There’s a demo recording out there of George’s version of “It Don’t come Easy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5yzdCa2GE
There were several other Beatles related articles at the link for this story, and I found one, excerpted below where it explains what happened with their music publishing rights.
It also explains the meaning behind “It’s only a northern song.”
“In the very early days of their career, The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, persuaded Lennon and McCartney to form a publishing company with music impresario Dick James - explaining it would be the smartest way for them to make money from their songs.
Within a few years, the band had become bigger than anyone expected and the publishing company - Northern Songs - was floated on the stock market.
Lennon and McCartney ended up with a 15% share, while James and his partner Charles Silver took 37.5% between them as the company’s chairmen.
George Harrison and Ringo Starr were given just 0.8% - prompting the former to write the bitter Only A Northern Song, expressing his dissatisfaction at being considered a junior songwriter within the company.
Read the rest at http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35860868