Re: (TV) TV Sued by Newton-John

["Steve Rovner" <serovner@mindspring.com>]

Excellent April Fool!

  

-----Original Message-----
From: "Leo Casey" <LeoCasey@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 10:02:38 
To:<tv@obbard.com>
Subject: (TV) TV Sued by Newton-John

BILLBOARD

 

Olivia Newton-John Sues Little Know Musician For Plagiarism

 

LA--Olivia Newton John sued Tom Verlaine, a relatively unknown but respected


musician-song writer,  for plagiarism.  John and her lawyers claim in their
suit that 

the instrumental, "A Parade In Littleton" bears a striking resemblance to
the melody 

in her 1980 composition, "Fool Country" (the b-side to her hit "Magic"), and
that 

Verlaine has added nothing new to the melody other than a more sinister
feel.   

 

Verlaine was the founder and leader of the band Television--- one of the
mainstay 

acts that emerged from the CBGB scene in New York City. In 1977, Television 

released the commercially unsuccessful but highly influential album,
"Marquee Moon."

 

Verlaine's spokesman, John Telfer said John's the suit was totally without
merit, 

and that at worst Verlaine might be guilty of intertextuality. "A Parade In
Littleton" is 

the first track on Verlaine's soon to be released album, "Songs and other
Things".

 

John's lawyers have broken down the "Fool Country" 's 60 bars down into
sections:

 

1-4 The Vamp - 2 repeated bars

5-10 Guitar riff -2 bars repeated twice

11-12 last two bars of riff- striking semitone descent

13-20 Repeat of Riff - but with a slight tremolo variation 21-24 Repeat of
vamp

25-28 Bebop1 4 bar phrase

29-32 bebop 1 repeat of 25-28 except last two notes are different

33-40 bebop 1 repeat o 25-32

41-42 bebop 2 - beginning of riff in modified form. i.e. melody is related
to the riff

43-44 41-42 repeated

45-46 Central climax 

47-48 vamp

49-56 Riff

57-60 ends with the coda which is related to 25-28

 

Dr. Norman Sadler, a musicologist at UCLA, said that the fundamental idea in
the "Fool 

Country," the riff (i.e. 5-10 13-18 41-44 49-54) is derived from another
never recorded 

Newton-John's composition, "Ecstatic." The main idea in the central section
is also 

derived, with modified intervals, from " Fool Country " (i.e. 25-26, 29-30
33-34 37-38 

with only a more sinister feel.)  

 

Dr. Sadler relates 11-12, the last two bars of the riff (declining
semitone), to two 

guitar chords at the end of the middle section of Olivia-John's song "Ready
For You".

 

A well respected LA record producer, who wished to remain anonymous noted, 

"Plagiarism is notoriously difficult to pin down in the record business. 

True, George Harrison had to pay up a few years ago after a court recognized


the striking similarity between 'My Sweet Lord' and the Chiffons' 'He's So
Fine'. 

But it's rare. How else could an entire industry have been built out of
twelve bars 

in the same formation?. Pile on the references, swipe in the stolen phrases.


This is just another version of postmodern intertextuality, as Leadbelly
would 

undoubtedly have told you 60 years ago in relation to the mongrel 

origins of 'Goodnight Irene"
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