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Rolling Stone magazine online has a feature about the great copyright battles of rock music. Two of them involve the Stones:
1) The Verve get no satisfaction from Allen Klein
The Bout: The Verve's breakthrough 1997 single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" features a sample of an obscure 1966 instrumental version of Jagger and Richards' "The Last Time" orchestrated by the Stones' producer Andrew Loog Oldham. Allen Klein, the Stones' notoriously shrewd former manager who owns most of the Stones' Sixties catalog, including "The Last Time," is against sampling on principle, and he goes after a piece of the Verve . . . even though their hit lifts nothing directly from the original Stones song.
The Decision: The good news for the Verve: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a huge hit and nominated for two Grammys. The bad news: Jagger and Richards are named as "songwriters," the Andrew Oldham Orchestra is named as the "performer," and Allen Klein takes all the royalties -- proving that, thirty years later, he's still a guy that British rockers shouldn't tangle with.
The Commentary: "[Allen Klein] is a fucking prick, isn't he?" Ashcroft says. "You meet him at the crossroads and he robs you of a lot of money." Bitter? Nah.
2) K.D. Lang happy after involuntary collaboration with the Stones 
The Bout: In 1997, just before the Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon is sent to the manufacturing plant, Keith Richards' daughter points out that the chorus of the track "Anybody Seen My Baby?" bears a strong resemblance to K.D. Lang's Grammy-winning torch hit "Constant Craving" from five years earlier.
The Decision: With a world tour looming, the Stones are in no mood to delay the record. Instead, the band settles things amicably, altering the songwriting credit to include Lang and "Craving" co-writer Ben Mink along with Jagger/Richards.
The Commentary: "I really admire K.D. as a singer," says Jagger, "but I wasn't familiar with that song." Adds Lang, "I've always been a fan of the Rolling Stones and take it as quite a compliment."
The feature:
http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=1891 |
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