Posted on 02/05/2010 10:10:37 AM PST by a fool in paradise
The notes and measures are demonstrably different!
Hell, Jimi Hendrix quoted "Strangers in the Night" at his famous Monterey Pop Festival performance of Wild Thing (see 2:48 here). Musicians do it all the time. As long as it's not the central theme of the song, it's not only not a big deal, it's generally considered quite a compliment.
I recall learning this song decades ago in my elementary school music class. I still remember the tune but not what a Kookaburra is. Even at the time I thought it was annoying to have to sing about something called a Kookaburra. I doubt the publisher of our school music book paid royalties to Australia.
We learned it in 2nd grade. I swear they said it was a bird.
They stink anyway. Not quite as much as the idiots called Midnight Oil though
Is there any Australian band that gets your vote?
Olivia Newton John?
The Saints?
AC/DC?
The Easybeats?
Hoodoo Gurus?
The result was a settlement by which John Lennon would record a whole album of cover songs (for which the same man owned publishing rights).
I touch myself was an Aussie song wasn’t it? LOL
But isn’t that was Vanilla Ice was sued for by Foreigner, or whoever it was?
“Sampling” - as it’s called now - is not new. Heck, the national anthem for the USA was just a beer-drinking bar song from the UK with original words to it.
Vanilla Ice was indeed sued by Queen, because he used the main riff from “Under Pressure” as the main riff for his song “Ice Ice Baby.”
Legally speaking, using samples is okay as long as the original recording is properly referenced, for instance in the liner notes. It’s called “clearing” and it’s the generally accepted practice.
Musically, sampling sucks.
But the riffs on Under Pressure and Ice Ice Baby were different - slightly. Sure, it sounded a LOT alike, but it wasn’t exactly the same.
Kind of like calling it Mikey Mouse, instead of Mickey Mouse.
bttt to both of you
Poor Colin Hay :(
But while quoting a song is often a common practice, it has been established that you cannot sing 90% of Howlin Wolf's “Killing Floor Blues”, throw in a Robert Johnson line about “squeeze my lemon till the juice runs down my leg”; and then call it “the Lemon Song” (Led Zeppelin)and not pay Howlin Wolf his money.
But the riff on squeezing lemons was obviously not “plagiarizing” Robert Johnson.
If you go to the Wikipedia page on the Men At Work song, they mention the controversy and they have some links to Aussie forums discussing this. The Aussies think this is insane. People pointed out that the songwriter died without ever making a peep about the Men at Work song, then the label buys the rights from her estate and then sues.
Most of them think the rec company guys are just vultures trying to score some money off of someone else’s work. So at least the rec company is losing the PR war.
Vanilla Ice admitted to sampling it, just electronically cutting out one note.
Regardless, the problem was that that riff was the centerpiece of both songs.
Thanks. I hadn't noticed it myself until someone pointed it out to me on a music forum.
the flute riff was stolen from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, written by Marion Sinclair in 1934
Makes me want to chunder....
Vultures, IMO. I thought of it more as a tribute to a song every Australian child learned to sing.
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