Winsome Wisdom - Rocky Top, You'll Always Be...part 2 by Steve Chappell
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In our visit last month, I told you of my ongoing telecom relationship with legendary songwriter, Boudleaux Bryant, who with his wife Felice, wrote many well-known tunes. "Rocky Top" being perhaps the best known, certainly among Tennessee Volunteer fans.
Unless your are an avid devotee of country music history, you are likely unaware of the lawsuit filed by the Bryants alleging copyright infringement by the writing team of Sandy Pinkard and Larry Collins. The song in question: You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma, performed by David Frizzell and Shelly West, and featured in the 1981 Clint Eastwood film Any Which Way You Can.
Pinkard is best known among country fans as half of the parody duo Pinkard and Bowden. Among the chart records performed by this new version of Homer and Jethro include (and I am not making this up): I Lobster But I Never Flounder and Mama, She's Lazy.
Larry Collins floundered (sorry!) around the music biz as part of a family ensemble called the Collins Kids during the 1950's. Collins' most notable achievement is his song Delta Dawn co-written with Alex Harvey.
When the dust finally settled, the Bryants won their lawsuit, and now share writing and publishing royalties with Pinkard and Collins. But the burning question here is how did the courts determine that copyright infringement did indeed occur?
Test it for yourself using the following steps:
• Listen to any performance of Rocky Top ranging from the bluegrass classic by the Osborne Brothers to UT's Pride of the Southland Band.
• With the melody fresh in your head, imagine listening to the song on a record at painfully slow 33 rpm meant to be played at 45 rpm.
• Finally, listen to You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma at normal tempo.
As you will hear, the verses melody in both songs are identical. Judgment for House of Bryant.
Was the infringement deliberate? As a songwriter myself, I seriously doubt it. Most other successful writers I know didn't become successful by stealing other writers' work.
There's a big difference between the crook who deliberately steals your computer off the table while you're having a Starbucks, and the unsuspecting and innocent soul who inadvertently picks up your computer thinking it's his or hers.
Next month, some reflections on a friend whose memory still haunts me.
Unless your are an avid devotee of country music history, you are likely unaware of the lawsuit filed by the Bryants alleging copyright infringement by the writing team of Sandy Pinkard and Larry Collins. The song in question: You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma, performed by David Frizzell and Shelly West, and featured in the 1981 Clint Eastwood film Any Which Way You Can.
Pinkard is best known among country fans as half of the parody duo Pinkard and Bowden. Among the chart records performed by this new version of Homer and Jethro include (and I am not making this up): I Lobster But I Never Flounder and Mama, She's Lazy.
Larry Collins floundered (sorry!) around the music biz as part of a family ensemble called the Collins Kids during the 1950's. Collins' most notable achievement is his song Delta Dawn co-written with Alex Harvey.
When the dust finally settled, the Bryants won their lawsuit, and now share writing and publishing royalties with Pinkard and Collins. But the burning question here is how did the courts determine that copyright infringement did indeed occur?
Test it for yourself using the following steps:
• Listen to any performance of Rocky Top ranging from the bluegrass classic by the Osborne Brothers to UT's Pride of the Southland Band.
• With the melody fresh in your head, imagine listening to the song on a record at painfully slow 33 rpm meant to be played at 45 rpm.
• Finally, listen to You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma at normal tempo.
As you will hear, the verses melody in both songs are identical. Judgment for House of Bryant.
Was the infringement deliberate? As a songwriter myself, I seriously doubt it. Most other successful writers I know didn't become successful by stealing other writers' work.
There's a big difference between the crook who deliberately steals your computer off the table while you're having a Starbucks, and the unsuspecting and innocent soul who inadvertently picks up your computer thinking it's his or hers.
Next month, some reflections on a friend whose memory still haunts me.
