My sweet lord
| My sweet lord | |
|---|---|
| George Harrison | |
| publication | November 1970 |
| length | 4 min 37 s |
| Genre (s) | Pop , gospel |
| Author (s) | George Harrison |
| album | All Things Must Pass |
| Charts (1970/1971) | Top position |
|---|---|
| Singles charts A | 1 |
| Singles charts D | 1 |
| Singles charts CH | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 1 |
| Singles charts USA | 1 |
My Sweet Lord is a song by George Harrison that he recorded for his solo album All Things Must Pass in 1970 and that was released together with Isn't It a Pity as a double A-side single. It is considered one of the most famous plagiarisms in music history.
composition
The piece was written in Copenhagen in mid-December 1969 when Harrison accompanied Delaney & Bonnie on their tour. As George Harrison himself said, he was inspired by the gospel song Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers . The song is written in the key of E major . George Harrison mentions the key in his 1976 piece This Song , in which he responded to allegations of plagiarism. The song, written in four-four time , has a playing time of 4:37 minutes. It was produced by George Harrison and Phil Spector .
My Sweet Lord is a prayer to God the Lord (Lord) in eight verses. In it, the author wishes (want) five things: to see the Lord ( see , lines 1 and 3), to be with him ( be with , line 2), to know him ( know , line 5) with him go with ( go with , line 6) to show him ( show , line 7) that the fulfillment of these wishes will not take long (won't take long) , which he had claimed in lines 3 and 4 (it takes so long) .
The choir answers Harrison's lines in the first part with the Judeo-Christian call Hallelujah , in the second part with the Hindu Hare Krishna mantra . Harrison wanted to show that these two expressions are quite the same thing .
publication
On the above tour was Billy Preston , who published the song on his album Encouraging Words - produced by George Harrison for Apple Records . This album was released on January 7, 1970 and was thus the first publication of the composition. In November 1970, the song appeared on the album All Things Must Pass , on January 15, 1971, the title was also included as a double A-side single the piece Isn't It a Pity .
occupation
Occupation:
- George Harrison: vocals, choral singing, acoustic guitar, slide guitar
- Eric Clapton : guitar
- Billy Preston : piano
- Bobby Whitlock : piano
- Klaus Voormann : electric bass
- Gary Wright : electric piano
- Pete Ham : acoustic guitar
- Tom Evans: acoustic guitar
- Joey Molland : acoustic guitar
- John Barham: String arrangement, possibly harmonium
- Ringo Starr : drums
- Jim Gordon : drums
- Mike Gibbins: Percussion
Plagiarism charge and trial
On February 10, 1971, just under a month after the title was published (and subsequently occupied the top positions in the international charts for weeks), there was a plagiarism lawsuit. The charge: Harrison had the melody of the song with the Chiffons , a US -amerikanischen girl group of the 1960s stolen. In February 1963 they had a million seller with their song He's So Fine and reached number 1 on the US hit parade . Seven years later, George Harrison released My Sweet Lord , the melody line and hookline of which were very similar to the Chiffons title. The plaintiff was Bright Tunes Music Corp. as the owner of the rights to the composition He's so Fine .
The process dragged on over many years. First it had to be clarified whether there was a copyright infringement by George Harrison. After the competent court had clearly established this, Harrison's lawyers agreed to a settlement that it had committed "unintentional plagiarism". The next step was to determine the amount of damages Harrison would have to pay. The court used a complicated formula to calculate the income from My Sweet Lord through record sales, playing the title on the radio, television and at concerts or sheet music sales. Furthermore, the court came to the conclusion that album sales also had to be included in the bill, since the success of the single had also fueled LP sales.
In the end, the court came up with an amount of US $ 2,133,316 . However, this amount was reduced by a factor of 'George Harrison', as the court found that the song's success was partly due to the artist Harrison. The amount payable was set at $ 1,599,987.
Allen Klein , who had been a manager for the Beatles since 1969 and who also represented George Harrison, played a shady role in the story . Among other things, he was involved in organizing the concert for Bangladesh . Klein used his insider knowledge to buy off all copyright rights from Bright Tunes and thus secure the payments to be expected from the plagiarism process. This plan did not work, however, because the court ruled that Klein should not benefit financially from the breach of his duty of care to Harrison.
