Damn, I just realized I didn’t post this on my usual Sunday.
4 Years Ago (2018)
A simple post about the works not entering the public domain but should have been.
Lana Del Rey and Radiohead went to war, with Radiohead suing her for copyright infringement in her song “Get Free” which has a verse that sounds similar to “Creep” released in 1992.
Boy George had the best quote on his Twitter account. “Radiohead were sued by The Hollies and now Radiohead are suing Lana Del Rey. Utter Madness!”
RANDOM LISTENING – THUNDER BAY VERSION
These artists albums came from Deke’s EOY list for 2017.
Greta Van Fleet – From The Fires
I thought it was Wolfmother.
“Edge Of Darkness” is the song that hooked me. It’s feel and groove, which is a cross between Southern Rock and Led Zep’s style of rock is infectious.
And I heard the album that came after and it was boring but I’m still interested as to see what comes next.
Headstones – Little Army
Check out the lyrics.
- “We’ll I’m a red meat eater, liar and cheater”… from “Devils On Fire”.
Take that all you politically correct wannabes. - “You won’t lift your finger to get your s!!t out of this” … from “Little Army”.
Blaming others when something goes wrong and doing nothing to fix the problem. - “You’re singing the same old song, it’s called “sucking the life outta me”… from “Dead To Me”.
You gotta love relationships.
Cheap Trick – We’re All Alright
I was never a Cheap Trick fan. Bands I liked always mentioned them as influences, but when you have limited funds to purchase music, I avoided Cheap Trick.
“Brand New Name On An Old Tattoo” is an excellent song title and the song is pretty cool as well. “Floating Down” rocks hard for a mid-tempo song, and the vocal line is infectious and “If You Still Want My Love” is a bonus track on the deluxe version that probably no one would hear.
And youngsters won’t care about this album and the extra few million who purchased “Lap Of Luxury” because of “The Flame” won’t care either. But there are people who will care!
Europe – Walk The Earth and The Final Countdown 30th Anniversary live
Europe nailed it.
They started off with the whole “War Of Kings” album and then played the whole “The Final Countdown” album.
When Joey Tempest screams, “Are you ready London?” the answer is a unanimous cheer.
Stephen Pearcy – Smash
Does anyone care if Stephen Pearcy is running solo?
The “Unchained” sounding “Ten Miles Wide” is cool while “Rain” is interesting musically and it has some decent lyrics. “Want Too Much” works but the piece d’resistance is “Passion Infinity”. Everything just fits and works brilliantly together.
Finally “Summers End” is another song that surprised me with its epic “Kashmir” feel.
Not bad from the Rattster. I wanted another album after this but it never came.
Collective Soul – Live
They don’t disappoint and they have the catalogue of songs to keep the live show ticking over.
I also dig the change to have “Shine” starting off with the piano and how they jam it out “Lynyrd Skynyrd” style at the end, turning one of their biggest songs into a 7 minute jam epic is worth the price of admission alone.
If you want to know what society and politics is like, just look at the documentary “West Of Memphis”.
In it you will see incompetence and political corruption.
Three metal head kids (the Memphis Three) are arrested for the murders of three 8-year olds. They are convicted of murder and did more than 18 years in prison.
But they are out now as the whole case against them in a Bible Belt town was all bullshit.
And what the hell is an Alford Plea?
I looked it up on Wikipedia.
The Prosecutors knew they had to release them, but the only way they would do it is by an Alford Plea, so the Memphis Three claim their innocence but plead guilty. The tragedy is the killer still walks free and law enforcement can’t go after any other suspect because a piece of paper says they have the killers.
And the current prosecutor at the end of the doco is a joke. He’s saying those kids are guilty. If they are guilty why didn’t he go to a re-trial then?
He knew he was going to lose the re-trial because the weight of new evidence found was in favour of the Memphis Three and he would lose votes and lose his position as City Prosecutor.
Never quit. Good things come from frustration. If you are upset about failing, it just means that you haven’t failed enough.
Dream Theater almost called it a day, during the period between 1988 and 1991, when months rolled by and no suitable singer appeared.
Perseverance is a skill. It keeps you estranged from the conventions of society.
Ronnie James Dio spent 18 years paying his dues before finding success with Rainbow in 1976.
How many musicians starting out today will put in 18 years of service to music?
Breakthrough work is usually rejected at first. Success is slow.
There is plenty of money to be made in the long run if you don’t make money your number one priority. Start small and remember you don’t have to start perfect.
Just start.
8 Years Ago (2014)
The record labels arose as a way to get music out of its city venue limitations and into the greater world.
However in time these record labels formed into mega corporations with the emphasis on lower costs and high profit margins.
Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, the labels employed people that figured out how to engineer processes and machines to drive productivity and profit.
The labels ruled the kingdom unchallenged until another player called social disruption reared its head.
It started with a technology called Napster and society showed the powerful record labels what they really think of their high prices.
