My Sweet Lord: He’s So Fine…I’m So Screwed!

Geez, you write a song to honor The Lord, and you end up getting sued! That's some crazy karma. In what is without doubt the most high-profile copyright infringement suit in music, a U.S. District Court once ordered George Harrison to pay more than $1,599,987 to music publisher Bright tunes for "subconsciously" plagiarizing The Chiffon's "He's Fo Fine" when writing his 1971 mega-hit "My Sweet Lord."

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How Come Together Came Together

John Lennon was one spinal cracker, alright. Who else would LSD guru Timothy Leary ask to write a campaign song for his ill-fated gubernatorial run against Ronald Reagan in 1969? Lennon set out to write a song based on Leary's campaign slogan, Come Together, Join the Party. His original lyric began, "Come together right now, don't come tomorrow, don't come alone." Leary felt the words were awkward and the song unusable. Little matter; the aspirations of the PhD psychologist-turned drug advocate would soon come to an end when he was imprisoned for marijuana possession. But by now John had a good title. And he ended up writing one of his edgiest, self-described gobbledygook songs, ever.

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