#apple corps

We're in the last week of the sale. The shop will close at 12pm GMT on Saturday the 7th of March.

Paul McCartney heard the stuff I was doing with Paul Jones, and he asked me if I'd produce something for Apple. I'd already known about Apple at that point because we'd all hung out at Paul's house quite a bit, and we'd all sit around and explain our plans for changing the world. Anyway, Paul asked me if I wanted to produce something for Apple, and I said, "Great, I'd love to." A little later on, he asked me if I wanted to be head of A & R for Apple, and I said, "Great." I didn't quite know what the head of A&R did, but it seemed like it would be a good job. With all the accounts of the madness at Apple, one tends to forget that for two or three years it was an effective record company. There were so many lunatics and weird people hanging around that you get the impression in books that the whole Apple thing was one amazing party. In fact, there were alot of people who came in every day, did their jobs, and got everything done. But there was a lot of lunacy. We had an A&R meeting once a week with a sort of quorum of Beatles in attendance. they tended to be more interested in their own projects than in anything else. George was more concerned about the Jackie Lomax record, and John was more concerned about the Plastic Ono Band. You really didn't get the feeling you were dealing with a board of directors who were terribly concerned with the corporation as a whole. Everyone was sort of running in different directions. So, while the responsibility was mine to decide whom to sign and whom not to sign, signing anyone who didnt have a couple of Beatles as supporters was a futureless prospect. It was very hard for any of us to imagine what it was like to be a Beatle. Whatever degree of success of adulation any of us have every been subjected to, it's incomparable to what they went through. They used to have a lot of arguments among themselves about one thing or another. Expecially after Brian Epstein died. Brian ran things a certain way. It later dawned on the Beatles that Brian didn't know much more than they knew, but he was so well-meaning, so honorable. Without him, they argued a lot more. Normal questions could easily become an argument, and often did. Sometimes we'd be having an A&R meeting, playing tapes, and they'd start arguing about something else. Or one of them would moan to you at dinner about the others. Paul was the one I knew the best. He sometimes moaned to me about how unreasonable John was being. I'm sure if John had been my friend, he'd be moaning to me about one of the others. I think Ringo said the least, but he would get very upset sitting at this drums waiting for the others to stop yelling at each other.