Derek Taylor
Encyclopedia
Derek Taylor was an English journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer and publicist, best known for his work as press officer for The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. He had started his career as a local journalist in Liverpool working for the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, then becoming a North England-based writer for national British newspapers that included the News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
, the Sunday Dispatch
Sunday Dispatch
The Sunday Dispatch was a British newspaper, published between 27 September 1801 and 1961. Until 1928, it was called the Weekly Dispatch.-History:...
and the Sunday Express. He also served as a regular columnist and theatre critic for the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
.
Work with The Beatles
Taylor was a national journalist when he was assigned to write a review of a Beatles concert. He had been expected by his editors to write a piece critical of what at that time was considered by the national press as an inconsequential teen fad. However, he was enchanted by the group and instead sang their praises. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to meet The Beatles and soon became a trusted journalist in their circle.As The Beatles gained national attention in Britain, Taylor's editors conceived of running a column ostensibly written by a Beatle to boost circulation, to be ghostwritten
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
by Taylor. George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
was the Beatle eventually decided upon. Although Taylor was initially only given the right to approve or disapprove of the content, Harrison's dissection of the first draft turned the column into an ongoing collaboration between the two, with Harrison providing the stories and Taylor providing the polish.
In early 1964, Beatles manager Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
hired Taylor away from his newspaper job, putting him in charge of Beatles press releases, and acting as media liaison for himself and the group. He subsequently became Epstein's personal assistant for a short period. In mid-1964 Taylor assisted Epstein in the writing of Epstein's autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, A Cellarful of Noise. Taylor conducted interviews with Epstein for the book and then shaped the transcriptions of the audio recordings into a narrative, retaining most of Epstein's basic words.
Taylor served as press officer for The Beatles' first concert tour of the US in the summer of 1964, resigning from his position at the end of the tour. Taylor then left the UK and moved with his growing family to California. In 1965 he started his own public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
company, providing publicity for groups such as The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Among Taylor's skilful strategies was the positioning of The Byrds as being a new breed of American band with parallels to The Beatles, as well as encouraging nascent rock writers to perceive Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
as a musical genius. Taylor was a key participant in the team that produced the historic Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
in 1967, serving as its publicist and spokesman.
George Harrison's song "Blue Jay Way
Blue Jay Way
"Blue Jay Way" is a song written by George Harrison; it was first recorded and released by The Beatles on their Magical Mystery Tour album and EP in 1967.-Origins:...
" was written during Harrison's 1967 visit to California, on a foggy night waiting for Taylor and his wife to come visit ("There's a fog upon L.A./And my friends have lost their way"). Finding a small electric organ in his rented house (on Blue Jay Way), Harrison worked on the song until they arrived.
Taylor was also a catalyst in Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
's musical career; hearing Nilsson's song "1941" on a car radio, he bought a case (twenty-five copies) of his album Pandemonium Shadow Show
Pandemonium Shadow Show
Pandemonium Shadow Show is the second album by Harry Nilsson. It was the first product of his three-year, $50,000 recording contract with RCA Records, and was recorded in their Hollywood studio...
, sending copies to different industry people – including all four Beatles, who became enamored of his talent and invited Nilsson to London. Nilsson subsequently became a collaborator and good friend of both John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
.
In early 1968, Taylor returned to England to work for The Beatles again, as the press officer for the newly created Apple Corps
Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
. As a key executive at Apple, Taylor had a major role in the company's activities, involved in many of the key projects of The Beatles and Apple. His prominent role is documented in The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall is a rock history book by Richard DiLello, published in 1973 by Playboy Press, and reprinted in 1981 and 2005...
, a memoir of Apple in the late 1960s by Taylor's junior assistant (dubbed the Apple "house hippie") Richard DiLello, and in other Beatles biographies.
Taylor was referenced in the lyrics of John Lennon's song, "Give Peace a Chance
Give Peace a Chance
"Give Peace a Chance" is a song written by John Lennon, originally under the moniker Lennon–McCartney, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apple 13 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1809 in the United States. It is the first solo single issued by Lennon, and...
", along with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, and Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, who like Taylor were all present at the recording of the song.
After The Beatles
After he left Apple, Taylor went to work for the newly-launched UK record company '"WEA Records", the British umbrella company that distributed and marketed several record labels owned in the US by the Kinney Corporation. These labels included Warner Bros, Reprise, Elektra and Atlantic Records. Taylor served as Director of Special Projects, working with artists such as The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, America
America (band)
America is an English-American folk rock band that originally included members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The three members were barely out of their teens when they became a musical sensation during 1972, scoring #1 hits and winning a Grammy for best new musical artist...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
and Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
. He also presided over a revival of British jazz singer George Melly
George Melly
Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.-Early life and career:He was born in Liverpool and was educated at Stowe...
