Allen Klein, R.I.P.

RIP

 

Oh, that's a shame.

 

Also responsible for that Damn 'Long And Winding Rd' single, which IMO has totally spoiled the 'One' compilation! But of course he wasn't to know that!

 

He's In Our Prayers

 

Klein had this to say about Belushi's performance: "How the heck did he know I like to rehearse in the mirror??"

RIP, Mr. ABCKO, aka "Ron Decline".

 

Wikipedia indicates ABKCO formed in 1968 with Allen and Betty Klein and COmpany as the basis for the acronym. Allen Klein & Co. was formed in 1961 and was a predecessor company assuming Wikipedia is correct.

R.I.P. Allen and I hope we get a definitive biography and film about your life.

Chris

 

What a life lived! RIP.

 

Allen Klein, 77, Dies; Managed Music Legends
By BEN SISARIO
Published: July 4, 2009

Allen Klein, a music executive who managed the business affairs of Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and, for a short time, the Beatles, and who was both admired and feared for his reputation as a fierce negotiator, died on Saturday in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 77.

The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Mr. Klein’s company, Abkco Music and Records.

Mr. Klein rose from humble origins to become a powerful figure in the music business. Born in Newark, he spent much of his childhood in an orphanage, and graduated from Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., with a degree in accounting and a keen appreciation of the value of a dollar.

At the invitation of one of his college friends, Don Kirshner — who would go on to become a successful music publisher and record executive — Mr. Klein began to work in the music business. He gained a reputation early on as an effective sleuth who could root through record companies’ books on behalf of artists and find thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties.

In the early 1960s, he performed those miracles of accounting for Bobby Darin and Cooke. He also became Cooke’s manager, negotiating an unusually favorable deal with RCA Records that gave the singer a strong royalty rate and the rights to his own recordings. By the height of the British Invasion of the mid-1960s, Mr. Klein was rapidly acquiring clients in England, among them Mickie Most, who was the producer of the Animals, Herman’s Hermits and many other groups.

In 1965, Mr. Klein was hired by the Rolling Stones’ young manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, to handle the band’s business affairs. With his working-class New Jersey accent and aggressive, direct negotiating style, Mr. Klein convinced the Stones, as he would many other musicians, that he would be a powerful advocate.

“Andrew sold him to us as a gangster figure, someone outside the establishment. We found that rather attractive,” Mick Jagger was quoted as saying in Stephen Davis’s 2001 book, “Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones.”

For the Stones and others, though, Mr. Klein was sometimes also an adversary. He negotiated a new deal for the band with Decca, its label at the time, but soon bought the rights to both the band’s recordings and its publishing. The band would later sue for their return, without success. (The Stones settled with Mr. Klein in 1984.) Through Abkco, Mr. Klein retained control of the band’s music before 1971, when the group formed its own record company, Rolling Stones Records.

In 1969, Mr. Klein began to work with the Beatles, as that band was beginning to splinter apart. According to some accounts, he urged John Lennon not to announce that he wanted to quit because it would jeopardize Mr. Klein’s negotiations with E.M.I. over royalties. A highly favorable royalty rate was achieved, and shortly afterward, the Beatles broke up, although Mr. Klein continued to work with Lennon and, for a time, George Harrison. He was a producer of the concerts for Bangladesh, with Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and others, at Madison Square Garden in 1971.

Mr. Klein was convicted of tax fraud in 1979 and served two months in prison for failing to report income from sales of promotional records, according to the Associated Press.

Abkco owns the rights to many recordings by the Stones, Cooke and others, and administers many more. Mr. Klein also worked as a producer on the films “The Holy Mountain” in 1973 and “The Greek Tycoon” in 1978, as well as on a number of Italian spaghetti Westerns.

Mr. Klein is survived by his sister, Naomi; his longtime companion, Iris Keitel; his wife, Betty, with whom he had not lived with for many years; two daughters, Robin and Beth; a son, Jody; and four grandchildren.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/music/05klein.html?ref=obituaries

 

I love it. It provides a melodramatic effect to the sound which I think adds a sense of gloom to the news of the Beatles finally breaking up.

 

What George Harrison thought Of Allen Klein

What George Harrison Thought Of Allen Klein

by Paul Cashmere - July 5 2009

Allen Klein died on the weekend (July 4, 2009). Klein was one of the most notorious music businessmen ever. At one stage he simultaneously managed both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Many knew him, few respected him! He was in it for himself and made a fortune along the way.

In my 1993 interview with George Harrison, a man who had nothing bad to say about anyone, even George had nothing nice to say about Allen.

Here is the part of the Harrison interview talking about how Klein, acting at the time as George’s business manager, went behind George’s back during the famous ‘My Sweet Lord/He’s So Fine’ plagiarism case, and bought copyright of the original Chiffons songs so that no matter what happened in the case it would go his way:

Paul Cashmere: How do you feel about "My Sweet Lord" these days. How did the court case surrounding that song affect your songwriting?

