२३ मे, २०१९

"For the last 22 years, The Verve haven't made a penny from Bitter Sweet Symphony, after forfeiting the royalties to The Rolling Stones."

"The song was embroiled in a legal battle shortly after its release, after The Verve sampled an orchestral version of The Stones' song The Last Time. As a result, writer Richard Ashcroft had to sign over his rights to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - until now. Speaking as he received a lifetime achievement prize at the Ivor Novello Awards, Ashcroft announced: 'As of last month, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards signed over all their publishing for Bitter Sweet Symphony, which was a truly kind and magnanimous thing for them to do.' Ashcroft acknowledged that it was the Rolling Stones' late manager, Allen Klein, who had been responsible for the situation, rather than the musicians themselves," BBC reports. The Verve sought permission and agreed to pay the Stones 50% of the royalties, but the agreement was to use a 5-note part of the recording, and they used more than that, voiding the agreement, and, under the management of Allen Klein — you remember Allen Klein — there was a lawsuit and The Verve lost all the royalties.

Here's "Bitter Sweet Symphony":



Here's the symphonic version of "The Last Time" (from 1965), which I don't think I'd ever noticed before:



And here are the Stones doing "The Last Time" (I'm giving you the Ed Sullivan performance, in which Keith Richards doesn't seem to play the guitar so well):

४४ टिप्पण्या:

jr565 म्हणाले...

Hidden secret -Richards isn’t a very good guitar player.
Great writer of riffs and good rhythm guitar player but he’s no lead guitarist.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

The symphonic orchestra song is closer. I'm not hearing the Rolling Stones song in the Verve song/ Verve song in the RS song.

Bitter Sweet Symphony - It's a nice violin riff, but it's too repetitive. Of course that's true of most pop.

richlb म्हणाले...

Hey, a contract is a contract.

It's still a raw deal the Verve got - the sampled section is unidentifiable to nearly everyone. Yet all royalties were forfeited.

I used to have a website for the trivia night I ran in Baltinore and i once posted about this very subject leading to the first time and only time I've ever received a cease and desist order.

todd galle म्हणाले...

The Verve tune is on almost all my 20 something kids playlists. The Rolling Stones, not so much, I doubt they could name 5 Stone songs. My wife and I are New Wave and Punk, no hippy tunes in our house, and I apply the 'hippie' label to anything from the horrifying 60s. My wife admonished me ages ago, when I was playing the Buzzcocks on the old CD, and "Oh, Shit" spun up and we were making Sunday breakfast. Guess what the kids picked up.....

StephenFearby म्हणाले...

The first (Vevo) clip drips increasing tension.

Which could have been easily resolved by the execution of street justice.

Like, someone clocking the guy.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe म्हणाले...

Klein was dead 10 years... why so long to fix?

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

I would have been seriously pissed at that idiot if he walked over my car.

But it's only a woman's car so he can get away with it.

The two big guys would have crushed him if the camera wasn't around.

But it got him attention so it's all good. We've mainstreamed filthy behavior and normalized it. Even John Waters is wondering what kind of civilization we're maintaining when he's part of the Establishment.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"Keith Richards doesn't seem to play the guitar so well"

But the worst thing, as usual, is that Mick doesn't sing so well.

I can take about 20 seconds.

CWJ म्हणाले...

Wow! Sucks to be The Verve. But watching that Stones clip confirmed why Richards would have never been invited to be the fourth Yardbirds guitarist. Likewise, Wyman and Watts would have never ousted Entwistle or Moon from The Who. Still, my favorite opening guitar riff of all time is "Can't you hear me knocking."

Curious George म्हणाले...

Yeah Richards can't play the guitar and Jagger can't sing. Amazing they are top five all time rock groups.

rcocean म्हणाले...

I have no idea why this song is popular. But different strokes...etc.

walter म्हणाले...

In the freeze frame from the Stones' video, Richards looks a bit like Beto.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com म्हणाले...

