Out of Our Heads with Proof of Truth: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Me by Ronnie Schneider

Author:Ronnie Schneider [Schneider, Ronnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Beatles, Rolling Stones
Publisher: CLB, Inc.
Published: 2017-05-13T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XVII

EMOTIONAL RESCUE

My uncle was at the right time and the right place for the British Invasion. He was an accountant with a personality and drive that led him to attack the recording business and its inequities in dealings with recording artists. When I came to work for my uncle, Allen Klein, he had just hit it big, and I mean just. I got to the office in time to help everyone wheel file cabinets down Broadway to the new office in the Time-Life Building.

Talent is an energy that propels things and people, but talent can burn only so far, and then it needs money. To get money, talent needs to deal with business. Smart talent understands their limitations. While artist egos may think they can do everything, they usually have an instinctive fear of numbers, and the long, boring boiler plate agreements they would have to read and understand.

For the most part record execs screw the talent with contracts in the same way the sleazy movie producer uses the casting couch. In the record business it’s:

“We’ll sign you to a recording contract.”

“How much do you want to be a rock ’n’ roll star?”

“Are you only in it for the money?”

These bromides are mouthed by recording company execs as they place a contract in front of your face where the record company keeps all the money. It’s often with a twist of words that a group gets screwed. The record company would say, “We are offering you a deal where you get an advance of $50,000 for signing and a 10% royalty on all records sold. You will record in our studio and we will bill you for it. You will pay us back from your record sales.”

“Yeah!” says the group with no money and stars in their eyes.

In the fine print of the document about income would be the little line: “… advances recoupable against your share.” If you didn’t insert “all costs off the top before accounting for your share” you would see on your statement, for example: “Total income: $200,000. Your share (200,000 x 10%) = $20,000, less your advance of $50,000 plus costs for the recording of the album of $100,000.00.”

Presto, you owe them $130,000!

If you knew enough and had a little power, you made sure costs were off the top. Thus $200,000 minus your advance of $50,000 minus the recording costs of $100,000 = $50,000 times your .10 royalty rate and you get $5,000, and your debts are paid instead of owing $130,000.

Then, “behind the curtain,” the record companies usually bought off the managers and agents with side deals. The company would appear enthused to sign other groups from the manager; they would promise to book their talent through the group’s talent agent.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of the recording star’s business manager or accountant stealing or losing their money. We’ve also heard the stories of talent dumping their managers once they’ve “hit it big.” One of the best movies I ever saw on that topic was Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose.

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