In the last 20 years, the record labels have constantly stated that the “biggest threat” they face is continued copyright infringement.
They point to research that shows how it is destroying businesses, employments and other sectors. They get people in the press and they get elected politicians on their side to believe those claims. Because, hey, big copyright monopoly companies said that copyright infringement is a threat so it must be a threat.
Did you know that Vivendi (owner of Universal Music) commissioned 23 reports and only 5 of those reports mentioned copyright infringement as a potential risk?
Guess which reports get released to the public.
Did you know that Sony (Sony Music and Sony Pictures) commissioned 15 reports and only 2 of those reports mentioned copyright infringement as a potential risk?
But in their recent annual report, the company listed copyright infringement as a major risk to their business, however 13 reports out of 15 disagree.
The record labels seem to forget that their business is reliant on humans forming a connection with an artist. Yep, with the artist. Not with the label.
Great songs don’t happen overnight or by a committee. They happen by jamming and by creating derivative accidents.
If there was any doubt about the power of “Kashmir”, then look no further than the metal and rock movements during the Eighties.
Kingdom Come’s derivative version “Get it On” helped the self-titled Kingdom Come album released in 1988 move over a million units in the U.S.
Whitesnake employed the same technique in “Judgement Day” from the “Slip Of The Tongue” album, which even though it didn’t reach the sale heights of the self-titled 1987 album, it still moved over a million copies in 1989.
In the Nineties, the main riff was used by Puff Daddy in the song “Come with Me”.
The defining part of the song is the ascending chromatic riff over a pedal point which is made even greater by the drumming from John Bonham, playing slightly behind the beat.
Dave Mustaine is a great employer of this technique.
“In My Darkest Hour” and “The Call Of Ktulu/Hanger 18” both employ this technique,
“Mary Jane” from the “So Far, So Good, So What” album released in 1988 has a riff which comes in at 0.46 and continues throughout the song. If it sounds familiar, it should, it is a very close derivative version of “In My Darkest Hour”.
“This Was My Life” from the “Countdown To Extinction” album released in 1992 has the main verse riff.
“Public Enema Number 1” from the “Th1rte3n” album released in 2011 has the main verse riff.
“The Kingmaker” from the “Super Collider” album released in 2013 has the Chorus riff.
Check em out if you don’t believe me.
“The Thing That Should Not Be” from Metallica is inspired by H.P Lovecraft. It is the story of Cthulu the Apocalyptic Elder God lying in a dream state within his sunken kingdom of R’lyeh.
Today, “The Thing That Should Not Be” is the story of Copyright.
In 1998, the US Congress agreed to grant another 20 years of copyright protection to every film, book and song in the land. And because of this, works that should be in the public domain are not there.
The world needs a sensible copyright policy which makes the public domain bigger and better so people can build upon.
Everyone knows the song, “Every Breath You Take”. It is from the mega selling “Synchronicity” album from The Police and it is credited as a Sting composition.
Sting did bring in the demo with his bass line, synth chords and vocal melody.
But, it is in the performances and the Andy Summers guitar riff which makes the song memorable.
But Sting is credited as the songwriter, so he gets all of the publishing royalties.
And when Puff Daddy did his version, it was the guitar track which was sampled, not the drums or bass, but Summers guitar track.
“The Ultimate Sin” is a misunderstood album.
It is loved by many as much as it is hated.
By 1986, the legend of Ozzy Osbourne was growing. After writing the “Bark At The Moon” album with one finger on the piano m, the heavy metal community waited with anticipation as to what Osbourne would do next.
Jake E. Lee got burned on the song writing credits for the “Bark At The Moon” album, so he demanded a contract up front before he even started writing. It’s not an ideal way to commence the album development cycle however this litigious house is the house that Sharon built.
Of course, the Osbourne’s didn’t credit Daisley for his song writing contributions on the initial 1986 pressing of the album, though this was corrected on subsequent pressings. So there are 500,000 albums out there that doesn’t credit Bob Daisley.
And that’s another wrap for another week.
destroyerofharmony 
Lots of good stuff in the history of destroyerofharmony!
Might do a Gene Simmons Vault release. Lol.
Ha!! I’ll get my checkbook ready!!
The West Memphis Three case was really bad. I lived about 4 hours away from where it all happened. It was kind of the end of the Satanic Panic era, well I guess that and Marilyn Manson.
Headstones! Such a killer band. Now you can watch Hugh Dillion on Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown. That cat is one talented mo-fo!
Yep I saw him cop a bullet in the neck as well in Yellowstone.
“Ronnie James Dio spent 18 years paying his dues before finding success with Rainbow in 1976.” Really? That is fascinating to me! That takes dedication doing music for 18 years before finding real success.
Yep he sure did. And I’m the process he developed his voice and when he found success it was like an overnight sensation
That’s awesome Ronnie used that experience to his advantage and found his sound!