Does Link Wray get royalties from Richard Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights?

Jack-Flash-Jr · 2011-01-05T13:50:05+00:00

Cause really, he should. I was listening to a Dylan's Theme Tune Hour comp and I thought cool! Rumble! But no... I liberate riffs as much as any other guy but wow.

Bob-Dubery

Warren wrote I think you have more options with your melodic content than your harmonic content. Isn't this also borne out to some extent by the legal rules: your song's melody and lyrics belong to you but the rest does not?

Which is a problem for Wray because where, in the original, is the melody?

Warren

X-rated Bob wrote
Which is a problem for Wray because where, in the original, is the melody?

Or how about Sultans of Swing? The most recognisable parts of the song are not the melody (apart from the main chorus line).

Or Everybody Wants to Rule the World? That signature repeating lick is not part of the melody either, but if you used it everyone would know its source.

And then you get the whole sampling idea, where bits are sampled out of someone's song a la what PM Dawn always used to do. I'm sure that sort of thing must be handled legally somehow?

Keira-WitherKay

? well western music only has 12 notes that repeat in higher or lower octaves ...... so the chance of a similar or identical sequence of notes coming out is awefully high ......

we all seen those you tube video's with a guy/girl playing the same chord sequence and singing about 20 pop songs that all work over the same sequence......

damn most rock and roll( from 50's) can be sung over a I IV I V IV I V ( yout typical basic 12 bar ) sequence most blues had the same sequence just slower and bluesier 8) and sure they popped a few other chords for colour at times but it still was the same foundation ..but it was not plagurism it was blues or rock and roll........

so yeah unless it's a blatant melody note for note rip off .... i'm cool with hearing influences in music however strong

anyway some humourous but maybe truthfull advice i heard from a songwriter was that one should never react or stop people if they steal your idea's ...... rather wait and see if the song ( with your idea's/hook ect ) is a hit then sue them ? ......... cos if you stop em before it's a hit you have nothing to gain ....

Bob-Dubery

Warren wrote And then you get the whole sampling idea, where bits are sampled out of someone's song a la what PM Dawn always used to do. I'm sure that sort of thing must be handled legally somehow?

John Bonham's drum sounds from Led Zeppelin albums (especially, IIRC, "When The Levee Breaks") were extensively sampled and used in the 80s. By then you could isolate one hit of one drum... the snare or whatever. You'd think somebody would have tried to get money for that little lot, though I guess that proving the case would be hard.

There's other ways to play that game though. Danny Thompson has made available a whole collection of bass grooves and licks that you can download for a fee and thus own and then sample, loop or whatever you want to do with them (except, I presume, embed them in firmware or software).

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