Bittersweet Symphony

A few weeks ago I was driving to work and heard the saddest news on the radio.  Apparently, the group the Verve had been sued by the Rolling Stones for plagiarizing their song “The Last Time” and turning it into “Bittersweet Symphony”. And the Stones took all of the royalties, past and future, from the Verve.

Granted, I’m not a big fan of the Verve although I do like the song. But I felt so bad for them. They had this one song and the greedy group the Stones had to take everything from them. How is that even right?  They are a behemoth group, while the Verve was just a little band. And if you listen to the songs, you would never equate the two as the same. But I guess if you put the 2 songs together and slow down the Stones’ and speed up the Verve (insert eye roll) it sounds similar to the people who made the decision, but not to me. Besides, there are only so many keys on a piano and so many chords, so eventually something might sound reminiscent, but isn’t necessarily a copy of another song.

IF, by some chance, it was a subconscious “borrowing” of a few notes: was it necessary to take everything away? A similar situation happened with Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” but he was a gentleman and only took 25% of the other band’s royalties. Hats off to you Tom!

What about the many songs that are blatant rip-offs but the original artist doesn’t get squat? Like Joe Satriani who was ripped off by Coldplay? Viva La Vida deliberately took a piece of Joe’s “If I Could Fly” but didn’t give him a dime.  However, Robin Thicke and Pharrell sure had to pay the estate of Marvin Gaye for the similarity between “Blurred Lines” and “Got To Give It Up”. Personally, I think it was more of a similar attitude as opposed to a direct musical rip-off, but again no one asked my opinion.

 I guess situations like this will continue to happen, since again there are only so many notes and so many ways you can manipulate these notes. But at the end of the day: I really hope the Verve is able to make another big hit. I just hate to think of them with nothing. Maybe the Stones will let them tour with them, do a duet , be roadies or something musical to help them out. Come on Mick: throw them a little something! Lord knows they need it.

It’s going to take me a while to get over the injustice of it all. Even though I have no investment in any of this: I do have a heart. I just wish the Stones did too.