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Eddy Says
Eddy Says: Magpies
By Eddy Temple-Morris | Published on Monday 26 April 2010
Writing this is harder than normal. Much harder; the index finger has become a very important digit for non-touch-typing types, and mine looks like one from a Tom & Jerry cartoon since I gashed it, really badly on Friday. I was flicking the water out of a big, balloon glass, and holding it by the quite thin stem… it broke, mid flick and the glass basically exploded in my hand, leaving me with a three stitch cut in my index and a nice boxer’s gash in the third finger.
So, anyway, it’s my birthday today – my actual birthday, rather than the show’s decade anniversary that has caused a rather nice and positive kerfuffle of late. So, given it’s that special day when you should be full of joy for the world and all those in it, typical me that I’m rebelling against that and feeling full of rage and bitterness, aimed squarely at one particular “spoilt rich kid”.
Let me explain.
Remember ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’? One of the best songs ever. Remember how it controversially borrowed from a Stones track? My ex-girlfriend used to manage Richard Ashcroft at that time, and she told me that he was so stoned all the time that he had literally no idea he’d broken any rules in the way he used the Stones melody in his track. The point being: there was no darkness, no malice, it was a genuine mistake.
Of course Alan Klein, the Rolling Stones’ legendary manager, made it a mistake Ashcroft would pay for, in demanding 100% of the royalties for the whole song. There’s a lovely story, I don’t know whether it’s true, that the first deal from Klein once the dispute over the song went legal came back to the band’s manager, Jazz Summers at Big Life Music, via a phone call. Klein proposed a 50/50 split. Summers responded: “Wow, that’s cool, pretty fair, better than I’d thought”, to which Klein replied: “No, you don’t understand, I mean 50% Jagger, 50% Richards”.
Remember ‘Come As You Are’ by Nirvana? Nirvana had to pay a portion of the royalties from that song, retrospectively, to Killing Joke, after a musicologist (basically a lawyer who can hold a tune) agreed that Kris Novoselic’s bassline was more imitation than inspiration.
Music is full of these ‘magpie’ stories, some true, some not so, all interesting… here’s the latest one that has got my blood boiling.
Dead Kids. One of my favourite bands. They were befriended by Coco Sumner, Sting and Trudi Styler’s daughter. She raved about them at Standon Calling last year. She hung out with them, socially and in the studio. Then she ‘disappeared’. Sometime later, after this falling off the radar, she resurfaced, with a major record contract and a debut single called ‘Caesar’.
Now, before you read on, just have a quick peek at the first verse: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9LAEf-EGdQ
OK? Now look at the first verse of Dead Kids ‘Into The Fire’: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYIC3JXPHo4
Am I the only one that thinks, surely anyone that isn’t completely unmusical can see that crosses the line?
The sad truth is that, if she’d asked Mike from Dead Kids, who wrote ‘Into The Fire’, if she could cover it, he would, of course, have said yes. But no, much like those rich people you hear about who get caught shoplifting, when they could afford to buy the entire shop and all its contents, she went a different route and chose to try and pass the whole song off as being entirely her own.
But she’s been caught and busted. Well, she’s had to agree to give a portion of the song’s royalties to Mike in an out-of-court settlement. Though it’s a portion of nothing, as the single failed to find its mark in any sort of chart.
It is such a shame, because, for starters, she has a really good voice. The vocal on Sub Focus’ latest single is hers, and it’s a great vocal, sounds almost like Perry Farrell, but I hate myself for liking it, because of this whole sordid business.
When you get mugged, or burgled, or robbed in the usual way, by some scumbag you don’t know, you kinda know where you stand, it doesn’t hurt beyond the obvious… but being robbed by someone you know, and trust, that hurts like hell. I know this from personal experience. It never had to happen this way.
So, back to my phrase “spoilt rich kid”. There’s nothing wrong with being rich, or a kid, but it seems to me that this one has been a little too spoilt somewhere along the line. And that’s a real shame. Lovely voice. The voice of a siren, you could say… but didn’t Sirens lure sailors’ ships onto the rocks in classical folklore? Yes, that’s exactly what they did.
Much love,
eddy X
Eddy Says from this edition of the CMU Remix Update.
