On Fri, 2003-07-04 at 04:03, Daniel James wrote: > > Eric Clapton pays royalties to the > > writer on everything he covers > > Sure, where it's a straight cover version. Assuming the original > songwriter signed an excellent record deal, or somehow retained their > copyright, they could have done very well. Unfortunately I don't > think that was the case with most of the blues and R n' B artists. As > Bo Diddley said, the word contract has the letters C O N in it. > I'm not defending the record industry but Bo Diddley signed those contracts. So did Chuck Berry. > > The Stones didn't cover much music, theirs was > > mostly original. > > I think Chuck Berry might start to cough a bit at this point. Mr > Diddley too, if he's still alive. But more than just cover versions, > these 'British invasion' bands lifted guitar licks, vocal styles and > even complete sounds from those artists. The Stones' 'Not Fade Away' > is a Bo Diddley song in all but the name on the label. > Will Bach be upset that Chuck Berry lifted complete sounds from his work at times? Every musician uses pieces of everything he's heard from the time he was born. > > If you're trying to say that writing a blues tune is stealing just > > because it's 12 bar you're in pretty deep. > > I wouldn't call it stealing. But music is part of a cultural commons, > so to put a fence around it and call it exclusive 'property' is out > of order. > Music as a whole is part of a cultural commons but my creativity in writing a particular song is not. Granite is pretty much common property too but I don't own any of Michaelangelo's sculptures. J. R. R. Tolkien owned the rights to his works even though they were based on the words and stories of others. It was the way he put the words together that mattered. > > I think the Bonzo Dog Band put it best in the song "Can Blue Men sing > the Whites?", a Clapton musical parody about a well-heeled musician > who changes out of his mohair suit to put on some dirty jeans and > sing songs about the Depression, "when people were really... > depressed. Alright! Whoooo!" > This argument always bugs me. I live in Mississippi and I've met many of the still living Delta blues players. Trust me, they're not very depressed (or repressed) either. In my opinion, anyone who has been addicted to heroin and whose son has done a one-way nose dive out of a fourth story window has a right to play the blues. Yeah, he's not black and he didn't live through the depression - lucky him. Jan
