 |
| George Harrison,1968(photo:AP) |
In 1976,George Harrison was sued by Bright Tunes for an alleged plagiarism,citing similarities between his song "My Sweet Lord" which was included on his 1970 album All Things Must Pass and the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" which was written by Robert Mack.The lawsuit was actually passed five years earlier but it wasn't until 1976 when the court hearings started to proceed with music experts examining every detail between the two songs and Harrison attending the proceedings with guitar in hand,arguing the fact that the two songs were different from one another.
Harrison lost the case and the sad thing is that he had to pay for the damages to none other than Allen Klein,who he was so eager to have as Beatles manager post-Epstein.Klein seemed to have double crossed Lennon,Harrison and Starr who backed him up during the Beatles' darkest hour in 1969 which eventually led to the band's breakup.With McCartney leaving the group,the other three ended up suing Klein as well which eventually led to the latter spending some time in prison for some things that he did anyway.
Here are the songs that were the subject of plagiarism on this topic,first let's listen to "My Sweet Lord" and later compare it to the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" which was also posted below on this page:
And here's the Chiffons with "He's So Fine"
On that same year in 1976,George wrote and recorded "This Song" in which he made a parody of the court proceedings that he went through with his composition in which the judge ruled out that he subconsciously plagiarised it with another song.The song even has a music video which was way ahead of its time as MTV wasn't around until 1981.Complete with courtroom dramas with several of his friends helping him out like drummer Jim Keltner who played with all four ex-Beatles acting as the judge and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones dressed in drag and acted as one of the juries.
Adding insult to injury,singer/comedian Jonathan King made a parody of both songs by singing "He's So Fine" set to the tune of "My Sweet Lord" complete with slide guitar and acoustic arrangements.His parody made loyal Beatles and Harrison fans uncomfortable....
(c) Keith Vernon Adagio
I think what Jonathan King did was to try and make He's So Fine sound as much like My Sweet Lord as he could, not the other way around. I agree there are similarities but I never thought it was a copyright infringement. I guess that's why I'm no legal expert...haha! As for This Song I think the video is a great piece of satire and a great song.
ReplyDelete