Re: [Harp-L] copyright issues and permission

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> How does that work if you use say the mojo working groove but have 
> different lyrics. Is it groove based or lyric based or ..... we are 
> planning a demo cd and this info would very useful to save a ton of anguish/$$.

You can't copyright a groove.  I don't remember exactly how it turned out, 
but Michael McDonald's people were said to be pretty ticked off when the 
pop song Steal Away pretty much copped the precise groove of What A Fool 
Believes.  But I doubt anyone had to pay anything, even though that groove 
was fantastically original.

Used to, you couldn't copyright an arrangement.

Now you can, but copyrighting a groove doesn't sound likely.  A song is 
what gets copyrighted - lyrics, a melody, changes, all together.  An 
arrangement can't be stolen the way they used to be stolen, but I believe 
it has to be associated with a song.  It's mainly to prevent 'sound-alike 
recordings, which mimicked hit songs quite precisely.

I'm not a lawyer, so you have to take my advice with a giant grain of salt, 
but though there have been many lawsuits for song theft, I never heard of 
anyone copyrighting a groove or suing for such a thing.  The Mojo groove is 
part of American music, even if someone had to invent it to begin with.

Now, if you also copped the melody, you might consider coming up with a new 
one.

Deifik's Sound-alike Story: Selling sound-alikes for cheap was a real 
business back in the 70's.  Many of the eight track tapes sold in truck 
stops were sound-alikes.  They sold for alot less than the original hit, 
and most people probably couldn't tell the difference.  I used to make part 
of my living playing on those things.  I was hired to copy Charlie McCoy's 
parts, and so were some other harp players.  Often the same guys that were 
on the original recording just did it again for the sound-alike producer, 
who was a beloved and legendary figure in Nashville, a world-famous 
musician whose music had gone out of fashion, just trying to make a 
living.  I also came in when a hit recording had a non-professional playing 
harp.  Grrr.   I played on the sound-alike of John Denver's Back Home 
Again, which had some very non-professional sounding harp on it.  It's hard 
to play like a newbie if you aren't a newbie.  It was much easier to copy 
Charlie McCoy, though it wasn't a picnic.  Years later I worked for a 
company in NY that bought this Nashville sound-alike company, only I didn't 
know they owned the recordings I was on.  Boxes of their recordings came 
in, and I pulled one out and started playing it on my office 
turntable.  The first song was Back Home Again.  It sounded ever so 
slightly off.  Then the harp player came on and I said to myself "Gee, I 
don't recall that harp player playing so clean.  I thought he was an 
amateur."  Then I recognized myself.