The Beatles Catalog

According to reports, Bank of America has sold Michael Jackson's loan on the Beatles catalog to a private investment firm. This could be the first step towards the catalog reverting back to it's rightful owners. There was a time when I felt like this was very important. For musicians in general, I think it is, but in recent years, I have become less comfortable with the idea for a couple of reasons.

First, Yoko Ono would be on of the owners as she represents the estate of John Lennon. She didn't actually break up the Beatles, but that still doesn't mean that I like the idea of her having a controlling interest on material she took no part in creating.

Second, Paul McCartney has become more and more irritating as he has gotten older and I just don't know what he might do. On his last live album, he recorded quite a few Lennon/McCartney songs but he chose to change the writing credits to "McCartney and Lennon." Now this might not seem like much considering he was the principle songwriter on the tunes in question, but that is just revisionist history. The Lennon/McCartney credit is as well known as Lieber/Stoller or Goffin/King. Just because you are still alive and your songwriting partner isn't does not give you the right to choose what the credit says forty plus years later. That's like George Lucas going back and messing with all the original Star Wars movies and acting like they are the definitive versions and make sure that the old ones never again see the light of day. Frankly I just don't trust Paul to not try to totally rewrite the Beatles history. If he gets his grubby mits on the catalog, all bets are off.

This news doesn't indicate that McCartney and Ono will get the catalog any time soon, but things seem to be moving in that direction. I really don't see how Jackson can keep the songs even if he survives his trial. He is just flat broke and that's no joke!