“The 2021 SOCAN Guardian Award is presented to the guardians of the Canadian music business whose work resulted in Canadian Content Regulations. It is the story of how a group of concerned music business professionals found a way to band together to save Canadian culture.”
Following the stressful sessions for The Beatles, also known as the White Album, Paul McCartney determined that the group needed to return to their roots for their next material. He came up with a plan to give a live performance of new songs to be broadcast as a television special and recorded to be released as an album. The other members approved of the idea and filming began. Head of Apple’s film division Denis O’Dell came up with the idea of recording the rehearsal sessions for use as a seperate TV documentary and eventually the projects merged to become Let It Be.
The film follows the band as they first rehearse at a sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios, before showing the recording and production new songs and finally ending with their famous performance on the Apple studios roof. The film included a tense conversation between McCartney and George Harrison and though it is not included in the film the disagreement caused Harrison to temporarily leave the band.
Many critics were initially unsatisfied with the film, but due to the bands recent breakup, the film was commonly examined as evidence of the fracturing relationships within the group. Lennon later commented on the film claiming, “the camera work was set up to show Paul and not to show anybody else” and said that it had alienated him and the other members.” Regardless, Let It Be performed well with the public and is now remembered as a significant moment in Beatles history. The film has been unavailable on home video since the 1980’s, though bootlegs circulate online, and now a plan to remaster and rerelease the film next year is in the works.
Written during a tour of Australia, the song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during a period where they began to establish themselves as primary songwriters for the Rolling Stones material. This left Brian Jones with plenty of time to experiment and as a result he began practicing the sitar with Harihar Rao, a student of Ravi Shankar, who he had studied with as early as 1961. Harihar Rao was responsible for introducing the sitar to the mix for “Paint It Black”.
The lyrics of “Paint It Black” feature themes of grief, despair and loss. Many assume the song was written as a response to the Vietnam War raging at the time, with some believing it to be about post-war PTSD and depression. This association became stronger when the song started to be used in Hollywood films and TV shows, famously being used as the credits song for Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket as well as the the theme song for CBS-TV show Tour of Duty.
“Paint It Black” quickly went to the number one spot in both the UK and the US and the song went platinum in the UK after just seven days. It became the first song to feature a sitar to make the number one spot in the US. Some critics at the time panned the record, claiming the addition of the sitar was an attempt to copy The Beatles. Others however praised the song highly, and it has remained a highly regarded classic to this day, with it making number 176 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
As popular music began to take off in the 1960’s, a number of musicians, journalists, entrepreneurs and artists came to the realisation that Canada was being left out of the conversation, despite the best efforts of some exceptionally talented musicians. Many artists in Canada felt they were forced to choose between abandoning their music careers and leaving the country and at this point the group chose to petition the government for regulations aimed at protecting and amplifying Canadian music.
Ritchie Yorke moved to Canada in 1967, settling in capital city Toronto and quickly began working with The Toronto Telegram and was then appointed as the first full-time rock writer for Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail, also contributing regularly to Billboard and Rolling Stone magazines. Ritchie used these positions to promote and advocate for Canadian artists, and was soon a major part of the formation of the CANCON laws.
In June 1970, the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission declared regulations that mandated at least 30 per cent of playlists to be dedicated to Canadian music and CANCON was born.
Over 50 years later, SOCAN, Canada’s largest performers rights management company is holding their 32nd annual SOCAN Awards at the end of May 2021. During this ceremony, 24 visionaries will be recognised for their contribution to CANCON and Canadian music with the SOCAN Guardian Award. Ritchie Yorke will be one of the recipients of this award, alongside other great advocates like producer Frank Davies and former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Similar to the early rock and roll promotional magazines, these publications allowed record labels to directly promote new artists and albums to people that display a similar taste in music.
