Life with the Beatles
What Lies Ahead?
By George Harrison
Liverpool Echo
March 3, 1964
Under a US treaty between Britain and the United States, the £20,000 that the Beatles earned in television and concert fees while in America was not subject to US income tax. The agreement is one which covers anyone from this country who was actually employed by a British firm while working in the States, and is not over there for longer than six months. As the Beatles are officially employed by NEMS Enterprises Ltd of Liverpool and London, the firm of which their manager, Brian Epstein, is the director, they came into this category of employment and were exempt from American tax.
They do pay it, of course, on the royalties from the records in that country. But they were in a different position from Ingemar Johansson, the Swedish boxer who fought twice in America for the World Heavyweight title. He had been employed for the two fights by American promoters, so he was called upon to pay US tax on the money he received. An actual fact, the Beatles would have been better off financially if they had paid tax in America rather than in this country. For US income taxes is lower than ours. But those are points which affect their business accountants more than the boys themselves.
As I've explained in an earlier article, they have a splendid contempt for money matters. This week, John, Paul, George, and Ringo are working with some excitement on their first film for United Artists in London. The contract was signed in New York, and I was informed that it called for three films, provided the first one clicks with world audiences, as it is confidently expected to do.
Liverpool. Playwright Alun Owen is responsible for the story, such as it is. From what the boys told me, the script sounds rather like a part-fiction, part-documentary excuse for introducing half a dozen new songs by The Beatles. But maybe their comments don't do true justice to all in Owen favor for writing. Anyway, we shall know in August, which is the date slated for the first release of the film. Two of the songs that John Lennon and Paul McCartney have already completed for the movie will be issued this month as a single disc by the Beatles. It will automatically soar to the number one position in the hit charts by virtue of the 1,000,000 advanced sales, which the boys achieve these days without effort.
Brian Epstein said to me when I asked him about future plans, "After they have finished shooting the film, they will make a short tour of Britain in one-night concert appearances. In the month of May, they will have a complete holiday, doing no engagements." Brian has booked the Prince of Wales Theater in London for a series of Sunday night pop shows starting in April. The Beatles will star in one of these, and so will those other darlings of the disc fans, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer, Cilla Black, and the rest of Britain's famous Merseybeat stable.
After their May holiday, and goodness knows, they've earned one by their hard work the last few months, it will be another case of 'pack up and go' for the lads. They're heading down under for a concert tour of Australia, where their records have been enjoying just about the same kind of fantastic boom that they've had in America. Letters from Merseyside exiles in all the biggest Australian cities and towns have been bringing me the news for many weeks that The Beatles are the tops on every disc program. They'll probably receive a welcome there that will match up in intensity and fervor to anything they experienced in New York, Washington, and Miami. The date of their departure has not yet been fixed, but is expected to be in mid or late June and run into July. August, or more likely, September, will probably see them back in the United States for a brief lineup of one-nighters in cities they have not yet visited, plus a Carnegie Hall encore.
Another film is due for shooting in early autumn, and will be followed by a long spell in this country for the boys. What hundreds of thousands of folks in this area would love to see is a 12-week winter season at the 2,500-seat Liverpool Empire featuring a lavish, spectacular review starring the Beatles. I made the suggestion to Mr. Leslie A. McDonald, chief of the Moss Empire's theater chain, which controls the Empire, and to the shrewd and charming Brian Epstein. A show such as that would unquestionably have the box office impact of a bomb. Furthermore, I'm quite certain that John, Ringo, George, and Paul would welcome the enthusiasm and the opportunity to come back home for a few weeks. It may be only a pipe dream, but one thing is sure: if it came true, every cash record that the Empire Theater has known would go on the board. On that ground alone, it is worthy of serious thought by the people concerned. Let's leave it at that for the present.
One of the questions which many of the critics in America and in this country are continually posing is "What will become of the Beatles when the current craze dies away?" At this stage of the proceedings, with not a sign of a cloud on their horizon, the boys can afford to shrug their slim shoulders as they do and say, "Who cares? Nobody goes on forever."
