crockett

Today marks the 1st day that the song writer Richard Ashcroft makes a dime from his Grammy nominated 1997 hit Bitter Sweet Sympathy by his band The Verve.

Why are Baby Boomers so greedy and selfish? Why is Mick Jagger & Keith Richards such a cunts?




The story for those who don't know... Also for those that claim it was the Stone's manager not Mick Jagger/Keith Richards that is not True. The Stones were behind the lawsuit to fuck over Richard Ashcroft. After they sued the fuck out of him once the song got popular the Stone's manager then fucked over Mick Jagger/Keith Richards and kept the royalties for him self. (poetic justice maybe?). Then went on to licence the Verve's song commercially and collected 100% of the money. (several millions).

The extremity of this was absolutely absurd because this was never a case of the Verve "stealing" the Stones work and using a sample with out permission. The Verve legally negotiated for the rights to use the sample in their song but after the song became a hit the Stones turned around and sued him saying he used "too long" of a sample..


The now defunct British outfit The Verve sampled an orchestration on their song "Bittersweet Symphony" from The Rolling Stone's "The Last Time". Before the release of the album, The Verve negotiated a licensing agreement with The Rolling Stones to use the sample -- at least the composition rights to the sample. In 1997, The Verve's album "Urban Hymns" peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Charts. What ensued was a bitter (and not sweet) legal battle resulting in The Verve turning over 100% of the royalties to the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones argued that The Verve had violated the previous licensing agreement by using too much of the sample in their song. The Verve argued that The Rolling Stones got greedy when the song became successful. Herein lies the issue of moral rights of a samplist.

"The last thing I ever wanted was for my music to be used in a commercial. I'm still sick about it", The Verve's lead singer Richard Ashcroft said in a recent interview. So, that's exactly what Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein did. Capitalizing off the success of the song, Klein licensed The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" to Nike, who proceeded to run a multi-million dollar television campaign using The Verve's song over shots of its sneakers. Klein also used the song to hawk Vauxhall automobiles. Additionally, though the song was authored by The Rolling Stones, the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra performed the sampled recording and also filed suit upon the success of the song. (Herein lies a fine caveat to license both the recording and composition rights from whomever maintains them.) To add even more insult to injury, when "Bittersweet Symphony" was nominated for a Grammy, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were named the nominees and not The Verve. What could be more "Bittersweet" than your song reaching the top of the charts and not being able to enjoy a cent of its success?

"It could've been worse," Ashcroft continued. "If we hadn't fought, 'Symphony' could've ended up on a cheeseburger ad and never have been taken seriously again." Yum.



Edit.. For the record the Album Urban Hymns was a great album.

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