Re: (TV) TV Sued by Newton-John

[Jay <piazzasanmarco@yahoo.com>]

How many government $$ were pissed away on this one!

--- Leo Casey <LeoCasey@comcast.net> wrote:

> 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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