Music Connection has a new interview with Apple Records designer John Kosh.
Some highlights:
Sir Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of Apple Records’ parent company EMI called me up in the middle of the night at 3:00 am and said “the name of the group isn’t on the front cover. We’re never going to sell any records!” He said “I was ruining the Beatles’ careers!” He was only thinking of where records would be out in the racks and bins.
I was a 23-year-old and my knees and body were trembling. I knew it didn’t need an explanation. I thought, “Here are the four Beatles walking across the street. If you do not know who they are, you have definitely been in a cave somewhere.” There was a lot of publicity about the new album by the Beatles coming out. They were the Fab Four. I went away and wasn’t looking again, and somebody at EMI insisted that the name of the Beatles was on the back cover. I thought that was silly.
I then told George the story about the front cover. George said, “Oh forget it. We're the Beatles.” No more discussion after that.
Apple sent me a 300 pound check for that cover. It was signed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. What did I do? I had to pay the rent and I cashed it.
...Q: You were invited to attend the recording session of “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”
A: At Abbey Road. Studio 2 or B, and it’s the one where Ringo’s drum set was permanently set up. There was a grand piano. I walked in and [engineer] Geoff Emerick was on the board. It’s the first stereo single in the UK. Sitting on the rostrum behind Ringo’s kit was Paul with brushes. Sitting in front of him was John with his 12-string. Not really playing it just messing with it. And under the grand piano is Yoko Ono. And what is going on is that John and Paul are not supposed to be speaking with each other, you know.
There is a whole rift that has torn them apart. There is the John Eastman camp with Paul, and the Klein camp with John. They are not supposed to be communicating, and the press have been told they are hating each other. And here are these guys right in front of me having a lot of fun. They are enjoying themselves and are funny. I walk in and they take the piss out of me, right. “You’re late!”
It was my first trip into Abbey Road. George and Ringo are not on the session. George was out of the country and Ringo was filming The Magic Christian. John did the lead vocal, lead guitar and acoustic guitar and percussion. Paul is on bass, drums, piano, percussion [maracas] and sings vocal harmony.
More here.
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