Being profitable in rock ‘n’ roll has lots to do with expertise, after all. But it will even be truthful to say that the place an artist in the end finally ends up is influenced vastly by the form of individuals they encompass themselves with.
The actuality of the music enterprise is that not everybody working inside it has trustworthy intentions. Managers, promoters and document executives typically possess and act on private motivations (usually monetary in nature) that go far past the perfect curiosity of a band or artist, resulting in disagreeable relationships the place one aspect feels taken benefit of the opposite. You can guess which one is which.
- That’s definitely not all the time the case, however the checklist under of 24 Songs About Managers and Record Executives focuses totally on tracks whose writers have a bone to choose.
1. Badfinger, “Hey, Mr. Manager”
From: Headfirst (2000)
Headfirst, the tenth and last album by Badfinger was recorded in 1974 however not launched for practically three a long time, due to an onslaught of authorized points. At the time, Warner Bros. Records’ publishing division sued each Badfinger and their supervisor Stan Polley over cash that was lacking from an escrow account and refused to simply accept the grasp tapes for Headfirst. But even earlier than Badfinger turned conscious of the lawsuit, they have been suspicious of Polley and thought-about him untrustworthy when it got here to their funds, therefore songs like “Hey, Mr. Manager.”
2. The Beatles, “You Never Give Me Your Money”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
By 1969, the Beatles’ enterprise affairs — and their private relationships with each other — seemed to be unraveling. “[“You Never Give Me Your Money”] was me directly lambasting [manager] Allen Klein’s attitude to us: no money, just funny paper, all promises and it never works out,” Paul McCartney stated for 1997’s Many Years From Now. “It’s basically a song about no faith in the person, that found its way into the medley on Abbey Road. John [Lennon] saw the humor in it.”
3. Billy Joel, “The Great Wall of China”
From: River of Dreams (1993)
In the late ’80s, Billy Joel discovered that his supervisor (and former brother-in-law) Frank Weber was grossly mishandling his funds. Joel sued Weber and was in the end awarded $2 million in 1990, however the deception caught with Joel as he wrote songs for 1993’s River of Dreams. Themes of mistrust and disappointment appeared on songs like “The Great Wall of China.” (*24*) Joel recalled to The New York Times Magazine in 2013, “because this was somebody I trusted so much.”
4. Black Sabbath, “The Writ”
From: Sabotage (1975)
There’s not that many Black Sabbath songs that includes lyrics penned by Ozzy Osbourne, however “The Writ” is one in every of them, during which the singer vented a few of his frustrations towards the band’s former supervisor Patrick Meehan, who was then suing them. “I wrote most of the lyrics myself, which felt a bit like seeing a shrink,” Osbourne wrote in his 2011 memoir I Am Ozzy. “All the anger I felt towards Meehan came pouring out.”
5. Bob Dylan, “Dear Landlord”
From: John Wesley Harding (1967)
Sometimes you do not know who or what precisely you are writing about till after the actual fact. Bob Dylan did not have his supervisor Albert Grossman in thoughts when he penned “Dear Landlord” — “If you don’t underestimate me / I won’t underestimate you” — however as he stated to Rolling Stone in 1971, “only later when people pointed out that the song may have been written for Grossman I thought it could have been.”
6. Bon Jovi, “Burning Bridges”
From: Burning Bridges (2015)
By the time Bon Jovi cut up with Mercury Records in 2015, they’d been working with the label for over 30 years. But sufficient was evidently sufficient — “Hope my money and my masters buy a front row seat in hell,” Jon Bon Jovi sings on the title observe to Burning Bridges. “This hits it right in the head and tells you what happened,” he famous on the time. “Listen to the lyrics because it explains exactly what happened. And that’s that.”
7. The Clash, “Complete Control”
From: The Clash (1977)
The Clash obtained straight to the purpose from the highest of 1977’s “Complete Control,” which appeared on their debut album: “They said, ‘Release Remote Control’ / But we didn’t want it on the label.” How a lot clearer want one be? This was a direct reference to the truth that CBS had launched “Remote Control” as a single with out the band’s permission. And that wasn’t all — the title “Complete Control,” in accordance with Joe Strummer, stemmed from a dialog with Clash supervisor Bernie Rhodes, who apparently said he wished to have “complete control.”
