Saturday, July 10, 2010

Saturd80's

Men at Work, Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive:

These guys were in the news this week; they were found to have plagiarized some licks from the famous Australian song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." They have been ordered to pay 5% royalties on their song "Land Down Under." Fair is fair, I suppose, but Kookaburra is 70 years old... at what point does a song become public domain? I know I sang it in elementary school, 45 or so years ago. Do I have to pay royalties too?

Cyndi Lauper, She Bop:

One of my favorite music trivia questions is "Who sings back-up vocals in Dire Staits' song Money for Nothing?" Answer in comments...

3 comments:

  1. Sting's voice is utterly unmistakable, but if you don't already know it's him, this is surprisingly hard to figure out.

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  2. Oh, I always thought it was Gordon Sumner. ;)

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  3. Bwa-Ha-Hah! I had to Google "Gordon Sumner," of whom I had never heard before. A new bit of music trivia has been added to m collection.

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