, producing two albums for him. He was instrumental in signing seminal Liverpool Art School rock band, Deaf School, featuring future record producer Clive Langer
Clive Langer
Clive Langer is a British record producer active from the mid 1970s onwards. He usually works with Alan Winstanley. He composed the music for the films Still Crazy and Brothers of the Head. Prior to his record producing career he was a guitarist with the British cult band Deaf SchoolLanger...
.
Independently of his work for WEA, Taylor co-produced Nilsson's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night is an album of classic 20th-century standards sung by Harry Nilsson. The album was arranged by Sinatra arranger Gordon Jenkins, and produced by Derek Taylor....
in 1973. He had previously provided liner notes for Nilsson's Aerial Ballet
Aerial Ballet
Aerial Ballet is the third album by Harry Nilsson released in 1968.Aerial Ballet was Nilsson's second album for RCA Victor, and was titled after the highwire circus act of his grandparents. It consists almost entirely of songs written by him, including "One", which later became a Number Five hit...
album. (A story written by Taylor's daughter Victoria was printed on the back cover of Nilsson's album Harry
Harry (album)
Harry Nilsson's third album for RCA was Harry, released in August 1969. It was his first album to get onto Billboard Magazine's Billboard 200 chart, reaching #120 and remaining there for 15 weeks....
).
Return to America
Taylor returned to the US in the late 60s to A&M records as a publicist for then former Byrds guitarist Gene ClarkGene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
, who formed the group Phoenix with Laramy Smith. In the mid-1970s he served as a Vice-President of Marketing for Warner Bros. Records where he was instrumental in the acquisition of the Rutles project, and supervised the worldwide marketing campaign for the album release and TV special. Taylor did not enjoy his second period in California and returned to England after a couple of years.
Back in England
In the early 1980s he worked as a co-author on books with Michelle PhillipsMichelle Phillips
Michelle Phillips is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She gained fame as a member of the 1960s group The Mamas & the Papas, and is the last surviving original member of the group.-Early life:...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
. He also worked with George Harrison's film company, Handmade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
. In the early 1990s he was asked to rejoin Apple to be in charge of marketing of the multiple projects planned for that decade, including the CD release of the original Apple catalogue and major Beatles releases such as Live At The BBC and The Beatles Anthology.
Work as an author
In 1973 he wrote a very informal memoir, As Time Goes By, published by Sphere BooksSphere Books
-History:Founded in 1961, Sphere Books began work on its first publication, the 1962 paperback edition of Gottfried Benn's The Trainee Man. Originally part of The Thomson Corporation, Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin...
and reprinted by its Abacus imprint the following year.
In 1980, Taylor collaborated again with George Harrison, helping Harrison to complete his autobiography I Me Mine
I Me Mine
"I Me Mine" is a song by The Beatles, written and sung by George Harrison. I Me Mine is also the title of Harrison's autobiography. The song traces its origins to the January 1969 Get Back/Let It Be sessions, when it was rehearsed by the band at Twickenham Film Studios.-Origin:The set of pronouns...
. In 1981, his on-set account of the production of Raiders Of The Lost Ark was published as The Making of Raiders of The Lost Ark by Ballantine Books. Taylor subsequently wrote his own autobiography Fifty Years Adrift (In An Open Necked Shirt), published in December 1983 by Genesis Publications
Genesis Publications
Genesis Publications Limited is a British publishing company founded in 1974 by Brian Roylance, a former student of the London College of Printing. His aim was to create a company in the traditions of the private press, true to the arts of printing and book binding...
for which Harrison provided a glowing introduction to the signed, limited edition volume. Only 2,000 were printed, and the book quickly became a collectors' item.
In 1987, It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (Fireside for Simon & Schuster), celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
, providing a detailed documentary of the people and events that shaped the album and the wider events of the Summer Of Love
Summer of Love
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, creating a cultural and political rebellion...
counterculture. The book includes archive interviews and photographs as well as extensive transcripts from a Granada TV documentary instigated by Taylor also titled It Was Twenty Years Ago Today.
As Time Goes by: Living in the Sixties (Rock and Roll Remembrances Series No 3) (Popular Culture Ink) was published in June 1990 in the US, while in the UK Bois Books published What You Cannot Finish and Take A Sad Song in 1995, coinciding with the release of the Beatles Anthology. Posthumous volumes include Beatles (Ebury Press 1999). In addition, an audio CD, Here There and Everywhere: Derek Taylor Interviews The Beatles, was released on the Thunderbolt label in 2001.
Death
Derek Taylor died of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on 8 September 1997. At the time of his death he was still working for Apple.