Neil Aspinall has passed away in New York at age 66. He was receiving treatment for lung cancer. He was such a huge part of The Beatles success, it’s hard to overestimate how much he will be missed. Not only was he heavily involved in their business, but he was a close schoolmate with Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

He has been described as the “Fifth Beatle,” and here’s why…

Neil Aspinall was The Beatles first road manager in 1961, driving the group between gigs around Liverpool in his van. Later after Mal Evans started managing the band’s equipment, Neil went on to personal management, and also published about The Beatles recording sessions for their fan magazine. He also subbed as a studio musician and performed on “Yellow Submarine,” “Within You Without You,” “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” and “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Aspinall also managed Apple Corps from 1970 until last year, and oversaw many high profile lawsuits like the one between Apple Computers and EMI. He was fiercely loyal to The Beatles and fought to protect their copyrights, music and projects. He also had his own film company, and produced the music video for “Something.”

He is most widely acknowledged as the Executive Producer of the Beatles Anthology, the BBC Radio CD series, The Ones CD, and is credited with much of the band’s sales in the last 25 years.

News articles on Neil Aspinall:

nytimes.com

news.bbc.co.uk

We’ve read several confusing and conflicting reports about Gibson Guitars suing over the patent regarding the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. The timing seems suspicious. Is it that these huge corporations waited until they saw the huge profits coming in from the overwhelming popularity of these games?

Finally we came upon this updated news story from blog.wired.com. They have posted both Gibson’s original press statement in regards to the Harmonix lawsuit, and the original source story on Reuters.com.

We don’t want to believe the beloved Gibson Guitars folks have gotten greedy like the rest of the corporate world. Thanks to the blog.wired.com post, it’s clear now that Gibson is just protecting their intellectual property rights, which they filed a patent on in 1999.

Besides, Gibson is building real guitars, has always set a standard a fret above the rest, and they’re already on the cutting edge of technology with their self-tuning guitar.

The Eagles really have had an amazing career. I’ve been a fan of the band ever since hearing their first album and soaring harmonies of Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Then they merged rock and roll with that cool southern California progressive country sound on their Desperado album, which is one of my favorites still today. Hotel California is the other album that just had one great song after another, plus it featured their new band member Joe Walsh.

Then as all great bands do, they had problems and disbanded. The record company issued the usual greatest hits albums, volumes one and two. And as most classic rock bands go, they also reformed after a long absence, did the usual tour, recorded a live album of mostly old material with a few new songs, and then hell froze over. A DVD followed. We all heard…”Thank you, and goodbye.”

Then we got the farewell tour, followed by another DVD. Sometime later the record company decided another generation needed to hear about the group, and we got selected works in a box set. More of the same ‘ol songs in a new package, but this is a retrospective, not a greatest hits collection.

So it was really cool to see the band come out with a new album of twenty new studio recordings. It was weird to see it as an exclusive new release at Wal-Mart. How could a classic rock band that commands thousands of dollars for concert tickets and VIP tour packages strike an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart? Don’t get me wrong, a new album of songs is great. At least they haven’t lost their sound that hooked me in the first place.

Anyway, the Eagles are back on tour taking the Long Road Out Of Eden to the stage. It’s great to see one of my favorite classic rock bands back in action. Not so great to see bad reviews of the shows so far. Maybe it’s just mixed reaction because some shows are sold out, plus we’ve all heard our share from the music critics.

I can’t tell if the tour photos look like they’re either straining to hit the right notes, or are they just going through the motions? C’mon guys, where’s the smiles and passionate looks when you know the band is really in the groove and hitting it’s mark with your fans?