The Hitsville magazine was started in 1965 as a way to promote the music of Motown. The vast subscriber base became known as the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, of which Ritchie Yorke was proudly the first Australian member. Subscribers would receive a monthly magazine with articles, reviews, previews and promos featuring the biggest artists of the Motown movement. Some copies use reprinted articles from more significant magazines while most are written specifically for the magazine.
The Rhythm and Soul Magazine focused more largely on soul music as well as rhythm and blues and featured a smaller group of subscribers. Nonetheless content remains similar with articles, reviews and promos used to introduce fans to new artists and to promote new material.
It is clear that these magazines primary functions are to show new artists and promote new material. Today, finding new music as a process has been vastly simplified. The use of streaming services have allowed for algorithms to be written to promote new music to fans of similar material. We see this in places like Youtube’s recommended feature and Spotify’s playlists. Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud also now make it easy to see what music our friends are listening to, allowing us to find new music through friends with shared musical interests. These sites also show when musicians that we are already fans of release new music.
While fan clubs like the ones that started these magazines still exist in some forms, usually in Facebook groups or E-mail chains that allow for faster and easier distribution, it is evident that the need for physical promotional material of this nature has dwindled.
Keith Richards awoke with a melody in his head and quickly used his tape recorder and an acoustic guitar to record the idea. It was first reported this took place in a Florida hotel but it has also been reported as being at a house Chelsea, the London Hilton and Richards own flat in Carlton Hill. He awoke the next day and found that he’d recorded the melody for “Satisfaction”.
Richards showed the other members of the Rolling Stones and they quickly added to it. The group went into the studio just days later on May 10 and recorded the first version. This version had Brian Jones on harmonica and would be performed by the band when they debuted the song on American television program Shindig. They re-recorded the song days later and this version would be the final release. Richards originally planned another version where the fuzz tone of the guitar would be replaced with horns but was outvoted by the other members.
“Satisfaction” soared through the charts and held the number one Billboard spot for four weeks. Weeks later the record went gold, the first of many for the band. It also came in at number 2 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, as well as placing on numerous other publications lists. Mick Jagger later commented on the song, claiming “It was the song that really made the Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band … It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs … Which was alienation.”
Lennon had been fighting a case to deport him since late 1971 on the grounds of being unable to renew his visa due to a marijuana possession conviction he picked up in a police raid in 1968.
Lennon hired lawyer Leon Wildes to defend him, and he promptly called to attention the fact that the raid on Lennons home found hashish, which is not technically marijuana, to the amusement of the court. He was also responsible for bringing to light the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS) policies on prosecutorial discretion and non-priority status, which had allowed the INS to pick and choose who it targeted through the use of secretive procedures.
Many believe Lennon was targeted due to his activist tendencies and the fears they caused the Nixon administration who were concerned about his effect on the next election. Lennon had been actively outspoken on political issues and was encouraging a mass voter registration amongst younger people.
New York Mayor John Lindsay called the case a “grave injustice” and numerous others in the music industry stepped in to defend Lennon. The case was later won in October 1975 after a lengthy battle. Lawyer Leon Wildes went on to teach classes about the case, which had become a landmark trial. Their effort has since been called an important part of the legal foundation that the Obama government relied on to defer the deportation of more than 580,000 immigrants who had been illegally entered into the country as children.
While early promotional magazines were popular for a time, they were largely used by more popular bands and musicians and wouldn’t be accessible to newer artists starting out. Thus, the 8×10” promotional photo came about. This allowed the record labels to mail press kits straight to music journalists containing what became the industry standard 8×10 promotional photographs. This opened the doors for the record companies to easily promote their artists without constant communication with the media to organise individual photoshoots and interviews and without curating promotional magazines for every artist in their roster.
These shots are sent on a bromide print, a type of paper containing silver bromide that is sufficiently sensitive to light to be used for resizing the shots. This allowed journalists to scale images easily for the various publications they were writing for.
