Self-indulgent dirge too controversial for iconic | Music News

Post-1966, as The Beatles ceased touring and delved into studio experimentation, George’s discontent grew, feeling marginalized as a secondary songwriter during the creation of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and ‘The White Album’

‘Sgt Pepper’ showcased only one Harrison composition, ‘Within You Without You’, and one other monitor he wrote during the identical period was recorded but finally not included on the album.

The tune ‘Only a Northern Song’ encapsulates George Harrison’s quip about his roots and the band’s licensing firm, Northern Songs, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney each had a juicy 15% slice, while George and Ringo Starr had been nibbling on a mere 0.8%.

In 1979, George defined the monitor was an inside joke, saying: “(It) was a joke relating to Liverpool, the Holy City in the North of England. In addition, the song was copyrighted Northern Songs Ltd., which I don’t own, so: (quoting the lyrics) ‘It doesn’t really matter what chords I play … as it’s only a Northern Song’.”

In a candid 1999 Billboard interview, George spoke on how he had been bamboozled by Dick James, the management honcho at Northern Songs: “I realized Dick James (Northern Songs managing director) had conned me out of the copyrights for my own songs by offering to become my publisher.”

With the naivety of youth, George recalled how the shiny prospect of track publishing fooled him: “As an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I thought, ‘Great, somebody’s gonna publish my songs!'”

He lamented the crooked deal handed to him: “But he never said, ‘And incidentally, when you sign this document here, you’re assigning me the ownership of the songs,’ which is what it is. It was just a blatant theft.”

George penned ‘Only A Northern Song’ in response to the shady dealings that made others wealthy off his creations, dubbing it a ‘p**s-take’: “By the time I realized what had happened, when they were going public and making all this money out of this catalogue, I wrote ‘Only A Northern Song’ as what we call a ‘p**s-take,’ just to have a joke about it.”

While Abbey Road Studios gave delivery to the track in February 1967, it did not make the cut on ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ rumored to be due to producer George Martin and fellow members giving it the cold shoulder.

However, the monitor finally emerged in the 1968 animated movie ‘Yellow Submarine,’ for which the band had minimal involvement, contributing songs primarily to fulfill their contractual obligations.

‘Only a Northern Song’ was subsequently included on the movie’s soundtrack album in January 1969, garnering a blended reception from critics, with Ian MacDonald dismissing it as a “self-indulgent dirge.”

Regarding the track, creator Brian Southall interpreted it as George’s “personal denunciation of The Beatles’ music publishing business”. Mojo’s Peter Doggett deemed it “gloriously ironic,” while Alex Young hailed it as “lyrically the quintessential track.”