Who's Song Is It Anyway?

[kim]

Not a poll by any means, but here's a question that begs
for an answer...

So many great songs out there performed by many a group
that have been admired to for more than one persons
contribution on the track itself...regardless of who actually
penned it.

Example,

"Highway Star"...is this Ian's song, for the great vocals or would you consider it to be more Blackmore's claim in regards to the stellar
guitar playing?

Another one which I really couldn't help including...(here it comes...) ;D
Quo's "Caroline"...is it Rossi's vocals or the fact that Parfitt opens up pretty much all of their sets with his trademark guitar in delivering it?

Another one...The Beatles "The Ballad of John and Yoko"...lots to be considered here on this one especially when you consider it was only John and Paul that played on this track to begin with?
Gotta love Pauls drums...backing vocals...yet, John's lead kinda has some balls now doesn't it??

Anyway, you get the drift.
By all means add your own...Rap and Hip-Hop excluded of course...ahahahahahahaha.

Thanks
Kim

[blackers45]

From reading the Unauthorized bio of Ritchie Blackmore years back, the author claimed the track Highway Star was basically written on the tour bus with journalists aboard and one of them asked how they go about writing a song, Ritchie started those famous riffs and Gillan just started throwing words to it only because they were actually driving the bus down the highway to the next gig.They actually played it later that night, this of course were the days when singles were written to be sold so the tunes were sometimes road tested before they were recorded soon after the record industry wanted whole albums to sell instead of 45's so everything then was saved till after the album s came out before being performed on tour. Sorry it' so wordy but that's the whole Highway Star saga

[DrJJones]

I think for 'Caroline', considering Parfitt had no hand in writing it it is probably Rossi's song.

Having said that, originally it was a very slow blues which is the way Rossi & Bob Young had written it although Parfitt was the one who first speeded it up one day in rehearsal saying if it had stayed the same it would have taken about ten minutes before the vocals started.

If you've ever heard the slow version, he has a point.

[Jesse]

Several ways at looking at this question:

1) It belongs to whoever wrote it. Good example would be Skid Row. Sebastian Bach plays up the idea that HE WAS Skid Row, but guitarist Dave Sabo and bassist Rachael Bolan wrote dang near ALL of the hits and they seem to be making a decent living playing those songs now with a different singer. No, they aren't the superstars they used to be, but they probably wouldn't be with Bach in the band now either.


2) It belongs to the band as a whole. Dokken and my band, The Shambles, have a policy where songwriting credits are split evenly amongst the band members who recorded it. I used to not like this policy, but I've come around on it. It helps to choose the best songs for an album regardless of who really wrote what since the money and the credit would be the same for everyone involved. Also, from personal experience, even songs I had nothing to do with writing, I left my mark on them when we recorded them. In other words: the songs would not have been the same if someone else recorded my parts.
Molly Hatchet is another good example that the song belongs to the band as a whole. This is why they were able to continue touring sans any original members for the better part of 10 years. This is also why anyone who's ever been in the band gets away with playing Molly Hatchet music in whatever band they are currently in. Prime example: Rik Blanz, Molly Hatchet guitarist from 1990 til about 1992. He was never part of any recording line up and was far removed from the line ups that produced "Flirtin' With Disaster" and "Beatin' The Odds", but yet he's been known to crank out a Hatchet tune or 2 in every band he's played in since. Ands why not? He WAS Molly Hatchet's guitarist for 2 years playing those songs AS Molly Hatchet, so he can claim those songs as well as anybody.

3)It belongs to us, the fans! In some ways, this goes hand in hand with the last one. Anytime a band comes around without a key member (or in Hatchet's case, ANY key member), the fans have a right to leave and never see that band again. But most often, they don't. The songs are the fans' and they have a right to hear them played by whatever group of musicians they want.
Largely unknown original artist Liz Larin wrote on her website one time that once she wrote, recorded and released a song, it belonged to us, the fans. And she's right. Once it's out there, cover bands can learn it and the fans can decide if we want to pay a $5 cover to see a bar band do a shitty version of "Sweet Home Alabama", pay $1 to the jukebox for the REAL version of it or pay around $50 to see the liscensed version of Lynyrd Skynyrd play it or pay around $20 to see Artimus Pyle's Street Survivors (featuring 4 pre-crash members of Skynyrd) play it. The song belongs to US.