Due to the popularity of these promotional kits, many journalists have accumulated huge collections of these shots in their archives. Ritchie Yorke’s collection of these shots is at an approximate 5000 photographs. This staggering amount shows the frequency that these press kits were circulated amongst members of the music press.
Nowadays much of music promotion has moved into the social media realm and bands are able to market themselves in a much stronger way through it’s usage. However, record labels are still commonly sending out 8×10 promotional photos and press kits, though this is largely for more popular bands whereas previously they would be used by almost all musicians. There are still numerous companies that offer to shoot 8×10 shots for musicians and record labels, and many of the labels recommend having both physical and digital 8×10 shots.
These Beatles magazines, published during the bands prime in the 1960’s are a prime demonstration of how the methods of music promotion have evolved over time. Before the widespread use of television, magazines like this were used to show fans how their favourite artists really looked and worked.
Largely made up of photographs, the magazines show a carefully curated selection designed to promote an image of the artists. These ones in particular strengthen the aesthetical choices of The Beatles in their early days: neat suits, carefully cut mop tops and an overall sense of mod or teddy-boy style. Bio’s are also included for each member, detailing a short history of their early life and how they came to find their instruments and their place in the band, while avoiding mention of any kind of controversial incidents or opinions.
The magazines also act as a resource for early music journalists. Ritchie Yorke himself has notes in the pages selecting shots to be requested and subsequently licensed for his own articles. This allowed for a simple and expansive pool of promotional photography.
As print media becomes increasingly unpopular, particularly in specialised areas like music, it is evident how an artists Instagram page acts as its replacement, with well-curated photos that progress the aesthetic of the band or artist, details of upcoming appearances and performances, and the promotion of new music releases and merchandise. The social media also acts as a resource for journalists, allowing bands more control on what they’d like to see published.
There are significant differences however. While magazines are carefully curated by the publisher, the record label and sometimes the band itself, new social media shows more and more musicians in charge of their own social media, particularly in the early stages of their career. This can be a positive change, as we now can engage with the real musicians, while simultaneously allowing artists to publicly advocate for other musicians they support or charitable causes. On the flipside, this artistic control could also be detrimental to musicians if their posts are considered offensive or obscene.
The other primary difference is in terms of monetisation. These magazines would certainly have contributed to the income of popular musicians in a fairly steady revenue stream, whereas social media leaves little clear opportunity for financial gain. This leads to some of the changes between the formats, where social media is more so than ever focussed on the promotion of live shows and merchandising as opposed to simple performance shots and album promotion, another facet of the music industry that has fast deteriorated in terms of profits.
While we can no longer go down to the store and buy a magazine focussed on our favourite band, we can see that the evolution to social media allows us much of the same experience. While many could make the case for the more meaningful physical items, social media is overall a more inclusive platform as it doesn’t require money beyond the price of internet access. Overall these magazines demonstrate how the music industry evolves and adapts alongside the technology, and in future we will almost certainly see new and exciting models for music’s promotion.
In 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival were at the height of their popularity. The group had just released Bayou Country and Green River, two of their most popular and critically acclaimed albums and showed no signs of slowing down. Ritchie Yorke was sent an invitation by the band to a screening of a television special for General National to be held at the California Theatre.
The screening event was just one part of an extensive weekend planned by the band to be an experience to remember. Buses were to collect the guests from the Claremont Hotel, which the band called their “headquarters” for the event.
“Mini-skirted guides” were to guide the guests to the bus which would take them to Cosmo’s Factory for a brunch supplied by a restaurant the band enjoyed, coupled with various cocktails.
After brunch the group would enter the theatre for the premiere of the television special. Following the premiere guests would be given the options of spending their next three hours either; taking a nap, shopping in Berkeley, organising a protest march, returning to Cosmo’s for pool and ping-pong or to hang out with “other journalistic powerhouses” or the band. Finally, the group would have a free-flowing cocktail party and a feast. The band also provided a breakfast buffet for guests and recommended ways to spend their Sunday seeing the sights.
