Pribek

Lefsetz has weighed in on the Satriani v. Coldplay case.

If George Harrison can go to court and lose, what makes Chris Martin and his team think they can win this one? Especially with YouTube on Satriani’s side?

It’s like sampling. Clear the license. Pay the man. Coldplay could have paid Satriani and the world wouldn’t be the wiser. How many people know the original anyway?

A lot of folks, myself included, have thought of the “My Sweet Lord’-”He’s So Fine” lawsuit to be a reference point or precedent any time a music plagiarism case comes about. The sentiment Lefsetz expresses, if George Harrison can be taken down anyone can be taken down, is a common one.

Just how did George Harrison lose the ‘My Sweet Lord” case?

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a piece from Undercover where Paul Cashmere interviewed Harrison and brought up the matter. I was surprised at what George said about the case and, to me at least, it puts things in a little different light. George said…

Because the whole story of “My Sweet Lord” is based upon this fellow, Allan Klein, who managed the Beatles from about 1968 or ‘69, through until 1973. When they issued a complaint about “My Sweet Lord”, he was my business manager. He was the one who put out “My Sweet Lord” and collected 20 percent commission on the record. And he was the one who got the lawyers to defend me, and did an interview in Playboy where he talked about how the song was nothing like the other song.

Later, when the judge in court told me to settle with them, because he didn’t think I’d consciously stolen their song, they were doing a settlement deal with me when they suddenly stopped the settlement.

Some time elapsed, and I found out that this guy Klein had gone around the back door. In the meantime, we’d fired him. He went round the back door and bought the rights to the one song, “He’s So Fine,” in order to continue a law suit against me. He, on one hand, was defending me, then he switched sides and continued the law suit. And every time the judge said what the result was, he’d appeal. And he kept appealing and appealing until it got to the Supreme Court. I mean this thing went on for 16 years or something … 18 years.

And finally, it’s all over with, and the result of it is I own “My Sweet Lord,” and I now own “He’s So Fine,” and Allan Klein owes me like three or four hundred thousand dollars ’cause he took all the money on both songs. It’s really a joke. It’s a total joke.

If a music plagiarism cases actually gets to a jury, it’s a crap shoot; all bets are off. The average citizen isn’t walking around pondering the interpretation of musicology and copyright law. Because of that and after hearing a little of the back story, I’m not so sure that the “My Sweet Lord” case is a proper litmus test.

Who knows though? Funny things happen. May be, when it’s all said and done, Coldplay could buy the rights to Satriani’s song. Wouldn’t that be a kick?

From E! Online.

Clive Davis has been given a different set of initials, none of which spell out top dog anymore.

The pioneering recording exec is out as chairman and CEO of the BMG label group and will move into the role of chief creative officer of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which includes RCA Records, Jive, LaFace and Arista, which Davis founded in 1974.

Sony BMG, whose overall holdings also include Columbia and Epic Records, announced Thursday that former Zomba Label Group head Barry Weiss will be the one stepping into Davis’ venerable shoes.

That’s a little polite, Clive has been given the elbow. In the music business, if you aren’t moving up the food chain, if you aren’t, at the least, moving sideways, it’s over.

Bob Lefsetz has the insight on this post, “Clive’s Demise”.

The Lefsetz Letter is another one of my recent blog discoveries and, I have to say that this guy has a knack for hitting the nail on the head. A lot of it is music biz stuff which, Lefsetz writes about with genuine enthusiasm and the wisdom works across the board.