: Aaron Badgley
: Dark Horse Records The StoryOf George Harrison's Post Beatles Record Label
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789521153
: 1
: CHF 8.80
:
: Musik
: English
: 208
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

In 1974, with Apple winding down, George Harrison still aspired to help new artists, so rather than trying to salvage Apple, he set up his own label Dark Horse Records, on a much smaller scale. His plan was to release records from new artists as well as some of his old friends, with an eye to eventually releasing his own music. While Dark Horse had an encouraging beginning with a hit single from Splinter, the label Suffered increasing problems, failing to establish itself in the way Harrison hoped.
However, some incredible and varied music was created from 1974 to 1977, including some of Harrison's best solo material. Towards the end of its initial life, Dark Horse dropped most of its artists and released mainly Harrison's solo work. Thankfully, since 2020, Dhani Harrison has taken the reins and has made Dark Horse viable once again, signing Cat Stevens and Billy Idol and releasing music from Joe Strummer and Leon Russell.
Finally, in 2023, it was announced that Harrison's entire solo catalog was going to be re-released on Dark Horse. This book tells the story of the label from the beginning, through its struggles and on to its exciting renaissance in the new millennium.


At a very young age, Aaron Badgley developed a profound love of The Beatles and music in general, also developing a fascination with record labels. At the age of 19, he started working in radio and by the age of 20, he was a production manager for a number of stations in Canada. In 2005 he debuted his syndicated radio show The Beatles Universe, which ran for six years. Currently, he is the host of Here Today and Backwards Traveller radio shows and co-hosts From Memphis To Merseyside and The Way-Back Music Machine (with Tony Stuart). He writes for Spill Magazine and Immersive Audio Album. He has also contributed to the All Music Guide. Aaron resides in Toronto, Canada.

Introduction


Apple Records was not a failure. It was a label that got tangled up in legal difficulties due to management and the breakup of a band. The label, however, did not fail in itself. In many ways, it was very much ahead of its time. Artist-owned labels were nothing new in 1968 when Apple Records made its debut, but the philosophy behind it was very new, unique and revolutionary. This was the philosophy that George Harrison would take with him when he formed and launched Dark Horse Records. It was Apple’s eventual collapse that gave way to the beginning of Harrison’s new venture.

Of course, The Beatles were not the first band or musical artist to establish their own label. Frank Sinatra had done this in 1960 with Reprise Records in order to have artistic freedom over his own recordings and because he was dissatisfied with Capitol Records.

Because he owned the label, this earned him the nickname ‘Chairman of the Board’, although he sold the label to Warner Brothers in 1963 while retaining one-third ownership. Another example would be Sam Cooke’s label SAR Records, which he formed in 1961. Cook never recorded for the label but used it to help artists he wanted to promote. One of those artists was Billy Preston. Other artist-owned labels included Bobby Darin (Addison), The Everly Brothers (Calliope Records, established in 1961), Bing Crosby (Project Records, 1961), and Nat ‘King’ Cole (K-C Records, 1961). It is worth pointing out that the first record pressed with the Apple label (Apple 1) was Frank Sinatra singing ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, changing the word ‘Tramp’ to ‘Champ’ as a special birthday gift for Ringo Starr to give to his wife Maureen.

Apple did not start out as a record label but rather as an umbrella organisation protecting The Beatles from taxes and financial issues – a tax shelter, if you will. Apple Corps Limited, as it was called, came into being after the death of Brian Epstein, the original manager of The Beatles, but there is no doubt that the seeds of Apple were planted by Epstein, who was encouraging The Beatles to set up smaller companies for tax purposes. As a result, In April 1967, The Beatles and Co. was formed in addition to Beatles Limited, which continued to exist.

Essentially, the existence of these companies was to allow The Beatles to pay a much lower level of corporation tax. So initially, the idea for Beatles Limited/Apple was that it be made up of various smaller enterprises, such as retail, publishing, electronics and film and Jonathon Gould, in his bookCan’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America, confirms Epstein’s masterplan was to establish a business structure that would assist The Beatles in lessening their tax. Sadly, Epstein died before he could see the end results of his efforts.

But one of the first projects under the Apple Banner was the 1967 filmMagical Mystery Tour, which was was produced under the Apple Films Division. Although, if one looks carefully at the back ofSgt.

Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967, Apple is mentioned.

So, in January 1968, Beatles Ltd. became Apple. The Apple trademark (with a logo designed by Gene Mahon) was registered in 47 countries. This included registering the following smaller organisations: Apple Electronics, Apple Films Ltd., Apple Management, Apple Music Publishing, Apple Overseas, Apple Publicity, Apple Records, Apple Retail and Apple Tailoring Civil and Theatrical. The