8. Graham Parker and the Rumour, “Mercury Poisoning”
From: 1979 Single
The Clash have been hardly the one ones to jot down about their frustrations with their label. Graham Parker aired his personal grievances with 1979’s “Mercury Poisoning,” a simple assertion about his emotions towards Mercury Records, whom he felt had performed little to assist him promotionally. “It wouldn’t matter if I was singing Saturday Night Fever with Mercury, it would still be a flop,” Parker joked to Rip It Up in 1978.
9. Hall and Oates, “Gino (The Manager)”
From: Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975)
Daryl Hall and John Oates needed very a lot for individuals to know who “Gino (The Manager)” was about, which describes a person with “Sicilian imagination” and “Gucci-Pucci pointed shoes.” The document jacket insert for 1975’s Daryl Hall & John Oates reads “And introducing Tommy Mottola [their manager] as ‘Little Gino.'” Mottola liked the track — “I thought it was true, and I thought it was great,” he instructed Rolling Stone in 1985.
10. Heart, “Barracuda”
From: Little Queen (1977)
For some motive within the late ’70s, Mushroom Records determined to launch a faux publicity stunt involving an incestuous relationship between sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Furious, Ann penned “Barracuda.” It did not assist that Mushroom was lower than cooperative when it got here to renegotiating their contract. “‘Barracuda’ was created conceptually out of a lot of this record business bullshit,” producer Mike Flicker stated to Mix Magazine in 1999. “‘Barracuda could be anyone from the local promotion man to the president of a record company. That is the barracuda. It was born out of that whole experience.”
11. John Fogerty, “Zanz Kant Danz”
From: Centerfield (1985)
John Fogerty’s “Zanz Kant Danz” was so painfully clearly written about Saul Zaentz, proprietor of Fantasy Records, that Fogerty tried to alter its title to “Vanz Kant Danz” just a few months after it was launched in an effort to keep away from a defamation lawsuit (which did not work). Zaentz famously had tried to sue Fogerty in 1980 for plagiarizing his personal songwriting.
12. Joni Mitchell, “Free Man in Paris”
From: Court and Spark (1974)
As its title suggests, Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man in Paris” takes place within the French capital, and the free man in query is David Geffen, then-president of her document label, Asylum. “Another song about show business and the pressures,” Mitchell recounted in 1996. “He didn’t like it at the time. He begged me to take it off the record. I think he felt uncomfortable being shown in that light.”
13. Kid Rock, “I Got One for Ya'”
From: Devil Without a Cause (1998)
“Record companies stressin’ that they all want hits,” Kid Rock sings in 1998’s “I Got One for Ya.'” A couple of strains later, he makes a direct reference to Jason Flom, head of Lava Records and the person who had initially given him the demo tape containing the track. “Hey Flom you want a hit, money? / I got one for ya.’“
14. The Kinks, “The Moneygoround”
From: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970)
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One examines various features of the recording trade, together with the accounting. “The Moneygoround” even mentions the Kinks’ three managers, Robert Wace, Grenville Collins and Larry Page. “Let’s all sit and watch the money-go-round / Everyone take a little bit here and a little bit there.”
15. Led Zeppelin, “Hots on for Nowhere”
From: Presence (1976)
In the summer season of 1975, Robert Plant was concerned in a automotive accident. While recovering from his accidents in Malibu, California, he penned “Hots on for Nowhere,” during which Plant thought-about his future and his relationships with these near him, together with Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin’s supervisor Peter Grant. “I’ve got friends who will give me fuck all,” he sings.
