In 1968, imagine how glorious it must have felt for Badfinger (then the Iveys) to be signed by the Beatles – The Beatles! – to Apple Records, their brand spanking new record label.

It must have eclipsed their wildest expectations, and then to top it off, Paul McCartney offers them a song, a surefire hit (“Come and Get It”) that guarantees success and subsequent fame. It was too good to be true, and so it was. No sooner did the band establish itself as a self-supporting unit with three talented singer/songwriters than the whole affair exploded into a horrendous, nightmarish quagmire.

As we all know, the Beatles’ break-up was extraordinarily complicated, and the financial affairs of Apple Records were a flat-out disaster. Everything associated with the label got tangled worse than an abused fishing reel – the only sure fix was to cut everything loose, but the lawyers wouldn’t let that happen. Despite a few classic hits (“Day After Day”, “No Matter What”, “Baby Blue”), Badfinger could not collect a penny in royalties because litigation had all Apple-related income placed in collection.

Few things are worse than realizing your dreams and then having them irrevocably quashed, but that was Badfinger’s fate. By the time they emancipated themselves from Apple, interest in the band had waned. They were lucky enough to attract Warner Brothers as their next corporate sponsor, but that ended badly as well. In this case, their manager absconded with advance funds, causing the label to quickly halt any promotion and/or distribution of “Wish You Were Here”. In essence, then, the record was ‘DOA’. So at the exact same moment that the band experienced a significant artistic recovery, they were thwarted once again by greed and mismanagement. 

“Wish You Were Here” almost explodes with creative expression, and it is no coincidence that much of the songwriting expresses severe frustration. “No One Knows” and “Just a Chance” are stunningly commercial pop songs that virtually beg for recognition, while the rest of the album barely disguises the inherent pain of their circumstance. It’s almost impossible to hear “Gotta Get Out of Here” without thinking of the band’s plight with an industry that continually chewed them up and spat them out, but almost miraculously, there is precious little cynicism in the writing here.  Hippie altruism and optimism pervades every word, but this only exaggerates the hurt dealt them by cruel calculation and indifference. Their idealism failed them miserably. “In the Meantime/Some Other Time” is stunningly well constructed and almost sounds angry, but it’s the hopelessness of the lyric that lingers. “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke” is arguably the best song ever recorded by Badfinger and certainly one of the most desperate. It is almost impossible for me to listen to Pete Ham’s vocals without hearing a desperate plea to the nebulous forces that ruined his dreams, singing,  “Should I laugh or should I cry? Won’t somebody help me?” By the time Ham’s plea was released, Warner Brothers already decided to pull the plug and removed the album from circulation, thus thwarting any chance of a comeback.

So, the scene was set for what may be the saddest ending in the history of rock and roll. In one year’s time, Pete Ham would be found hanging in his garage studio. A few years later, bandmate Tom Evans would die under nearly identical circumstances.

Featured Tracks:

Just a Chance

You're So Fine

Got to Get Out of Here

Know One Knows

Dennis

In the Meantime/Some Other Time

Love Time

King of the Load (T)

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke

November 1974 - Billboard Charted #148