Geffen Records

The Don Henley-Geffen Records legal battle--which could drastically redefine the nature of recording contracts in the music business--intensified this week as EMI Music confirmed its mega-dollar bid for music publishing rights to Henley's song catalogue.

Susan Lacy's "Inventing David Geffen," which premieres Tuesday as part of the PBS series "American Masters," takes a long look at the agent-manager-record-mogul-movie-mogul (and Broadway producer and billionaire philanthropist). In Los Angeles, he is also a sort of proper noun: "The Geffen," attached here to a playhouse, there to an art museum. As a businessman, Geffen would seem to fall outside the range of the series' usual creative-types subjects. Geffen himself has said, "I have no talent except for being able to enjoy and recognize it in others.

Ed Rosenblatt is expected to step down as chairman of Geffen Records next year after the Hollywood-based label is downsized and folded into Interscope Music Group, sources said. The 64-year-old industry veteran is the first senior West Coast music executive expected to resign as a result of Seagram's $10.4-billion purchase of PolyGram, expected to close in December.

Common "Universal Mind Control" (G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen Records) 1/2 The once-underground hip-hop artist Common painted himself into a corner a while ago as a chin-stroking hippie who can still hang with the harder types. It might've gotten Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr. a few Hollywood jobs, but it didn't help diversify his image -- and image counts for a lot in Common's business. In his eighth album, "Universal Mind Control," Common tries to break away, taking on a harder, naughtier persona and dipping his typically dusty grooves in executive producer Pharrell's cold chemical wash.

Entertainment colossus MCA Inc. today bought the last big independent music label, Geffen Records, the home of such strong rock acts as Guns N' Roses, Don Henley, Cher, Aerosmith and Whitesnake. Geffen's sole owner, David Geffen, will receive MCA preferred stock worth about $550 million at today's share price. He can sell it only over a four-year period and thus will benefit if its price goes up and suffer if it falls.

Nirvana fans may be hoping to eventually console themselves over the loss of Kurt Cobain with future albums of previously unreleased material. But the vaults are virtually empty, according to sources at Geffen Records. The exception: Nirvana's acclaimed appearance last year on MTV's "Unplugged." That performance, featuring such band favorites as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "All Apologies," will likely be made available in both album and video form, though it's too early to think about a date.

MCA Inc. is expected to announce as early as today a deal to acquire music mogul David Geffen's entertainment company, individuals with knowledge of the proposed transaction said Tuesday. Geffen has backed away from a $750-million deal to sell his record company to British media conglomerate Thorn EMI. Geffen also had continued 11th-hour talks about renewing his decade-long distribution arrangement with Time Warner Inc.'s record subsidiary.

British media conglomerate Thorn EMI, parent of the Capitol Records label, confirmed Wednesday that it is negotiating to buy or strike a distribution deal with Geffen Records, one of the last major independent record companies in the United States. The long-rumored acquisition, if completed, is said to be worth $750 million for owner David Geffen, 46. "We can't confirm or deny whether there is an agreement . . . (but) we have been talking with them. Mr.

Following a corporate edict to cut costs, Geffen Records slashed more than 10% of its work force on Friday. The firings at Geffen set the stage for a restructuring at MCA Records next month that is expected to result in the net loss of about a dozen employees, sources said. Geffen, once the hottest label in the music business, has been going through a lengthy dry spell in which the West Hollywood company has seen its U.S. market share dwindle to a meager 2.5% for current album sales.

The music industry saw its last major independent record label absorbed into a giant media company when MCA Inc. said Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Geffen Records for MCA stock valued at about $545 million. The acquisition of Geffen would continue the rapid consolidation of the multibillion-dollar music industry and follows MCA's purchase of GRP Records earlier this month for about $40 million in MCA common stock.

Academy Award-winning director James Cameron will partner with Interscope Geffen A&M Records (home of Dr. Dre, Eminem, U2, Gwen Stefani, 50 Cent, the Pussycat Dolls and many others) to produce 3-D presentations of music videos, concerts, commercials and stage musicals using the Fusion digital stereo camera system developed by Cameron with Vincent Pace.

Ron Fair, the new chairman of Geffen Records, is the rarest type of music chief: a musician. The son of an opera singer, Fair has taught himself to play multiple instruments. He tried his hand as a wedding singer, jingle writer and pianist before eventually rising to prominence as the executive behind such acts as Christina Aguilera, the Black Eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls.

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Axl Rose and other members of Guns N' Roses to try to prevent Geffen Records from releasing a greatest hits album by the hard-rock band. The album will be issued as scheduled on Tuesday, according to a record company spokesman. Rose had patched up differences with former GNR guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan enough to join forces in the suit, filed last Friday in U.S.

Universal Music Group plans to name veteran executive Polly Anthony co-president of its Geffen Records label, sources said Friday. Anthony, who left rival Sony Corp.'s Epic Records last year after a management shake-up, will share supervision of Geffen with co-president Jordan Schur, who has run the Santa Monica-based unit since 1999. Under Schur, Geffen, a unit of Universal's massive Interscope Records complex, has released hits by such acts as Puddle of Mudd.

Entertainment industry mogul David Geffen will donate $200 million to UCLA's medical school, the largest single gift ever to a U.S. medical school or to the University of California. The gift, to be announced today, is a huge coup for UCLA, not only because of its size but also because it is unrestricted. Geffen is giving the medical school a free hand in deciding how to use the money, an unusual step for a major donor.

Wealth, applied with intelligence and charity, can do a lot of good. It also has the power to write history. Yesterday's robber barons, amassing immense personal fortunes at everyone else's expense, are today's philanthropic foundations. Henry Ford might have been the most important businessman in American history, but he was also a notorious anti-Semite whose labor practices included recruiting murderous anti-union goons right out of the Michigan prisons.

For 15 years, David Geffen has dominated the rock music business from an old two-story office on Sunset Boulevard, home to Geffen Records, the most successful independent label in the entertainment industry. But on Friday, the 52-year-old record mogul will take his final bow as chairman of the firm and walk out the door when his five-year contract expires with MCA Inc., the Universal City-based conglomerate just purchased by Seagram Co.

After eight years in the record business, Penny Muck thought she'd seen it all, again and again and again: drugged-out rock stars, sex-crazed groupies and all sorts of other bizarre behavior. During her tenure as a secretary at powerhouse Geffen Records, she helped coordinate promotion for some of rock's richest and raunchiest bad boys, notably Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith.

A new salvo was fired Monday in the continuing contract battle between singer Beck and Seagram Co.'s Geffen Records as the Grammy-winning artist filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the label. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims that Geffen Records improperly wrested control of Beck's most recent album, "Mutations," from another label.

It's as hard to argue against the business logic of Seagram Co.'s traumatic downsizing of two prized record labels this week as it is to feel good about it. One thing is certain as we effectively say farewell to A&M and Geffen Records, which between them introduced such acts as the Police, the Carpenters, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana: It's almost impossible to think of labels as anything more than pieces in a conglomerate puzzle.