WEIRD SWAMP SONG FULL

The saga was finally resolved, as Ashcroft told the BBC, following recent negotiations with Klein’s son and new Stones manager Joyce Smyth bringing an end to one of the most unjust chapters in British rock music history to a close. A deal was done to get Urban Hymns released, including granting Jagger and Richards songwriter credit – which would explain how both their names were later attached to a best song Grammy nomination for the track – despite it sounding nothing like the original Stones song. Klein – who apparently wanted to discourage anyone using samples and negotiating retrospectively – would only agree if his record label ABKCO took all the publishing rights to the song. The rights to sample the orchestral version of The Last Time on Bitter Sweet Symphony had been cleared by Decca Records, but they hadn’t thought about getting permission for the underlying composition. When The Verve’s record label tried to clear a sample from their already-completed album Urban Hymns, the Stones’ late business manager Allen Klein, took the opportunity to negotiate “one final kill” on behalf of his band. From unlicensed samples to suspiciously similar melodies, take a look back at some of the historic rulings in copyright cases – which changed the face of the music industry forever. This gesture of goodwill from the Stones, however, goes against an upward trend since 2015 in claims of alleged songwriter plagiarism being brought to court.

WEIRD SWAMP SONG FULL

Upon receiving an Ivor Novello award for outstanding contribution to British music, Ashcroft took the opportunity to announce that in a “kind and magnanimous gesture” Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had transferred royalty rights and full songwriter credit back to Ashcroft. It meant he never made a penny from the band’s massive hit 1997 song Bitter Sweet Symphony – until now. The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft went through a 22-year dispute over a four-second string sample of an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones’ song The Last Time. But what’s the difference between “tipping your hat” to another musician for inspiration, and their lawyer accusing you of copyright infringement? A few million dollars, potentially. Good artists copy great artists steal – as the saying goes.

Weird swamp song