George Harrison: It didn't really affect my songwriting. I did record "This Song," which was kind of a comment about the situation.

The thing that really disappoints me is when you have a relationship with one person and they turn out to betray you. Because the whole story of "My Sweet Lord" is based upon this fellow, Allan Klein, who managed the Beatles from about 1968 or '69, through until 1973.

When they issued a complaint about "My Sweet Lord", he was my business manager. He was the one who put out "My Sweet Lord" and collected 20 percent commission on the record. And he was the one who got the lawyers to defend me, and did an interview in Playboy where he talked about how the song was nothing like the other song.

Later, when the judge in court told me to settle with them, because he didn't think I'd consciously stolen their song, they were doing a settlement deal with me when they suddenly stopped the settlement.

Some time elapsed, and I found out that this guy Klein had gone around the back door. In the meantime, we'd fired him. He went round the back door and bought the rights to the one song, "He's So Fine," in order to continue a lawsuit against me.

He, on one hand, was defending me, then he switched sides and continued the lawsuit. And every time the judge said what the result was, he'd appeal. And he kept appealing and appealing until it got to the Supreme Court.

I mean this thing went on for 16 years or something ... 18 years. And finally, it's all over with, and the result of it is I own "My Sweet Lord," and I now own "He's So Fine," and Allan Klein owes me like three or four hundred thousand dollars 'cause he took all the money on both songs. It's really a joke. It's a total joke.

Paul Cashmere: There's a movie plot in there somewhere.

George Harrison: There's definitely a book, because, now with any kind of law pertaining to infringement of copyright, they always quote this case. It's become the precedent in all these law students' books. ...

 

:thumbsdn:

 

Klein's only known creative achievement was(allegedly) contributing a lyric line to John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep": "The only thing you done was 'Yesterday", but now you're just 'Another Day' "

 

According to the article he did one for Playboy in 1971. As far as Mick and Keith's thoughts I think that both of them summed it up nicely in the 25x5 documentary. I suspect they were happy that they profited at the time but they still feel (understandably) like they got ripped off to get rid of him as a manager losing their music publishing and albums prior to "Sticky Fingers".

Probably the only thing that prevented him from getting The Beatles publishing was the fact that EMI at the time never let go of ANYTHING.

On the other hand, he did try and secure the rights to John and Paul's back catalog and did arrange for them to get a much higher royalty rate for the band.

I'm sure his family are torn up and my condolences to them. However those who he represented will probably not miss him all that much. Interestingly, after Lennon no longer was represented by Klein he would spend time in 1974 at his place in Long Island so clearly he was able to separate the business from the personal and liked the guy. Lennon admired.

Maybe his wife wouldn't give him a divorce which is why he has a girlfriend and wife mentioned.

 

Just posted this in another Stones thread, but here's Allen in 2002 with his long-time companion:

 

ABKCO

Well, I'm quoting Allen directly. I did some video's back in the eighties that brought Klein & I very close for awhile. I'd spent years personally close with The Beach Boys, too, and he loved trading stories over dinner, usually heading there straight from the office somewhere between 10 & midnight. The man did love to work, and put in incredibly long days. And he loved to discuss the erratic behavior of these geniuses that we were both lucky enough to be involved with through our various businesses.
And by the way, I think that after many years, when he was written about, people had forgotten about Betty, and just assumed the company was named for Allen B.

 

Please note this is the R.I.P thread not to be confused with the "What do we think of Allen Klein's practises thread".
Don't forget we're talking about the death of somebody with Alzheimers so whatever your thoughts on how he did business it would be greatly appreciated if you can show some respect for the dead.
Thank you.

 

I didn't realize he was still around. An infamous character in a famous story. RIP

 

Obit - LA Times

Allen Klein, powerful figure in music world, dies at 77

The brash, tenacious mogul had clients that included the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke and Bobby Darin. He ended up feuding with some of his biggest stars.

By Geoff Boucher

July 5, 2009

Allen Klein, the brash music mogul whose five-decade career included stints as the business manager for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, died Saturday in New York. He was 77.

Klein died after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease, according to Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Klein's ABKCO Music & Records. The independent label owns or controls the rights to music by the Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, the Animals, the Kinks, Chubby Checker and Bobby Womack, among others.

Klein was a firebrand figure who worked with some of the biggest names in music but also made enemies out of many of them. He is known best, perhaps, for his role as manager of the Beatles late in their career, and his hiring was a major subplot in the band's sour breakup, with Paul McCartney objecting to his presence and style.

Klein reveled in his bare-knuckle reputation. He even perched a small sign on his desk: "Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of evil, I have no fear, as I am the biggest bastard in the valley."

