Hope was inspiring, taking time to carefully and charmingly introduce each piece for the audience, putting the significance of each work into perspective. The NCCO were wonderful, vigorous when they needed to rock yet delicate in an instant as the composition required. Accidents happen of course so The Flaming Lips gave Cat Stevens credit on “ Fight Test” (from their brilliant album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots) when it was deemed just a bit too close to his “Father & Son.” Beatle George Harrison subconsiously got too close to The Chiffon’s hit “He’s So Fine” with his smash solo hit “ My Sweet Lord.”Īnyhow, all this came to mind when I recently saw a performance by San Francisco’s fine New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) with its current Music Director, Violin virtuoso Daniel Hope. Unfortunately, legendary rockers Led Zeppelin apparently got into hot water by not initially giving credit to writers like Willie Dixon (“ You Need Love“) and Jake Holmes (“ Dazed & Confused“). Years ago I remember reading or seeing an interview with Jerry Garcia explaining how he proactively gave Elizabeth Cotton credit for her 1966 song “ Shake Sugaree” when he learned it existed (and had probably influenced lyricist Robert Hunter for their like-named song). Respect folks… talkin’ bout respect here. Barry Manilow gave credit to Chopin for the basic melody on his breakthrough epic “ Could It Be Magic.” Pete Townshend of The Who named his Baba O’Riley in part for Terry Riley, the composer of the groundbreaking 1964 composition known as “ In C.” Frank Zappa came out of the gate on his 1966 debut citing his influences in the so called “Freak Out List” and over the course of his career performed segments of works by Stravinsky and others directly or in homage. Rimsky Korsakov talked about his compositional lifts in his autobiography. Some have thankfully been up front about it. Still, I am amazed how some artists don’t at least acknowledging the source. “ Whosampled” is a great source for exploring artistic DNA of the sampling world.
Today, with the Internet acting as an always-on archive, it is pretty easy to figure out who copped things from whom if there is enough of a similarity. This isn’t a new thing, but how artists deal with this concept publicly is curious in these litigious times we live in. Its the difference between tribute and theft. those who just lift musical passages as their own. There is however a fine line - especially these days - between inspired artists who leverage ideas vs. A grand tradition dating back to the earliest days of composing, sounds and ideas get passed down through the ages, changing along the way. What did they do? They all incorprated music that influenced them into their own songwriting.
Many Rap and Hip Hop artists have done it. Twitter Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsApp
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