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Radio News: 'Blurred Lines' about verdict?
Mar 11, 2015 11:52 pm
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Marvin Gaye, from Wikipedia.[/caption]The Guardian reports that a jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children almost $7.4 million on March 10, determining Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied Gaye's 1978 hit "Got to Give it Up" to make "Blurred Lines," the biggest hit song of 2013. Anyone comparing the two tracks can hear the similarities. The jury, though, did not listen to the actual songs, but heard a version of the original Gaye song made from sheet music. Thicke, before the lawsuit, told GQ magazine that one of his favorite songs was "Got to Give It Up" and that he told Williams that they should write a song with the same "groove." Then he said he lied, and didn't have anything to do with writing the song. Surprisingly, several notable musicians and internet writers defended the "remake." Tom Petty's keyboardist Benmont Tench tweeted, "I disagree with the verdict, I think they took production and arrangement ideas but not the actual song."
Michaelangelo Matos writing at Deadspin, quoted legendary critic Lester Bangs to defend the second take:
Marvin Gaye, from Wikipedia.[/caption]The Guardian reports that a jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children almost $7.4 million on March 10, determining Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied Gaye's 1978 hit "Got to Give it Up" to make "Blurred Lines," the biggest hit song of 2013. Anyone comparing the two tracks can hear the similarities. The jury, though, did not listen to the actual songs, but heard a version of the original Gaye song made from sheet music. Thicke, before the lawsuit, told GQ magazine that one of his favorite songs was "Got to Give It Up" and that he told Williams that they should write a song with the same "groove." Then he said he lied, and didn't have anything to do with writing the song. Surprisingly, several notable musicians and internet writers defended the "remake." Tom Petty's keyboardist Benmont Tench tweeted, "I disagree with the verdict, I think they took production and arrangement ideas but not the actual song."@vintagegalholly I disagree with the verdict, I think they took production & arrangement ideas but not the actual song
— benmont tench III (@benchten) March 11, 2015Michaelangelo Matos writing at Deadspin, quoted legendary critic Lester Bangs to defend the second take:
"According to one theory, punk rock all goes back to Ritchie Valens's 'La Bamba.' Just consider Valens's three-chord mariachi squawk up in the light of 'Louie Louie' by the Kingsmen, then consider 'Louie Louie' in the light of 'You Really Got Me' by the Kinks, then 'You Really Got Me' in the light of "No Fun" by the Stooges, then 'No Fun' in the light of 'Blitzkrieg Bop' by the Ramones, and finally note that 'Blitzkrieg Bop' sounds a lot like 'La Bamba.'"Still, hearing even faux copies of the songs, they sound awfully similar. “The jury up there, they didn’t have to go our way,” Nona Gaye, Marvin Gaye's daughter, said after the verdict. “They copied ‘Got to Give it Up’ and [the jury] heard it! Which was very important. They heard it, you know. It wasn’t just us.”