L/R: Licensed By Royalty - Production

Production

It is clear that Director Itsuro Kawasaki and Producer Akahiro Kawamura were very much influenced by 60's British Rock scene in the creation of the series, especially by The Beatles. From the main character's names Rowe Rickenbacker & Jack Hofner (John Lennon used a Rickenbacker 325 Guitar, while Paul McCartney's guitar of choice was a Höfner 500/1 "violin bass" (which was also the code name for Jack's Car, Rowe's car was code named "Cold Turkey" which is also the name of a John Lennon song) to Cloud_7's assistant, Claire "Pennylane". Episode 5 introduced a young girl, Layla (as in the song of the same name by Derek and The Dominoes - that was inspired by Pattie Boyd, the wife of both George Harrison & Eric Clapton). The group of bombers who came from Ivory in Episode 10 all have the same first names as The Rolling Stones. There are many other classic British Rock names and influences laced throughout the series.

Additionally, the song soundtracks, aside from the original theme-song by Billy Preston, consisted a group of 60's and 70's style British Rock sound-alike pieces very much influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and even Herman's Hermits. Jonathan Klein, the English Language Producer for L/R, had mentioned at anime conventions that the Japanese Producer, Akahiro Kawamura, had originally wanted to use actual Beatles songs in the L/R soundtrack, since music licensing fees for old songs are far less expensive in Japan than they are in the rest of the world. However, the idea was put to rest early on in the production of the series when it was explained to Kawamura, that the cost to license those same songs for an American and European DVD release of L/R would raise the production cost by several million dollars, even if they could even secure permission from the rights holders. It was therefore agreed that original songs with a classic British Rock style would be used instead.