Many years ago I was playing around with a melody on my flute. Just the melody of an A section; I never took it any further.

But the melody haunted me and it seems I would play it frequently when putting the flute together. Just 8 bars of music that flowed out of my fingers while checking the flute to see if I put it together right (feel is more important than sight to see if the flute pieces are aligned properly).

Then one day I walked into Barnes & Noble (when they still had a good CD collection) and I say a Dave Brubeck CD of an album I used to have when I was a child, "Time Further Out". When I got home I played it and when the song "Maori Blues" came out, I realized it was the melody I was playing.

Unconscious plagiarism I suppose. It's a good thing I never finished the song and recorded it.

And there are hundreds of cases where one song has a melody or part that is the same as another, especially in folk, country, blues and rock music. But the people weren't as picky about such things in the past.

There were a few famous cases like the aforementioned George Harrison song. Surfin' USA is Sweet Little Sixteen by Chuck Berry, but so was "Twistin' USA" but that record didn't sell enough to warrant a lawsuit.

But listening to old 12 bar blues or I-vi-IV-V7 chord progressions of the 60s and 70s, often the only thing creative about them is the B section.

Personally, I think copyright protection is a good thing, but like all things, sometimes there is abuse in enforcement. IMHO "Blurred Lines" was a mistake, and "Stairway To Heaven" was not worthy of the lawsuit.

But I'm not the copyright czar and my opinion isn't always the best one either.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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