Plagiarism (taking the work or idea of someone else and passing it off as one’s own –Oxford Dictionary) is back in the news as we learn that Ed Sheeran had settled a $20 million copyright infringement claim out of court over his song Photograph . It was claimed that it resembled Amazing, which Matt Cardle had performed.
Ed has been involved in similar disputes, as he has added the names of the writers of No Scrubs by TLC to the credits of Shape of You, and there is an outstanding claim that Thinking Out Loud resembles Marvin Gaye’s Lets Get It On. Marvin Gaye’s estate successfully sued Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for copying “Got To Give It Up” and ironically calling it “Blurred Lines”. The amount—$7.4 million.
It seems to me that whenever these cases crop up, listening to the two songs one after the other, some seem a complete copy, an obvious nick, whilst others do not seem even remotely the same, or just tiny pieces were “borrowed”. For the latter, listen to the fabulous “Best Song Ever” by One Direction and see its brilliant video, and then Baba O’Riley by The Who. They sound completely different to me except a tiny piece of the intro to Best Song Ever. I had to listen several times to pick it up. Apparently Pete Townshend isn’t bothered, good on him.
Many, many famous bands and singers have been involved over the years in plagiarism claims. Even The Beatles got embroiled in a couple of cases. Listen to My Sweet Lord by George Harrison then listen to He’s So Fine by the Chiffons–there’s no denying the similarity. Listen to one of the best Beatles tracks, Come Together then You Can’t Catch Me by Chuck Berry (the rights were owned by a record producer, Morris Levy). John (who wrote the lyrics) even used the opening phrase of his song “Here come ol flat top” from Chuck’s song, although Chuck sings “Here come a flat top”. John settled out of court, agreeing to record some Morris Levy songs for his solo album Rock ‘n Roll.
However it seems you can use the same song title because some songs use the same one; for example, there are three different songs called “The Power of Love”—by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jennifer Rush and Huey Lewis and the News.
Ruling out deliberate copying of lyrics or musical ideas for the moment, the difficulty for song writers is that when inspiration strikes, is this a brilliant new idea or inadvertently recalling a seemingly long lost song in the memory banks ? Most song writers haven’t a clue where the melody or lyric ideas come from, in fact they’d rather not think about it in case that facility disappears. Sometimes a melody floats around in your head, not fully formed, and it’s like trying to gently coax it out of the ether to write it down or play it.
At the heart of this is the puzzle as to why the seven notes of a musical scale sound so beautiful in a particular order or length, but sound ordinary or even awful in a different order or rhythm. Is this innate or acquired ? Why are some drum beats just so damned catchy ? You just can’t sit still some times.
I was once messing about on my guitar when I began to play something that sounded brilliant. Convinced that I was onto a great song, I played it over and over until I thought, hang on, whoa, have I heard this before ? Sounds a bit familiar. Slowly the truth dawned. It was part of The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle. The weird thing is, I had never, ever previously played The Sound of Silence on my guitar, it wasn’t muscle memory in my fingers. Ask me to play it before this incident and I wouldn’t have been able to. Was it the fact that I’d inadvertently played the same first two or three notes and the my subconscious took over ? Who knows ?
I need to choose my words carefully in this next section. Some songs sound very similar (or almost identical) to other songs you know, but either there haven’t been any lawsuits or there have been, but they were unsuccessful. An example of the latter is Roy Orbison (Oh, Pretty Woman) versus 2 Live Crew (Pretty Woman). The judge decided that as 2 Live Crew’s song was a parody, it was “fair use” !!! It’s the same bloody song judge !!!!For the former listen to “Start!” by The Jam and then listen to “Taxman” by The Beatles.
Only last year Led Zeppelin won a lawsuit brought by the estate of Randy Wolfe, whose band, Spirit, toured with Zeppelin back in the day. The estate claimed that “Stairway to Heaven” sounded very similar to “Taurus”. For some very odd reason the jury were not allowed to hear both songs played one after the other. To me, this is like viewing an identity parade of suspects without the miscreant being in the line up. Led Zep have been accused by many aficianados over the years of “borrowing” bits of songs, in many of their hits or “paying homage” in weasel speak. They have settled out of court on songs such as “Whole Lotta Love” –paying homage to “You Need Love” by Muddy Waters (written by Willie Dixon)–and “Bring It on Home” (they didn’t even change the title !) paying homage to “Bring It on Home” also by Willie Dixon.
Robert Plant is quoted as saying “you only get caught when you’re successful”–shame on you Robert. Some people go as far as to call Led Zeppelin the best covers band ever.
Another band with a reputation for “borrowing”, “being influenced by” or “paying homage to” are Oasis. Listen to “Shaker Maker”, and then listen to “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” by The New Seekers. Reputedly settled out of court.
Listening to some of these songs by bands with reputations, it’s difficult not to wonder at their sheer brass neck. Did they hope no one would notice ?
Unbelievably plagiarism can occur between band members. Bill Wyman claims to have written the riff for “Jumping Jack Flash” one evening on a piano in the studio, only for Mick and Keith to re-present the riff the next day, plus chords and lyrics, as a new song. Disgraceful on the part of the song writing duo don’t you think ? Bill didn’t get any credit or a single penny of publishing on this world wide hit. For “Bittersweet Symphony” The Verve sampled–usually weasel speak for nicked (but see later comment)–a string section on an orchestral version of “The Last Time”, written by Mick and Keith. In fact the orchestral part was written and arranged by David Whitaker. Anyway, despite The Verve seeking permission in advance, and getting said permission, it was claimed that they borrowed over the amount specified, and it was settled legally that Richard Ashcroft lost all rights to the song both in credit and financial terms. Guess what David Whitaker got ? Guess how Richard Ashcroft feels ?
There are experts, called forensic musicologists, who will assist judges and juries in decision making in these lawsuits. Two well known experts are Peter Oxendale and Guy Protheroe. Mr.Protheroe’s day job is musical director of the English Chamber Choir, but has been used as an expert in genres such as dubstep, bhangra hard-core (no, me neither) and grime ! Whether or not we agree with the decision is up to us all to decide using our own ears. But it’s a minefield I promise you.