Who can possibly foresee the future for them? Perhaps they had better give the job to an expert. One of the highest-paid and best-known showmen in the world is Ed Sullivan, who had the Beatles on three of his famous television programs in consecutive weeks and was the man responsible, more than anyone else, for introducing them to the American public. I think you will agree with me that Sullivan, with his vast knowledge of show business, has built a tremendous experience gained through nearly 18 years of top 10 is someone upon whose judgment we can rely. This is what he had to say to me when I questioned him on those familiar 'How long will they last?' lines in Miami. "They're the best harmony combination I've ever heard. They're not rock and roll. Their style is essentially their own, and they seem to be improving all the time. Like Elvis Presley, they will stay at the top for years --long after Beatlemania runs its course. They have great talent. Just listen to the songs that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote, for example. And my bet is they will use it wisely and well. What always impresses me most about them is that, despite their youth, the Beatles are real professionals." Sullivan went on, "That's the highest compliment anyone in show business can pay another, and I pay to them gladly. What's more," he added, they're polite, intelligent youngsters, real gentlemen."
So don't go worrying your heads about our lively Liverpool quartet having bread and water winters, when their golden summer fades away. With backroom genius Brian Epstein watching their interests, safeguarding their capital, jealously watching over their good name, and seeing that nobody takes liberties with it, they have nothing to fear. Their income this year from all sources will not be far short of one million pounds. The tax man cometh, of course, and taketh a mighty chunk of this, but there will still be enough left in the kitty to induce their bank manager to call each of them sir.
John and Paul have an extra advantage in that they receive for themselves the hefty royalties that accrue from the hit songs they write, both from records and sheet music, as well as from performing rights all over the world. Those royalties can continue for years to come and add up to another fortune for each of them, on top of the one they are making as part of The Beatles. George Harrison is also blossoming into the songwriting market. He wrote words and music for "Don't Bother Me", and it would not be a surprise to me to find the three of them composing together.
John and Paul now turn out top sellers, almost to order, it would seem. But don't think it has come to them overnight. In the years before they became known, the two youngsters had written some 200 unpublished numbers. Paul put it like this to me, "If you reckon it out on different levels, George, we've been in just about the same position for years. John and I have been writing numbers, starting out by whistling them to each other and then trying them on guitars for almost as long as I can remember. We are still doing exactly the same thing. The only thing that changed is that now the folks go for the stuff we write, and in the old days, they didn't. Mark you, we've improved, or at least, I think we have, but it is still hard work. Don't get the idea it's easy for us to write. It isn't. We can't read music. We just play by ear. Sometimes we mess around with a tune or a lyric for days before it seems to get into gear. And now that our songs are selling, we try to make even surer that when they are recorded, they are as right as we can get them."
John Lennon interposed, "We don't kid ourselves, we aren't perfectionists or anything like it. But the fans want songs from us that sound right, and we now feel a sense of responsibility to them, as well as to the Beatles.
"Perhaps we've got a song that seems right to me like but then Paul says, 'I don't go for that bit', and plays it back. Then, after a while, I see what he means. So we set about changing it until we can both say, 'Ah, that sounds better'. It might be Paul doesn't like it, or it might be me, but if a part doesn't sound right to either of us, we change it."
How this remarkable couple has succeeded with their "make it sound right" technique of songwriting is one of the legends of show businesses these days. The best-selling gold disc-winning long player, Meet the Beatles, which sold half a million in America in a month, has twelve songs. Ten of them are by John and Paul, and one by George Harrison. The Lennon-McCartney partnership contribution includes their 4,000,000-plus number "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
The fourth Beatle, drummer Ringo Starr, or to give him his school day's name, Dick Starkey, is as unworried as the others about what the future might hold. "I've got my plans made," he told me, empathetically. "I'm going into the ladies' hair dressing business one day with some nicely placed shops in Liverpool. It's been my ambition for a long time, and if the income tax people leave me enough dough, I'm going to do it after we break up, whenever that might be."
And when will they break up? Let Paul McCartney answer that one for all of them. "Soon as we find that this game of being the Beatles isn't fun anymore, we shall pack it up and quit," he said.
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