August 15: Song of the Day. The Verve–Love Is Noise
![The Verve: Forth [album cover art]](http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj23/deeplyrootedradio/200px-Forth.jpg)
It took almost 8 years for the British rock band The Verve to put aside their personal conflicts and to begin gathering the pieces back together after calling it quits back in 1999. The band announced last summer that they had decided to re-unite with their original line-up and now a little over a year later, the Verve is preparing to release their first album since 1997’s Urban Hymns. The new album, titled Forth, hits stores in the U.S. on August 26th.
In addition to the personal problems which led to their break-up, the band was also plagued by the legal issues involving looped samples used in their most known well-known song “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. The samples, taken from Rolling Stones song ”The Last Time”, resulted in the band not only having to give songwriting credits to both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, but they also were forced to give up all of the royalties and publishing rights for the song as a result of an out-of-court settlement reached with the Stones’ record label ABKCO Records. The Verve reportedly has not seen a single penny from what is still their biggest hit.
The video for the sample-free first single “Love Is Noise” from the Verve’s “forth”-coming album is after the break. Tell us what you think.
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Love Is Noise by The Verve
Popularity: 36% [?]
Tagged as: 08/15, Bitter Sweet Symphony, Forth, lawsuit, Love Is Noise, Music, Song of the Day, The Verve
Shaun, that story about the royalties is insane. When will people realize that being open and sharing about IP creates a much better business model? P.S. Good choice on the song
I guess the full story is that The Verve had been given permission to use a sample of the Stones song initially. But when the song was finished the folks in the Stones camp felt that the sample was used more prominently than originally agreed upon and they took the Verve to court. Also, with the full publishing rights in hand the ABKCO folks could license the song however they wished, as a result “Bitter Sweet Symphony” ended up in commercials and in the soundtrack for the film Cruel Intentions despite the Verve’s protests.
And thus The Verve’s creation actually replaces the “original”. So what if poor rock stars never see a dime? An irrefutable mark is made on the collective popular-culture consciousness. You can’t buy that, baby.
Re. sampling: nothing new under the sun. No new tale to tell. In the 21st Century, originality is not only passe, but art-referencing-other-art will be the only true art left. All mediated experiences are addressing their own at-least-by-one-remove from an authentic(unmediated) experience, and usually there are many more levels involved than that. Nothing here now but the simulations…