Were they actually playing on Ed Sullivan?

Most of the other music shows of the 60s the artists just lipsynched and pretended to play. See the Monkees for example.

Did they actually perform on Sullivan?

John Henry

MacMacConnell म्हणाले...

Wasn't "Get Off My Cloud" the B side to the "Last Time" 45 record?

Curious George म्हणाले...

"Did they actually perform on Sullivan?"

I think so. They're all plugged in and it didn't sound like the studio version.

J2 म्हणाले...

I see the snow leopard.

madAsHell म्हणाले...

Still, my favorite opening guitar riff of all time is "Can't you hear me knocking."

Me too!! That's right up there with Beethoven's 5th.

Who would have guessed you could make piles of money hammering 6's, and 7's on major chords!!

madAsHell म्हणाले...

I really don't see much cross-over between "Last Time", and "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra may have had a claim unless it was the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

Bad Contract. Alannah Myles

Myles was signed by New York-based Atlantic Records in 1988 that obligated her to repay millions in expenses. As a result, she profited very little financially from her early success. She was released from the contract when it expired in 1997, but claimed she only received her first royalty cheque (for $1,900 US) in April 2008, and reported having difficulty at times even paying her rent.

"Still Got A Thing For You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxXLJUWAzjg

Tomcc म्हणाले...

Nice bit of trivia, Professor! Always have like the Stones and liked the song by the Verve, as well. For the life of me, I can't see where they overlap. Maybe someone who knows music can identify it; maybe the notes are similar, but the chords and tempo don't sound similar to me.
Glad Mick and Keith did right by them!

Tomcc म्हणाले...

Q: "Why is Keith Richard with the Rolling Stones?"
A: "To make Mick Jagger look good."

Wince म्हणाले...

I thought Jagger’s live vocals on that Sullivan clip were awesome.

Marcus Bressler म्हणाले...

Lots of performances on Ed Sullivan were live. That's why they were so good to watch. There was this group called The Beatles once, you see....

THEOLDMAN

rightguy म्हणाले...

Allen Klein was a king-hell wanker.

But Mick could be avaricious, too- ask Woody about "I Know its Only Rock and Roll" and how Jagger got the exclusive song-writing credit for it (a song they co-wrote).

Butkus51 म्हणाले...

Stones arent the best band. Not even close. But they knew how to make something out of simple riffs. Not easy. Their best years were with Mick Taylor. WIll I get reprimanded for starting a sentence with But?

Limited blogger म्हणाले...

Why's everybody slagging the Stones?

rightguy म्हणाले...

"Yeah Richards can't play the guitar and Jagger can't sing."

I concur about Jagger, but Keith Richards was a phenomenal rhythm guitarist. Check out Jumping Jack Flash- greatest GTR riff of all time and it can only be played with the (delta blues) alternate tuning that KR favored. Plenty of other examples in the Stones discography. Very influential player, that fellow.

This coming from a Beatles fan.

Butkus51 म्हणाले...

For the record, I wasnt slamming the Stones. Jagger is one of the most recognizable voices ever. Richards, isnt isnt a great guitar player........so what, either is Pete Townsend, but they know how to write a tune. Way more important. But their best hits in my opinion were during the Mick Taylor years. I didnt mean to imply that Mick Taylor was the reason for it. They were at their peak. And well yeah, my last name is Taylor. So theres that.

Birches म्हणाले...

So I've often wondered this and this post seems like a good place to ask: why do bands cover songs if they don't get any royalties from it?

Especially bands that don't already have a hit?

actual items म्हणाले...

Good for them.

"Bittersweet Symphony" was popular in the autumn of 1997, the autumn I went away to college, the autumn when--the night before the final day of classes--my mom called me in my dorm room to tell me my 47-year-old dad had a massive heart attack and died.

