Undefeated
January 26th, 2006, 01:33 PM
I became somewhat fascinated with this story while fighting a bout of insomnia last night. Its really an amazing story about a band that wrote what I feel is one of the most brilliant songs of the last 10 years, Bittersweet Symphony.
Basically, former managers of the Rolling Stones completely destroyed The Verve out of pure greed. An interesting law called Moral Rights (which if I understand correctly, is better applied in Europe than in the U.S., where it only applies to visual arts) helped them barely save some face before their song ended up popping up on a fuckin' iPod commercial or something.
Quoted from Duke Listens! blog: (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/plamere/20050414)
Bittersweet Symphony
I'm currently reading the excellent book Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity by Kembrew McLeod. The overarching theme is how current copyright law has been taken over by corporate types and instead of promoting the creation of new work, stifles it. Here's an excerpt about what happened to the Verve when they sampled 5 notes from a Rolling Stones song:
The Verve, a popular British band that scored a major worldwide hit in 1997 with “Bittersweet Symphony.” The Verve negotiated a license to use a five-note sample from an orchestral version of one of the Rolling Stones’ lesser hits, “The Last Time,” and received clearance from Decca Records. After “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit single, the group was sued by former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owns the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs because of aggressive business practices). He claimed the Verve broke the agreement when they supposedly used a larger portion than was covered in the license, something the group vehemently disputed.
The Verve layered nearly fifty tracks of instrumentation, including novel string arrangements, to create a distinctly new song. In fact, the song’s signature swirling orchestral melody was recorded and arranged by the Verve; the sample from the instrumental record is largely buried under other tracks in the chorus. The band eventually settled out of court and handed over 100 percent of their songwriting royalties because it seemed cheaper than fighting for a legal ruling that might not end in their favor. As if things couldn’t have gotten worse, they were then sued by another old Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. Klein went after the Verve for infringing on the songwriting copyright, which he owned, but Oldham possessed the copyright on the sampled sound recording. They totally lost everything.
Not only couldn’t the Verve earn money from their biggest hit, they were stripped of control of their song. For instance, after the group refused Nike’s request to use “Bittersweet Symphony” in an ad, the shoe manufacturer aired the song after it purchased a license from Allen Klein. “The last thing in the world I wanted was for one of my songs to be used in a commercial,” the despondent lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft said. “I’m still sick about it.” In one final kick in the groin, “Bittersweet Symphony” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Song category, which honors songwriters. Because the unfavorable settlement transferred the Verve’s copyright and songwriting credit to Klein and the Rolling Stones, the Grammy nomination went to “Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.” Ashcroft quipped that it was “the best song Jagger and Richards have written in twenty years.” (NICE!) He then suffered from a nervous breakdown and the group broke up.
From the wiki entry on Bittersweet Symphony, including the moral rights application:
The band were unable find enough money to fight the case, and it was unclear that they would win. Thus the piece was held to be a derivative work of the Stones and full composer rights reverted to the copyright holder of the Stones material, even though, in a sense, only 5 notes were common between the two works. Therefore all of the composer royalties from the song go to Allen Klein, who owns most of the Rolling Stones' 1960s back catalog. The band still get performance royalties however. The song was later used, against the will of the band, by Nike in a shoe commercial. As a result, it was on the Illegal Art CD from Stay Free!. However the band were able to stop further use of the song; by employing the European legal concept of moral rights.
A few other links regarding the story:
Full Wikipedia Entry for Bittersweet Symphony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony)
Wiki for Moral Rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights)
A few other interesting stories, including more on The Verve and Moral Rights (http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/horror.html)
Just an interesting story I came across and thought would be interesting share. Not a new story by any means, but painfully sad.
Basically, former managers of the Rolling Stones completely destroyed The Verve out of pure greed. An interesting law called Moral Rights (which if I understand correctly, is better applied in Europe than in the U.S., where it only applies to visual arts) helped them barely save some face before their song ended up popping up on a fuckin' iPod commercial or something.
Quoted from Duke Listens! blog: (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/plamere/20050414)
Bittersweet Symphony
I'm currently reading the excellent book Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity by Kembrew McLeod. The overarching theme is how current copyright law has been taken over by corporate types and instead of promoting the creation of new work, stifles it. Here's an excerpt about what happened to the Verve when they sampled 5 notes from a Rolling Stones song:
The Verve, a popular British band that scored a major worldwide hit in 1997 with “Bittersweet Symphony.” The Verve negotiated a license to use a five-note sample from an orchestral version of one of the Rolling Stones’ lesser hits, “The Last Time,” and received clearance from Decca Records. After “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit single, the group was sued by former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owns the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs because of aggressive business practices). He claimed the Verve broke the agreement when they supposedly used a larger portion than was covered in the license, something the group vehemently disputed.
The Verve layered nearly fifty tracks of instrumentation, including novel string arrangements, to create a distinctly new song. In fact, the song’s signature swirling orchestral melody was recorded and arranged by the Verve; the sample from the instrumental record is largely buried under other tracks in the chorus. The band eventually settled out of court and handed over 100 percent of their songwriting royalties because it seemed cheaper than fighting for a legal ruling that might not end in their favor. As if things couldn’t have gotten worse, they were then sued by another old Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. Klein went after the Verve for infringing on the songwriting copyright, which he owned, but Oldham possessed the copyright on the sampled sound recording. They totally lost everything.
Not only couldn’t the Verve earn money from their biggest hit, they were stripped of control of their song. For instance, after the group refused Nike’s request to use “Bittersweet Symphony” in an ad, the shoe manufacturer aired the song after it purchased a license from Allen Klein. “The last thing in the world I wanted was for one of my songs to be used in a commercial,” the despondent lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft said. “I’m still sick about it.” In one final kick in the groin, “Bittersweet Symphony” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Song category, which honors songwriters. Because the unfavorable settlement transferred the Verve’s copyright and songwriting credit to Klein and the Rolling Stones, the Grammy nomination went to “Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.” Ashcroft quipped that it was “the best song Jagger and Richards have written in twenty years.” (NICE!) He then suffered from a nervous breakdown and the group broke up.
From the wiki entry on Bittersweet Symphony, including the moral rights application:
The band were unable find enough money to fight the case, and it was unclear that they would win. Thus the piece was held to be a derivative work of the Stones and full composer rights reverted to the copyright holder of the Stones material, even though, in a sense, only 5 notes were common between the two works. Therefore all of the composer royalties from the song go to Allen Klein, who owns most of the Rolling Stones' 1960s back catalog. The band still get performance royalties however. The song was later used, against the will of the band, by Nike in a shoe commercial. As a result, it was on the Illegal Art CD from Stay Free!. However the band were able to stop further use of the song; by employing the European legal concept of moral rights.
A few other links regarding the story:
Full Wikipedia Entry for Bittersweet Symphony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony)
Wiki for Moral Rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights)
A few other interesting stories, including more on The Verve and Moral Rights (http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/horror.html)
Just an interesting story I came across and thought would be interesting share. Not a new story by any means, but painfully sad.