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Another example of plagiarism I had never heard before

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Evan Marcus

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Jul 22, 1985, 12:51:02 PM7/22/85
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Who remembers the song Steal Away, by Robbie Dupree. (A one hit wonder,
I believe) Anyway, I heard on the radio last night, that he was sued by
Michael McDonald and the Doobie Bros for sounding too much like them.
After listening to the song with that in mind, I agree. The Doobies had
a good solid case, but I don't know about the legal ramifications of
mimicking a group's individual sound.

Listen to the song sometime and see. it's pretty remarkable.

Anyway, the dj said that they went to court over it. He said he never
heard the result of the case and wondered if anyone else had. Nobody called,
so i guess not. Anybody know anything?

--Evan Marcus

--
{ucbvax|decvax}!vax135!petsd!petfe!evan
...!pedsgd!pedsga!evan

Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all
A moment in the sun
It's gone, and you can tell that one goodbye.

Dataspan Inc

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Jul 23, 1985, 4:43:08 PM7/23/85
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It's not just a minor ripoff, either. 'Steal Away', come to think
of it, is practically a note-for-note ripoff of 'What A Fool Believes'.

I suppose that Michael Jackson will be next, suing that little kid
(DeBarge? The New Edition??) over his first record, which is note-for-note
a rewrite of 'ABC.'

There was also a song around 1972-1974 (winter, I think) which goes
(oops) says something about a little kid (Jelly Roll's Soul in little white
shoes/bvbvbvbbvbvb about my rock and roll baby/...) and something about
being "born in a theatre/in Bluefield, West Virginia/) which struck me as
a flagrant theft of the Carole King song which goes "Sometimes you win,
sometime you lose", probably from "Tapestry." Then again, Carole King, being
the underwriter for a bunch of music, probably leased them the tune??

One of you guys out there is missing out. . .why not take a Cray X-MP
and generate a statistical database of what results in a popular song,
complete with DFT's... hell, the CRT and their ilk can't even keep their
own house straight, let alone, prosecute plaigars!

dya

Rich Rosen

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Jul 23, 1985, 6:50:07 PM7/23/85
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> Who remembers the song Steal Away, by Robbie Dupree. (A one hit wonder,
> I believe) Anyway, I heard on the radio last night, that he was sued by
> Michael McDonald and the Doobie Bros for sounding too much like them.
> After listening to the song with that in mind, I agree. The Doobies had
> a good solid case, but I don't know about the legal ramifications of
> mimicking a group's individual sound.
>
> Listen to the song sometime and see. it's pretty remarkable. [EVAN]

I had mentioned it in my long article on musicians who plagiarize, in the
same breath as Corey Hart's stealing the repeeto-note sequencerism from
"Sweet Dreams" for use in "Sunglasses at Night". Nice to see I wasn't
alone in recognizing that. Appropriate song title "Steal Away", no?

Was there any information on the outcome of the trial?
--
"There! I've run rings 'round you logically!"
"Oh, intercourse the penguin!" Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr

Jim Wiley

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Jul 23, 1985, 7:36:39 PM7/23/85
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Correction - Its not 'houses of the holy' by Led Zep but 'Custart Pie'
where the music sounds the same as 'Mickeys Monkey' by Mothers Finest.
sorry about the mistake but I really don't pay much attention to the
song titles, I just know what I like. And I prefer the sound of Mickeys
Monkey to Custard Pie because it doesn't have the life produced out of
it. So there.

jow (Jim Wiley)

Steve Hayman

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Jul 24, 1985, 7:03:50 AM7/24/85
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Rich says
>...as Corey Hart's stealing the repeeto-note sequencerism from
>"Sweet Dreams" for use in "Sunglasses at Night"....
> Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr

Now I don't know if you meant to imply that the two sequences
are note-for-note identical, 'cause they aren't. They do
sound somewhat similar, but for instance (assuming that they're
both in C minor) Sunglasses starts out as

Eb Eb
D D
C C
G G

where Sweet Dreams is more like...

Eb

C C C


Eb
C C C


(Boy, we need an ANSI standard for textual music representation...)
You want Identical sequencer lines, you take "Ghostbusters"
and "I Wanna New Drug", then you've got something...

Disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Corey Hart fan.

Steve Hayman
University of Waterloo Warriors Band
"One of the Bands in Canada"

Ken Rossen

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Jul 25, 1985, 3:08:16 PM7/25/85
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In article <2...@unccvax.UUCP> dya at Dataspan Inc (d...@unccvax.UUCP) writes:
> ... a flagrant theft of the Carole King song which goes "Sometimes you

> win, sometime you lose", probably from "Tapestry." Then again, Carole
> King, being the underwriter for a bunch of music, probably leased them
> the tune??

This is "Sweet Seasons" from the album "Music," not from "Tapestry."
--
Kenr ...!{decvax,ihnp4,ima,linus,harvard}!bbncca!krossen

Dataspan Inc

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Jul 27, 1985, 10:38:12 AM7/27/85
to

Actually, both "Ghostbusters" and "I Wanna New Drug" seem to be
ripoffs of that esteemed (hack, hack!) artist, Michael Jackson . . .
something in 1979-80 called "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground".

David Anthony
DataSpan, Inc

Greg Skinner

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Aug 16, 1985, 7:40:11 PM8/16/85
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The song "Candy Girl" by the group you refer to, New Edition, is
supposed to be a Jackson Five sound-alike. New Edition revealed in an
interview that it was their intent to sound like the Jackson Five. In
addition, Michael Jackson was flattered that New Edition was trying to
bring back the old Jackson Five sound.
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards,
for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{decvax!genrad, allegra, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds
g...@mit-eddie.mit.edu

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