Even if I still felt about Michael Jackson the way I did when I insisted my birthday party start late so I could watch the premier of the "Black or White" video, it would bug the living shit out of me that The Gloved One has the rights to the Lennon/McCartney catalog. Especially now, with the launch of The Beatles: Rock Band game and the release of 14 remastered Beatles CDs. (9 of Amazon's Top 20 Bestselling CDs are by The Beatles, and they won't even be released until Tuesday!) The glory and the profits from Beatlemania Redux should go to the Beatles, espec
ially the Lennon/McCartney families.Nine years from now, in 2018, the songs may begin becoming the property of Paul McCartney again.* According to US copyright law, 56 years after music is originally published, songwriters can move to regain their lost rights. So "Please, Please Me" and "I Saw Her Standing There" and other songs written in 1962 can be returned to Paul. (Exactly where the songs will be returned from is still shrouded in mystery. The Jackson estate is so deeply in debt that it's not known if the songs will be used to settle with creditors.)
Paul McCartney will be 76 years old in 2018. I hope he's still here to enjoy getting his own songs back.
*John Lennon's death in 1980 complicates his situation a bit. His widow has to negotiate a separate agreement.
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