"Bittersweet Symphony" became the soundtrack of that period of my life. 18 years old, my whole life in front of me, experiencing everything that is freshman year of college, the freedom of being away from home for the first time. And then a level of freedom is thrust upon you that you never asked for, the freedom from a life with a father's influence. 22 years later, that's what sticks me with me the most, being robbed of an adult relationship with my dad.

Anyway, that song got me into the Verve. The whole album, Urbans Hymns, is pretty great. It has a handful of other truly great songs, namely "Lucky Man", "The Drugs Don't Work", "Sonnet" and "Velvet Morning." But then you go back to their 1st 2 albums, 1995's A Northern Soul and 1993's A Storm in Heaven, and they're even better. Though neither has the high highs of Urban Hymn's singles, they work better as complete works of art, capturing the band's not-quite-'90s-Manchester-(they're from Wigan)-psychedelic-Britpop-adjacent sound. When you listen to those 2 amazing albums, you can't help but hear Urban Hymns as Richard Ashcroft's quasi-solo debut (he went on to a solo career more prolific than the band's).

The band eventually got back together a decade later and released a 4th album, but I had moved on with my life and never listened to it. I try to keep the memory of my father alive by recounting stories of his life to my 3 kids. I'm only 7 years away from the age my dad was when he died, and I have made my health a priority so God-willing my kids get to have adult relationships with me.

Jokah Macpherson म्हणाले...

Three videos related to "Bittersweet Symphony" and no Sarah Michelle Gellar???

Stu Grimshaw म्हणाले...

No musician before or since has played the role of rock star as well as Keith. Many have tried but no one has squared the circle like Keith: booze, drugs, beautiful women, insouciance and most importantly, staying above ground.

As for Pete Townshend, he was a pretty good guitarist. But he was forced into a pedestrian style by having a rhythm section that did everything except keep a beat.


eddie willers म्हणाले...

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" or "Gimme Shelter".

Gritty or scarey. Tough choice.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

I never knew that--it's a very good song. I used to "sing" that internally back on long runs in high school. Good rhythm.

BJM म्हणाले...

actual items, that is sincerely a very touching story. Made me reflect for a few minutes on what is really important. Thanks for commenting.

BJM म्हणाले...

And btw Eddie Willers, in my book it is an easy call. Gimme Shelter may be the greatest rock song ever written!

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

The first time I heard "Bittersweet Symphony", I thought I recognized the orchestral sample, but couldn't nail it down until a couple of years later when I first got internet access. Had it been closer to the actual song, I probably would have remembered it since it is a song I had heard a lot over the years, but it was just different enough that I couldn't place.

I loved song by The Verve- one of my favorites from the 90s.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Actual Items,

Music is a soundtrack to our lives. I am always amazed at the different feelings an old song will bring up for me, but it is because the song had a meaning related to what was going on my life at the time I first fell in love with it. Music also attaches to our darkest moments in the same way. I can't say that any song carries for me what that one does for you, and I count myself lucky for that.

Wince म्हणाले...

Still, my favorite opening guitar riff of all time is "Can't you hear me knocking."

Always thought that song started great, but got a little aimless at the end.

Mick Taylor returns to do a version with the Stones at Glastonbury.

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

Musical performers on the Sullivan show performed their songs live.

alanc709 म्हणाले...

Gimme Shelter redeems the Stones, for me. Tumbling Dice is good. A lot of their other stuff I always felt was over-rated.

SeanF म्हणाले...

Birches: So I've often wondered this and this post seems like a good place to ask: why do bands cover songs if they don't get any royalties from it?

Especially bands that don't already have a hit?


Bands do get royalties from recording songs they didn't write - they just don't get all the royalties. This specific situation, with the Stones getting all the money, is pretty unusual.

Birches म्हणाले...

Thanks SeanF.

Now Weezer covering Africa makes more sense.

DavidD म्हणाले...

Well, when the Beatles did their last Ed Sullivan appearance John sang the wrong verse of Help, so there’s that.