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Derek Taylor (7 May 1932 – 8 September 1997)〔 was an English journalist, writer and publicist. He is best known for his work as press officer for the Beatles and the Beach Boys, creating campaign taglines such as "The Beatles Are Coming" and "Brian Wilson Is a Genius". Taylor started his career as a local journalist in Liverpool aged 17 working for the Hoylake and West Kirby Advertiser followed by the ''Liverpool Daily Post and Echo''〔 before becoming a North England-based writer for national British newspapers that included the ''News Chronicle'', the ''Sunday Dispatch'' and the ''Sunday Express''. He also served as a regular columnist and theatre critic for the ''Daily Express'' from 1952.〔 A trusted confidant of the Beatles, Taylor remained particularly close to George Harrison and John Lennon long after the band's break-up. In addition to working as editor on Harrison's 1980 autobiography, ''I, Me, Mine'', Taylor authored books such as ''As Time Goes By'', ''The Making of Raiders of The Lost Ark'', ''Fifty Years Adrift (In An Open Necked Shirt)'' and ''It Was Twenty Years Ago Today''. ==Work with the Beatles== Taylor was a national journalist working for the Daily Express when he was assigned to write a review of a Beatles concert on 30 May 1963. 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Derek Taylor )〕 Shortly afterwards, he was invited to meet the Beatles and soon became a trusted journalist in their circle. As the band gained national attention in Britain, Taylor's editors conceived of running a column ostensibly written by a Beatle to boost circulation, to be ghostwritten by Taylor. George Harrison 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 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, ''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 in September. Brian Epstein demanded however that Taylor continue working for a three-month notice period. After this he went to work for the Daily Mirror.〔 Taylor then left the UK and moved with his growing family to California in 1965 where he started his own public relations company, providing publicity for groups such as the Byrds, the Beach Boys 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 as a musical genius. Taylor was a key participant in the team that produced the historic Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, serving as its publicist and spokesman.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Obituary: Derek Taylor )〕 George Harrison's song "Blue Jay Way" 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 also accompanied Harrison on his trip to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.〔 Taylor was also a catalyst in Harry 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'', sending copies to various music-industry. Among the recipients were 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 and Ringo Starr. In April 1968, at Harrison's request, Taylor returned to England to work for the Beatles again, as the press officer for their newly created Apple Corps.〔Johnny Black, "A Slice of History", ''Mojo: The Beatles' Final Years Special Edition'', Emap (London, 2003), p. 89.〕 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'', 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. During March 1970, Taylor commissioned the young photographer Les Smithers to photograph Badfinger, a rock band that Apple Corps had assigned to its new record label. That portrait has now been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. Among Taylor's projects for Apple, he played a significant part in the staging of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 campaign for world peace. Taylor was referenced in the lyrics of Lennon's song "Give Peace a Chance", along with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary and Norman Mailer, who like Taylor were all present at the recording of the song. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Derek Taylor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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