Found out some great little anecdotes reading that Barry Miles biography of Paul McCartney. BTW Just because it was authorised doesn't make it untruthful. Apple records lost a spectacular amount of money, notably through their shop which was both a thoroughly bad business idea AND abused mercilessly by not just the shoplifting public but also contributing designers like The Fool. Badfinger and Mary Hopkin can't have brought that much in either. According to Paul the only reason they ever made made any cash was owing to what he describes as "good housekeeping." He takes credit for ensuring that Apple was fully trademarked and copyrighted.
When Steve Jobs set up _his_ Apple, McCartney came knock-knocking. "You can't call your company Apple mate! That's our name." So they settled out of court for a quite handsome sum, with the proviso that Apple computer had nothing to do music.
When Apple subsequently put a sound chip in their PC, McCartney comes knock knocking again. This time the sum is substantially larger and THAT'S why Apple records is in the black. I must confess that I find the idea of one of the figureheads of the counter-culture (you can't knock that pygmies!) endorsing "good housekeeping" extremely salutary and cheering.
Then just today a colleague at work informed me that the Macintosh system sound named "Sosumi" was Apple's cheeky rejoinder to Macca. "So-sue-me." Geddit!?! Geddit!?
Posted by Woebot at July 30, 2004 10:59 PM