Odd lawsuits in the music industry

[DickyC]

Comments on YouTube that accompany the Verve's Bittersweet Symphony led me down a rabbit hole about Allen Klein, former manager of The Rolling Stones, suing the Verve for sampling The Last Time. Not only was the lawsuit successful, but royalties had to be surrendered to Jagger and Richards and who were also added as songwriters. This has now been rescinded, and rights made over to Richard Ashcroft.

Honestly, I can not hear The Last Time in Bittersweet Symphony. How different does a song have to be for the there to be no possibility of lawsuits?

Any more come to mind?

[Lucas CAV]

It's a direct lift from the Andrew logo Oldham orchestra version.

[thepritch]

If you want another rabbit hole, read up about the Amen break. A drum beat. It raises lots of questions about copyright.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

Also note, this has to be one of the oldest YouTube videos on the site. Quite amazing YT is approaching 20yrs old!

[DickyC]

Ed Sheeran won, George Harrison lost and Elvis Costello said he couldn't be bothered to sue because that's how music evolves. It seems like a bit of a lottery.

[TownIdiot]

There is an interesting segment on radio 5 during the week - think it's wednesday at midnight

He discusses the composition of songs and quite often addresses plagiarism issues

https://joebennett.net/5live/

[NDA]

Keith Jarrett sued Steely Dan for ripping off his tune.

Keith Jarrett:

https://youtu.be/j-e-UqBO2Nc?si=G0PRbWIELowIbgfT

Steely Dan

https://youtu.be/GesEA9MJuII?si=8U34wJb8p679Kqms


Jarrett won (it's obvious) and now has royalties and a writing credit.

[Louis Balfour]

Robbie Williams paid off, for £5000, the musician from whom he stole "Angels".

[droopsnoot]

There was a falling-out between Elastica and The Stranglers, as "Waking Up" was said to be very similar to "No More Heroes", and I believe that ended up with a writing credit for The Stranglers. I think I've read that it was more the publishing company who took the action (which I believe is part of their job, so not all that surprising), but I also think I remember Nicky Campbell playing the Elastica song and mentioning how similar it sounded. JJ Burnel has said that he's not bothered about that sort of thing as it goes on all the time, and that his bass line for "Go Buddy Go" was heavily inspired by "Hey Joe". Elastica apparently have form for this, another song of theirs was judged to be very similar to a song by Wire.

Edited by droopsnoot on Thursday 31st October 08:58

[DickyC]

Mucking about writing lyrics, I came up with, 'One day, lady, one day,' about a bloke who at the start of the song claims the love of his life will one day come back to him but by the end of the song he just hopes one day she'll remember him at all. The trouble is, when I imagined a tune for it, 'One day, lady, one day,' becomes 'She's just a devil woman.' The shame.

Thus endeth my fledgling career as a lyricist.

[yellowbentines]

Lawyers acting for US country artist Luke Combs recently sued a woman for selling her own Luke Combs branded merchandise.

She claimed she was broke and only doing it as she needed cash for medical bills and that the lawsuit would bankrupt her, Combs found out and had the lawsuit stopped, gave her some cash, and started selling her merchandise via his own store to help her out.

Edited by yellowbentines on Thursday 31st October 10:22

[Wacky Racer]

Led Zeppelin........Take your pick.

[mickythefish]

Louis Balfour said:

Robbie Williams paid off, for £5000, the musician from whom he stole "Angels".

when a narcissist meets a decent person

[cherryowen]

Wacky Racer said:

Led Zeppelin........Take your pick.

That ^ compared to this:-



I see where you're coming from, but a chromatic descending bass line isn't uncommon and Zep's tune diverges in many ways from the first tune (not least at the bridge when Page plays a B5 chord sprinkled with hammer-ons). I'd class the Zep tune as being "inspired by" rather than a rip-off, certainly when listening to the 24-minute long live version from Madison Square Garden.

[Bluevanman]

There's only so many notes and chords, given the number of songs written there's bound to be some similarities, especially in certain genres.
How many are intentionally plagiarising is hard to say

[mickythefish]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

Axis of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles)

[Ultuous]

droopsnoot said:

Elastica apparently have form for this, another song of theirs was judged to be very similar to a song by Wire

More than one: Line Up, Connection and (I think) 2:1 all borrow heavily from Wire... Still a cracking album in many ways though!

[Lucas CAV]

Lol
Give over maestro!

LZ appropriated several tracks from other artists. Common in blues for years though, obviously. Not a problem with appropriate credit.

Eg dazed and confused, whole lotta love, black mountain side

"Sprinkling " some hammer ons is arrangement, not songwriting.

cherryowen said:

That ^ compared to this:-



I see where you're coming from, but a chromatic descending bass line isn't uncommon and Zep's tune diverges in many ways from the first tune (not least at the bridge when Page plays a B5 chord sprinkled with hammer-ons). I'd class the Zep tune as being "inspired by" rather than a rip-off, certainly when listening to the 24-minute long live version from Madison Square Garden.

[GAjon]

But, I would venture most of the songs LZ covered would have disappeared into obscurity if they hadn’t been copied.

[extraT]

In his court case, Ed Sheeran said he and his team found the same songs / progressions going back to the middle ages.

[TownIdiot]

extraT said:

In his court case, Ed Sheeran said he and his team found the same songs / progressions going back to the middle ages.

The link I referenced above demonstrated the difference

One case he was able to show that there were multiple instances of a very similar structure going back years.