A Whiter Shade Of Pale Court Case

[Soulstation1]

Link

[Jim Alfredson]

He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavor.

Purvis said the solo "is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song."

"Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune," he said.

Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song's copyright and royalties.

Brooker, who is credited as the song's author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.

Brooker has said the melody was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on a G-string" and "Sleepers Awake."

Inspired by Bach? It's completely ripped off from Bach! Fisher is an idiot.

[bertrand]

So does JSB get any royalties???

Bertrand.

[paul secor]

Shows how much I know. All these years I thought they took "When a Man Loves a Woman", turned it around and ran with it.

[Johnny E]

Sad.

[Teasing the Korean]

Aside from the fact that the organ part was inspired by - or ripped off from - Bach, this case touches on an issue that has interested me for a long time: The degree to which a distintive riff in a pop song contributes to the overall presentation of a tune, consequesntly, its popularity. It gets more complex when you consider that many of these riffs were invented by people other than the composer. For example, Dylan didn't write the 12 string "Mr. Tambourine Man" riff, and Carol King didn't write the "Pleasant Valley Sunday" riff. Still, these riffs are so great and distinctive they surely boosted sales of the records. If you were to write new songs based around those riffs, someone would probably try to sue, but who would it be? That said, I agree with Booker's assertion - or his lawyer's - that deciding in favor of Fisher creates a slippery slope in future similar cases.

[suitandtieguy]

Inspired by Bach? It's completely ripped off from Bach! Fisher is an idiot.

"ripped off" in the sense that "Groove's Groove" is a complete ripoff of "The Preacher"

there's a page over at the Web Archive which is currently _ten_years_old_ which goes into quite grisly detail as to what exactly the relationship of Fisher's organ part to Bach is:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010616224827/...g/awsopafg.html

That said, I agree with Booker's assertion - or his lawyer's - that deciding in favor of Fisher creates a slippery slope in future similar cases.

i suppose a four measure obliggato could be compared to a one bar riff, but considering it is the "hook" of the song and i've seen Dr Dre sued for adopting a groove of a tune then slippery slope or not Booker's attitude that Fisher was "just a sideman" on that recording is highly insulting.