Song Covers and Copyright: Is Don Henley Right or Uptight?
10 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Song Covers and Copyright: Is Don Henley Right or Uptight?
This is an interesting one.
Alt-hip hop artist Frank Ocean apparently took it upon himself to write new lyrics to the track of ‘Hotel California,’ Eagles‘ legendary and multi-million selling rock anthem. Ocean didn’t release the song commercially but did make it available for free and performed it live.
Don Henley was not impressed and he refused to allow Ocean to release it.
In an interview with Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph, Henley said:
“Mr Ocean doesn’t seem to understand US copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can’t do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it’s against the law. That’s a problem with some of the younger generation, they don’t understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright. [Mr Ocean] was quite arrogant about it. We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn’t listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn’t dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don’t understand it.”
Ocean’s response came via Tumblr, writing that “[Henley] was apparently intimidated by my rendition of ‘Hotel California,’” that Henley “threatened to sue if I perform it again,” and then really shows that he doesn’t get it by complaining “Isn’t this guy rich as fuck? Why sue the new guy?”
Because “the new guy” is in the wrong perhaps? Ocean shows himself to be quite arrogant and entitled here. So what if Henley has made more money than he knows what to do with? That still doesn’t make it OK to steal his work. And dude, I promise you that the last thing Henley was, was “intimiated.”
Henley’s issue isn’t that no one is allowed to cover Eagles songs, but that artists who wish to do so need to go about it correctly. He also blocked a cover of ‘The End of the Innocence’ by rock band Okkervil River, mainly because the band changed some of the lyrics before recording it, both without permission. In contrast, Michael Buble recorded and released his version of ‘Heartache Tonight’ after procuring all the right licences and permissions.
Henley sums up his position like this:
“You can record anyone’s song you like. It’s called a compulsory licence. That’s not what Mr Ocean nor Okkervil River did. They took the song and they changed it. They put their own stuff on it. Michael Buble did a totally legal cover, that’s standard procedure.”
‘Hotel California’ was written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley. If you take their work, they should be compensated for it. It should be pretty clear-cut but apparently it isn’t. And it mainly seems to be an issue in the music industry.
If I copy too many words out of a printed book, it’s called plagiarism and everyone accepts that I’m breaking copyright law. But somehow, when it comes to a non-tangible work like music, for some people this copying is no longer a problem. Songwriters have to fight harder than seemingly any creative group for fair compensation, and it seems to get harder still. It’s worrying that new artists, and apparently also their lawyers, seem to take copyright laws so lightly.
Is it “a lack of respect,” as Henley posited, or is it because younger artists grew up in a world where music was seemingly available for “free” on the internet?
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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