{"id":7196,"date":"2015-09-10T19:48:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T03:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=7196"},"modified":"2015-09-11T10:27:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T18:27:31","slug":"was-neil-young-sued-by-his-own-record-label-for-not-making-commercial-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/09\/10\/was-neil-young-sued-by-his-own-record-label-for-not-making-commercial-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Neil Young Sued By His Own Record Label for Not Making “Commercial” Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/span>: Neil Young was sued by his own record label over not making “commercial” music.<\/p>\n

David Geffen was one of the top music managers in Los Angeles when he found himself unable to get a record deal for one of his new clients, a young singer named Jackson Browne. His friends told him, “Why not start your own label then?” He did, they put out Jackson Browne’s first album, it was a hit and Asylum Records was born. It became a popular record label known for putting out artists that Geffen believed in, whether they were necessarily commercial or not (it was mostly the Southern California acts that he was familiar with, like Browne and Warren Zevon). In 1972, it was purchased by Warner Communications, who merged it with Elektra Records. Geffen ran the combined company until 1975, when he left to become a film executive for Warner. That did not work out, so in 1980, he formed his second record company, Geffen Records. Once again, he was known for how artist-driven the company was. He famously agreed to put out an album by John Lennon (which turned out to be Double Fantasy) sight unseen (or song unheard, I guess?). He had that much faith in his artists.<\/p>\n

This is why it was shocking to see Geffen end up SUING one of his artists for not putting out commercial music! Read on for the details…
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\nNeil Young was a legend of the folk rock scene of the 1960s and 1970s with his work in Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and, of course, his own solo work. <\/p>\n

His 1972 album, Harvest, went quadruple platinum, selling over 4 million copies. So he was a critical sensation as WELL as a commercial success.<\/p>\n

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