16. Nick Lowe, “I Love My Label”
From: Jesus of Cool (1978)
In sharp distinction to each different track on this checklist, Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label” truly waxes poetic about all of the issues he likes about his document label. “They always ask for lots of songs, but no more than 2:50 long, so I write ’em some / They never talk behind my back and they’re always playing my new tracks when I come along.“
17. Procol Harum, “Butterfly Boys”
From: Exotic Birds and Fruit (1974)
It did not take the upper ups at Chrysalis Records very lengthy to acknowledge that the “butterfly” on this Procol Harum track was a reference to them. “Procol Harum is the ‘sinking ship’ here,” Gary Brooker later defined, “and the label owners, who were also our managers, are the ones that ‘get the cake’. We weren’t exactly ripped off, not like in the past, but [Keith] Reid had spotted an imbalance! They were very upset about the song, and wanted us to change the words and title to ‘Government Boys.’ We said ‘Bollocks.'”
18. Queen, “Death on Two Legs”
From: A Night on the Opera (1975)
There is not any direct point out of Queen’s former supervisor, Norman Sheffield, in 1975’s “Death on Two Legs,” however the lyrics depart little room for interpretation so far as who it is about. “You suck my blood like a leech / You break the law and you breach / Screw my brain till it hurts / You’ve taken all my money, you still want more.” In subsequent dwell performances, Freddie Mercury would typically introduce the track as being about “a real motherfucker of a gentleman.”
19. The Rolling Stones, “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man”
From: Out of Our Heads (1965)
In his 2002 e book Rolling With the Stones, bassist Bill Wyman confirmed that 1965’s “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” was “a good-natured jibe” at a person named George Sherlock, who labored for London Records and accompanied the band on their first American tour.
20. Sammy Hagar, “On the Other Hand”
From: Marching to Mars (1997)
Anyone even remotely conversant in Van Halen is aware of that the transition between singers Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth wasn’t precisely easy. In 1993, Ray Daniels, the brother-in-law of Alex Van Halen, took over as supervisor after the dying of Ed Leffler. Around that point, Hagar penned two songs for a soundtrack album, solely to study that one in every of them can be used for a biggest hits LP as a substitute. “That’s where the bad blood started,” Hagar recalled to SFGATE in 1996. “Next thing I knew they pulled David Lee Roth in because supposedly I wasn’t co-operating.” Hagar’s “On the Other Hand” mirrored a few of this frustration, with strains about “an evil man, money on his mind.”
21. The Sex Pistols, “E.M.I.”
From: Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
The Sex Pistols could not have been round for very lengthy but when there was one factor advisable not to do then was piss them off. In early 1977, the Sex Pistols’ contract with EMI was terminated after solely three months, sparking a track named after the label concerning the hypocrisy the band felt they’d been handed, with lyrics implying the label needed to earn a living off the rising punk phenomenon, solely to get scared the Pistols would injury their fame.
22. Sheryl Crow, “The Na-Na Song”
From: Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)
Sheryl Crow did not write “The Na-Na Song” about anybody particular — it was extra an overarching piece about misogyny within the music enterprise — however she additionally did not move up the prospect to name-check Frank DiLeo, who had helped signal Michael Jackson to Epic Records. Crow had met DiLeo when she labored as one in every of Jackson’s backup singers. “Frank DiLeo’s dong / Maybe if I’d have let him I’d have had a hit song.”
23. XTC, “I Bought Myself a Liarbird”
From: The Big Express (1984)
XTC’s “I Bought Myself a Liarbird” is play on the phrase “lyrebird,” a sort of chicken identified for his or her skill to imitate sounds of their atmosphere. This 1984 observe was written about their shady former supervisor Ian Reid, who labored for the band up till 1982 when it was found he was mishandling their revenue. Years and years of litigation adopted.
24. Yes, “Five per Cent for Nothing”
From: Fragile (1971)
When Yes’ authentic supervisor, Roy Flynn, parted methods with the group within the early ’70s, a deal was struck during which he would nonetheless obtain 5% of the band’s earnings in perpetuity, however the band was sad with this settlement, going as far as to jot down a whole track about it. In the tip, Flynn settled with the band out of courtroom for $150,000. “To be honest, after two years I was just emotionally drained,” he recalled to Oxford Mail in 2010. “It’s part of my life I’d rather forget.”
Nastiest Rock Feuds
Some of them have been resolved however others stay uncooked.
Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
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