1.15 pm. The latest copy of Music Week lands dop on my floor. I gloss over such fascinating topics as Courtney Love's new album, and "HMV pulling out stops for Madonna PA", and land on Page 3 "UK publisher owed £1.5m as Dr Dre loses sample dispute". This dispute is, in fact, not about a sample, it is about ownership of the notes of a bassline. Dr Dre replayed note for note the bassline from Fatback Band's "Backstrokin'" (??) under his track "Let's Get High", arguing that it was not possible to protect the bass line notes. He lost the case, and the publisher, John Fogarty, says that it would be absurd if you could not protect defining basslines such as "Backstrokin" or "Another one bites the dust" (although I recall Queen saying that this owed something to Chic…)
I am sure all this is absolutely right – although I cannot help thinking that the basslines in rock music are a much more dangerous area, as they are often not "written" by the "writer". Entwhistle's contribution to Who tunes can clearly be heard by comparing the final masters with Townsend's demos. And what of the wonderful bassline to Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" (as played by T Lev), or the guitar line on "Heroes" by Bowie & Eno. Are these contributions part of the "publishing" or not? If they are, then that surely would strengthen the argument of those session musicians and minor members, who feel that they should be receiving a share of the publishing.
And now my mind moves on to performances, which change songs forever. "Without You" by Nielsen, "The Mighty Quinn" by Manfred Mann, "Hard Rain" by Ferry, "Tambourine Man" by the Byrds. They change forever the "theoretical perfect version" of a song, and yet they, of course, have no share in the publishing.
But then we all know music is a wonderful life affirming force quite divorced from the dots on pieces of paper "owned" by publishers. Why am I getting so hot under the collar?
18.24 pm. A long call with Brad from Nugs.net – the company that powers LivePhish.com, their live music download site. This is the man who can implement all of the Tall Pointy One's web ideas. Phish are now selling downloads of their concerts online within 24 hours of the show. Where have I heard that idea before? They influence the people that influence the people.
"Craft is a universal language."
