this came up as a digression on a couple of threads recently, so maybe it deserves a thread of its own.
the historical background: Nanker/Phelge (or Nanker Phelge, treated as a first name + surname rather than two surnames)
was the pseudonym invented to use on numbers that all the Stones were sharing songwriting credits on.
the term
nanker refers to a grotesque face that the Stones enjoyed making;
Phelge is the surname of the fourth denizen of the infamous Edith Grove flat that Keith, Mick and Brian lived in
from late 62 to early 63. (Jimmy Phelge wasn't a songwriter or part of the Stones' organization -
they used his surname this way purely for kicks.)
the fascinating questions: there are lots of them! for example which tracks are they?
the recent ABKCO re-releases have changed the credits on some of the tracks that used to be Nanker/Phelge,
but here's the list good old wikipedia has: [
en.wikipedia.org]
(i think that wants some corrective editing and sure hope someone knowledgeable will undertake it.)
another fascinating question: what did the Nanker/Phelge credit represent in terms of royalties?
i reckon most of us usually assume it meant that six Stones (including Stu, or five if not)
shared the royalties equally for those numbers - but on page 194 of Rolling With the Stones,
Bill give some figures on the way different Nanker/Phelge numbers were divided up in 1965:
"[Mick received] a tenth of Empty Heart, two fifteenths of It's Alright, one twelfth of Little by Little,
the same from Now I've Got a Witness, four twelfths of Play With Fire and a twelfth of Stoned.
He also got six twelfths of 2120 South Michigan Avenue, which was an instrumental."
some of that is easy enough to follow, but some of it is pretty odd; and the fact that it differs so much
from one number to the next is really interesting in itself. i have a couple of theories
about what we can fathom from this, but i'm sure you all have way more interesting ideas about it.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-03-08 19:15 by with sssoul.