The former New Jersey accountant became an archetype of sorts in the music industry. John Belushi, for instance, spoofed Klein by playing Ron Decline in the 1978 Rutles television movie "All You Need Is Cash." It was more personal when John Lennon -- who had been Klein's champion in the Beatles days -- aimed the harsh lyrics of "Steel and Glass" at Klein in 1974:

There you stand with your L.A. tan

And your New York walk and your New York talk.

Your mother left you when you were small

But you're gonna wish you wasn't born at all.

Klein, the youngest of four children of Hungarian immigrants, was born in Newark, N.J., on Dec. 18, 1931. His mother died before his first birthday, and three years later his father, a butcher, placed the boy and two siblings in an orphanage. At 9, he was back in the care of family as his grandmother and aunt tended to him.

Klein studied accounting at Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., and served a stint in the Army before landing a clerking job at the firm of Prager & Fenton in Manhattan.

Klein entered the music industry in the 1950s and founded the company that would become ABKCO late in that decade. His reputation, though, was shaped in the early 1960s by a chance meeting with Bobby Darin at a wedding and his promise to the singer that he could produce $100,000 for him merely by audits of unpaid royalties. Whether he made full delivery on that promise is disputed, but the audacity of it began the Klein success story.

"It was really happenstance that I got into the music business," Klein told the Star-Ledger of Newark in 2002. "I never wanted to be a manager. It was going over the books that I loved. And I was good at it."

Klein began working with Cooke in 1963 and in later years would proudly point to his role in the singer's deal with RCA Records that gave Cooke the ownership of his master recordings, an industry rarity, through the company called Tracey Records. After Cooke's death, however, Klein would eventually end up in control of the company.

Klein was also co-manager of the Rolling Stones for the second half of the 1960s and wrangled them a better deal with Decca Records. Recounting the negotiations for the Star-Ledger, Klein said he advised his clients to glower: "I told them to follow me into the room, but not say a word. Just look angry, and I'll do all the talking. They listened. And it worked."

That relationship took a turn for the worse, though, even though Stones star Mick Jagger had recommended Klein to the Beatles. Klein, ever the deft businessman, walked away from his three-year Stones tenure owning the rights to the band's recordings and copyrights from the 1960s. He had acquired them for $1.25 million from the Stones' previous management without the knowledge of the band members.

Years of legal battles would follow. Jagger, testifying in court in Manhattan in 1984, said he learned what it was like to be across the negotiating table from Klein: "What did he want from us? Apart from the moon, I don't know. He wanted everything. He wanted a hold on us, on our futures."

Robert Hilburn, former pop music critic for The Times, said Klein had a passion for the music of stars he worked with, especially Cooke and iconic producer Phil Spector, and that he could be "seductive and sweet as a tough guy, not unlike Bill Graham," another memorable figure in the music business of the 1960s and '70s.

Klein "touched on so many of the huge, important figures of the era, the Beatles, Stones, Spector and Cooke," Hilburn said, adding that it is "troubling to consider" that so many of the relationships ended in acrimony.

Klein's most notorious business relationship was tense from Day One. The Beatles in 1969 were in bad need of a steadying business mind; their previous manager, Brian Epstein, had died in 1967, and the handling of their interests and ventures had become a ragged committee affair.

The band members by that point were increasingly possessed by maverick interests, however, and the decision on whom to bring in as manager led to a major feud. McCartney wanted his father-in-law, Lee Eastman, while Lennon was smitten with the streetwise Klein. Lennon won over George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and Klein was hired. It was, in the eyes of McCartney and many Fab Four historians, a moment of rupture for the group, which would break up publicly in 1970.

A year later Klein worked with Harrison to stage the Concert for Bangladesh show, a key moment in the history of rock altruism even though convoluted tax issues held up the much-needed money for years. Later in the decade, Klein had his own tax issues, which led to a tax evasion conviction in 1979.

Klein is survived by his wife, Betty, and their three children, Robin, Jody and Beth, as well four grandchildren and his sister, Naomi. He is also survived by his longtime companion, Iris Keitel.

Services are Tuesday at Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York. Instead of flowers, the family has asked for donations to the Alzheimer's Assn. of New York or the Juvenile Diabetes Assn.

 

I'm sure there's a lot of details I don't know, but my understanding is they didn't "lose" their music as much as give it up to get away from Klein.

Posted on page 2

 

RIP.
Some people call him a gangster and much more, but AFAIK he always managed to get his clients very good royalty deals.
In the often greedy and dirty music business, he was not one of the really bad guys. He just (for a short while) happened to have bigger clients than anyone else.

 

I would have thought the Verve/Ashcroft/Bittersweet Symphony episode was worth a mention in the obits.

 

Ron Decline: People would rather commit suicide, than meet him!

 

One line comes to mind....Beware of Abkco...

 

yep his last "great" act to be remembered by!

anyway he was a great business man! that cannot be denied!