The Verve
 

I've had "Urban Hymns" and "A Storm In Heaven" for a few years now, and I can't find any other of their albums, even in the used sections. Well, and amazon.com, but I don't like that place. Or something.

Anyway, anyone else like 'em?

"Bittersweet Symphony" played on the radio the other day, and I marked the f--- out.

Strange. Did the Rolling Stones sue the radio station yet?

Bastards. But yeah, "Bittersweet Symphony" reeks of awesomeness. As does everything off that album.

"The Drugs Don't Work" is another awesome song

Its my favourite song by them :y:

:lol:

What IS the name of the song that Bittersweet takes off from?

I've heard Urban Hymns...:y: Not bad.

I've seen all of their albums in HMV. Just ask at the counter.

I only have Urban Hymns, though. It's a classic.

*** They couldn't get no satisfaction:

Stephanie and I learned something this weekend while watching a music channel documentary. One of the cool songs of the late 1990's, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by the Verve, brought that group virtually no money in royalties. The hook of the song is an orchestral riff, repeated continuously as a subliminal tune behind the haunting melody. The thing is, nobody in the Verve wrote that hook. They took it from a Sixties recording of a Mick Jagger and Keith Richards symphonic experiment with Andrew Oldham, a version of "The Last Time". ABKCO Music owns the song catalog of the Rolling Stones' biggest (and smallest) hits of the Sixties, including this cheesy Stones-on-strings number. The Verve asked ABKCO for permission to use the music as a sample for their song, to which ABKCO said no.

The Verve went ahead anyway. As the Verve's creative leader Richard Ashcroft explains, "I wanted something that opened up into a prairie-music kind of sound, a modern-day Ennio Morricone kind of thing. Then after a while, the song started morphing into this wall of sound, a concise piece of incredible pop music."

For anyone who's heard the song, it's clear that Ashcroft had much more poured into this song than simply a borrowed musical phrase from the Stones. "We sampled four bars," Ashcroft says of the Oldham recording. "That was on one track. Then we did forty-seven tracks of music beyond that little piece. We've got our own string players, our own percussion on it. Guitars. We're talking about a four-bar sample turning into 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' -- and they're still claiming it's the same song."

Legally, "The Last Time" was in fact licensed to the Verve, through the Stones' old label Decca which owned the actual recordings. Jagger and Richards reportedly liked the track. But, getting permission from the publisher for music rights is a different story. And that's where the Verve had to turn over virtually everything to Jagger and Richards, thanks to ABKCO's decision. (ABKCO granted the Verve a small "credit" for their creative inspiration of about $1700.) The Verve wasn't the first band on the receiving end of ABKCO's tough line. George Michael had to give up some of his royalties on "Waiting For That Day" simply because he quoted the Rolling Stones lyric "You Can't Always Get What You Want." And Janet Jackson lost some of her copyright for using the "Satisfaction" lyric, "Hey, hey, hey; that's what I say", in her song, "What'll I Do".

In the end, it probably worked out fairly well for the Verve. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" still brought about heavy album sales, thanks to a shoe company. Hoping to keep ABKCO from indiscriminately selling the song to high bidders, the Verve sold its master recording of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" to Nike for $700,000. Sure, ABKCO received $350,000, but the Verve still got $175,000. And the silver lining -- Nike's commercial using the song helped drive the Verve's CD up the charts; an album otherwise full of completely original Verve tunes.


Source: http://www.americancynic.com/05152000.html

*LOL* Yeah, I knew they got fu</>ck all for the song. The lionshare of royalties go to a songwriter, and for the purposes of legality, they're not considered to have written the song (What with the stones piece so integral to it).

That's not to say songwriters make it rich--Bands who write their own songs are better off, but still waaaaay underpaid.

In this case, with the piece being so much a part of the song, judges would rule in favor of the copyright owners of the Stones.

They had more than one great single off that album anyway. The Drugs Don't Work got to number one over here, and Lucky Man and Sonnet did well too, I seem to remember.

It was actually good business, overall. They got a lotta attention from the suit, it was a really catchy piece, it allowed them to sell other singles.

:y:

Yeah, and the video was great, too.

Ashcroft's solo stuff is a tad hit and miss.

And the album that the other Verve members released last year was apparently crap.

*Insert government joke here*

:heart:

Space and Time is one of my favourites.

:lol: