profits Klein generated above what they currently earned, not 20% in total. Which is a HUGE difference in money. Other than that, I think you guys presented the May 9th meeting pretty fairly, although you can't resist defending Paul. I get it, I'm also protective of the Beatles, which is weird and not consistent with the ethic of objectivity. And it's difficult to fight against that protective impulse. Your best insight was that the Beatles had to know prior to May 9th that Pauls signature wasn't needed. So why are they there? Did they start off arranging him or did the meeting turn into anger when they saw him prevaricating after having seemingly agreed? NOTE: Ringo may have not been at the board meeting due to commitments to his Film; I'm unsure. My opinion is that I would also have been irate. All of this has supposedly been settled. They had huge deals to do and those deals needed to be done quickly- time was an issue, the issue of management and a united front were paramount to having a stronger position in negotiations. I think for May 9th, the reason McCartney is so scarred by this meeting, besides the obvious, is because it was the moment he was publicly put in the position of having to pick between Eastman or the three. I think he knew that siding with the Eastman's would not be lost on them. In the end, I think regaining Northern Songs was a long shot. James had already been shopping it to them and they hadn't read the room and jumped to save/buy it. Once it left James' hands, their chances were poor. Who do I want to do business with, the business guy who invests for a living or four hippies and their 3/4 manager who has a reputation of working only in the interests of the artists and being a hard negotiator? Their lack of unanimity, Eastman's statements, Klein's reputation and Lennon's statements doomed any chances of making this deal. Northern Songs was DOA.

[@toniwertman4818]

So many Greedy people. Shame on them

[@farrellmcnulty909]

I nearly vomited when Michael Jackson ended up owning the Beatles catalogue. So, who's still saying Yoko broke up the Beatles?

[@waynewoodger3820]

I am! She had an agenda in that direction long before she met John.

[@ofb-jq5lc]

@@waynewoodger3820 I am not sure she had an agenda necessarily. I think she did see that Lennon could be a truly great artist and to achieve that he needed to break away from the band. But in the larger context Yoko is but a small slice of the break-up pie.

[@michaelajayi8546]

Did you choke too ?

[@farrellmcnulty909]

@@michaelajayi8546 Why would I?

[@dalebonifant4855]

​@@waynewoodger3820 Good God......like George wouldn't have quit for good in a couple Years anyway. As history shows, John was the one who needed the others most, but His ego drove Him to bad choices.

[@lovelyandsmartcommentator5130]

Klien is a con.

[@slappyabromowitz]

Absolutely even a superficial review of his thievery supports that. John admitted it publicly.

[@RonJohnstone-yq5fw]

Horribale voice overe accents.