The process did not in any way diminish My Sweet Lord's fame . While the chiffons no longer played a role in the music business in 1970, Harrison's work is now one of the most famous plagiarisms in music history. Harrison himself drew the following conclusion from the legal battle that had lasted for decades:
“I even tried to give My Sweet Lord away to get the thing settled - just let'em have it; it doesn't matter to me. I've never had any money from it - it's always been in escrow - and as far as I'm concerned the effect the song has had far exceeds any bitching that's been going on between copyright people; it's just greed and jealousy and all that. Give them the song - I don't care. But my lawyers said: 'Oh no you can't do that; it's impossible [...] '. So, it drags on but it's certainly not giving me sleepless nights. "
"I even tried to just give My Sweet Lord away to deal with it - just give them rights; I don't care. I've never seen any money from it anyway - it was always with the trustee - and as far as I'm concerned the impact the song had had far outweighed all the squabbling that went on between the copyright people; it's all just greed and jealousy. Give the song to them - I don't care. But my lawyers said, 'Oh no, you can't do that, it's impossible […]'. And so this matter drags on, but it certainly doesn't cause me any sleepless nights. "
Others
- In response to the quarrels over My Sweet Lord , Harrison released the single This Song in 1976 . In this song he dealt ironically with what was going on. Among other things, the text says:
“This song ain't black or white and as far as I know don't infringe on anyone's copyright…”
"This song is neither black nor white and as far as I can tell it does not violate any copyright law ..."
- and the line is alluding to the opponent Bright Tunes
"This tune has nothing Bright about it ..."
"This melody contains nothing from Bright ..."
- On the occasion of the revision of the album All Things Must Pass for CD release in 2000, Harrison recorded a new version of the piece with Sam Brown .
- On January 14, 2002, My Sweet Lord was released again as a single. This time, the single was not the song Isn't It a Pity , instead My Sweet Lord (2000) and Let It Down were present.
Cover versions
- In 1971 Vicky Leandros recorded a German-language cover version entitled Wo ist he? on.
- The concert recording of an interpretation by Nina Simone with the participation of the Bethany Baptist Church Junior Choir Of South Jamaica was released in 1972.
- Billy Preston performed My Sweet Lord at the Concert for George in 2002 .
literature
- NN : George Harrison. His Eighteen Greatest Songs. Music sales. London 1991. ISBN 0-7119-2523-2 .
- Jason Fine (Ed.): Harrison. Olms. Zurich 2002. ISBN 3-283-00445-5 .
- George Harrison: I Me Mine . Genesis. Guildford 2017. ISBN 978-1-905662-40-1 .
- Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison . Embossers. Santa Barbara 2010. ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3 .
- Simon Leng: The Music of George Harrison. While My Guitar Gently Weeps . Firefly. London 2003. ISBN 0-9467-1950-0 .
- Andreas Rohde: George Harrison solo. A musical biography . Nicole Schmenk. Oberhausen 2013. ISBN 978-3-943022-14-8 .
Web links
- Detailed description of the process (Engl.)
- Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music ( Memento from April 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), UCLA School Of Law ( English )
Individual evidence
- ↑ George Harrison - My Sweet Lord - austriancharts.at . Ö3 Austria Top 40 . Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ Günter Ehnert (ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956–1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press 1990, p. 93
- ↑ George Harrison - My Sweet Lord - hitparade.ch . Swiss Music Charts. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ↑ George Harrison in the British charts . The Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
- ↑ allmusic (All Things Must Pass> Charts & Awards> Billboard Singles) . allmusic.com. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ Harrison p. 174
- ↑ His Eighteen Greatest Songs, pp. 3–5
- ↑ This song is in E . Harrison pp. 363 and 365
- ↑ Leng p. 58; Rohde pp. 25–26
- ↑ Fricke, David: The stories behind the songs . Ed .: Fine. S. 179 .
- ↑ Fricke p. 179
- ↑ Inglis p. 24
- ^ Harrison p. 173
- ^ Harrison p. 174
- ↑ Rohde, p. 33
- ↑ scholar.google.com: Bright Tunes Music Corp. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd., 420 F. Supp. 177 - Dist. Court, SD New York 1976 . Retrieved March 24, 2018
- ↑ George Harrison: I, Me, Mine . London: Phoenix, 2004. ISBN 0-7538-1734-9 . P. 63 f.
- ^ Rohde, p. 35
- ↑ Nina Simone - In Concert - Emergency Ward! Retrieved July 10, 2018 .
- ^ Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison , p. 127
Experimental studio album:
Electronic Sound (1969)
Studio albums:
All Things Must Pass (1970) |
Living in the Material World (1973) |
Dark Horse (1974) |
Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975) |
Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976) |
George Harrison (1979) |
Somewhere in England (1981) |
Gone Troppo (1982) |
Cloud Nine (1987) |
Brainwashed (2002)
Live albums:
The Concert for Bangla Desh (1971) |
Live in Japan (1992)
Album of unreleased material:
Early Takes: Volume 1 (2012)
Compilations:
The Best of George Harrison (1976) |
Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989 (1989) |
Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison (2009)
Box sets:
The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992 (2004) |
The Apple Years 1968-75 (2014)
Soundtracks:
Wonderwall Music (1968)
Traveling Wilburys Albums :
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988) |
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990) |
The Traveling Wilburys Collection (2007)