Add to the list "Gloria" which is ripped from the movement of the same name
in Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis."

Steve Smolian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dick Spottswood" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 6:48 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] true adventures in the music biz


> ----- Forwarded by Dick Spottswood/dick/AmericanU on 03/25/2006 06:52 PM
> -----
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> 03/25/2006 05:20 PM
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> Subject
> George Harrison & The Chiffons at bottom
>
>
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>
>
>
> By KEITH BRUCE March 13, 2006
>
> It's The Same Old Song (BBC Radio2, Tuesday) was also right on the button,
> but rather more serendipitously. In his usual cheeky-chappie style, Mark
> Riley is looking at instances of plagiarism in popular music over four
> shows, produced by Ian Callaghan. Starting from the premise that there are
> only 12 notes, 26 letters and seven plots, Riley wondered that accusations
> of poetic larceny were not even more common, and then produced a long list
> of entertaining examples to show how regularly they crop up. With Da Vinci
> Code author Dan Brown defending his orginality in a London court, the
> series is certainly timely.
> It was also funny in its insistence that no-one is guiltless. So, the same
> Chuck Berry who claimed royalties from Brian Wilson when he pinched a riff
> for The Beach Boys' Surfin USA, was described as a "former hairdresser"
> who had "borrowed" the famous guitar intro to Johnny B Goode from Louis
> Jordan's guitarist.
> A couple of figures from the British blues scene turned up to defend their
> own conduct.
> Jeff Beck reasonably pointed out that forgotten blues musicians were given
> a new lease of life
> and a pretty penny or two by the patronage of white players, and our own
> Jack Bruce recalled being surprised to hear Otis Spann play Cream
> arrangements of his own songs.
> The terminology of the whole business was an entertainmentin itself – one
> person's culture mining is another person's copyright infringement, and
> the legal eagles are kept in Mercedes coupes by the grey area between an
> original work and an idea – but the best bits of the show were the playing
> of suspiciously similar tunes back to back.
> So, Led Zeppelin were clearly bang to rights for lifting Willie Dixon's
> song to make Whole Lotta Love (he settled out of court), and Pachelbel's
> Canon was revealed as the raw material for The Farm's All Together Now and
> Elvis Costello's No Action.
> The great tale of George Harrison's My Sweet Lord was saved till last.
> Harrison's defence, bizarrely, was that he had ripped off the Edwin
> Hawkins Singers' O Happy Day, rather than The Chiffons' He's So Fine,
> despite the melodious evidence.
> Riley, however, missed two great codicils to the story. The girl group
> later cashed in on the court case by recording My Sweet Lord and, later
> still, Harrison used some of his Beatles money to buy a publishing
> company. In its catalogue was, yes indeed, The Chiffons' He's So Fine.
>
> The Herald
> www.theherald.co.uk/features/57761-print.shtml
>


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