OnlyNDaUsa said:

alxndrstff said:

In terms of people not knowing some of Prince's work, I've had people ask me "when did Prince cover that Tom Jones song?"........ :-

Really?

I've heard that one several times too.

mrmarcus said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

alxndrstff said: Really?

I've heard that one several times too.

You guys need to hang out with a better class of people...

leonche64 said:

mrmarcus said:

I've heard that one several times too.

You guys need to hang out with a better class of people...

I assume that's a joke, but just in case, sometimes it's as much to do with culture and/or age as it is anything else.

When I was 10 or so, I would have told you the same thing. I'd never heard Prince's version (or at least was too young to have registered it), but was just getting into the radio in time to hear Tom Jones' version played over and over.

I can't even remember how long it was before that moment of revelation (but I don't think it was even the first time I heard Prince sing it), yet now I can't even remember what Tom's version sounds like.

Prince made a lot of money out of Chaka's and (especially) Sinnead's covers of his songs and he was exposed to more people than his regular listeners.

I'm sure that was not so terrible for him.

I don't see The Stylistics or The Delfonics, or Joan Osbourne or Bonnie Raitt making good money out of Prince's covers of his music.

AND you have to be very cheeky to diss about people covering his music when a good chunk of his followers is more than fed up of him playing (lame) lots of covers in his concerts.

Chiquetet said:

leonche64 said:

You guys need to hang out with a better class of people...

I assume that's a joke, but just in case, sometimes it's as much to do with culture and/or age as it is anything else.

When I was 10 or so, I would have told you the same thing. I'd never heard Prince's version (or at least was too young to have registered it), but was just getting into the radio in time to hear Tom Jones' version played over and over.

I can't even remember how long it was before that moment of revelation (but I don't think it was even the first time I heard Prince sing it), yet now I can't even remember what Tom's version sounds like.

Yeah, it was a joke. I simply refuse on principle to put a smiling face on my post.

mrmarcus said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

alxndrstff said: Really?

I've heard that one several times too.

That's fucking weird.

[Edited 4/19/11 10:32am]

Cloudbuster said:

leonche64 said:

This stance I really don't get. Prince has covered, recorded, and released as singles, songs by other artist. He has performed these on television without mentioning he was not the writer. In concert he says "Ya'll know who wrote this?", when he covers a song he wrote. (Yes, it is possible to cover your own song if you are not the artist that brought the song to prominence). Does he say the same thing when he covers Bonnie Rait, Radiohead, the Delfonics, Tommy James and the Shondellas, The Foo Fighters, James Brown, The Ohio Players, and the others he drops in at individual shows. It is very hypocritical. Him comparing the writing of music and the writing of a novel like Steven King, while soundbite worthy, is legal Apples and Oranges.

Someone asked if it was possible to cover a song that had not been released. The answer is not without the permission of the person who holds the rights to the song. If a song has been released, it is deemed to be in the public domain, and can be recorded with or without permission. The compensation ranges on a multitude of factors. However, there are restrictions on performing the song. Then there is the issue of a cover vs a parody. Think Prince performing One of Us and Weird Al performing Eat it to get the point.

No, a song is only in the public domain when its copyright has expired.

What Prince is referring to in the interview is the system of 'compulsory licenses'.

He makes it an issue that it is only with music, not with books or TV shows or anything, that somebody can 'take' your song and cover it without permission, just as long as you pay the compulsory licences fee.

It's not as simple as he makes it to be tho'.

And he uses this system himself too.

--

[Edited 4/19/11 15:02pm]

Number23 said:

Cloudbuster said:

FUCKING YAAAS! I thought you were dead, my friend.

Neither you nor I nor the rest of the world could be so lucky.

Good to see you fella.

Number23 said:

Cloudbuster said:

FUCKING YAAAS! I thought you were dead, my friend.

O. M. G.

I think he is just an egotist and inconsistently changes his mind to suit how he feels on any given day. Well we all do this to some degree so I can't totally fault him for it.

When Nothing Compares or I Feel 4 U were popular everyone knew that Prince wrote them. He thanked Sinead O'Connor in the liner notes to Diamonds & Pearls.

Now that people are no longer talking and saying ignorant things like Tom Jones wrote Kiss, he is bitter. But he got paid for that, and plenty of songwriters have not let other artists cover their material when they didn't want them to. I am not a lawyer, but there are some famous examples, such as Bruce Springsteen saying someone could not cover a particular song because it was not a girl song.

So Prince must have had some say as to whether Chaka covered I Feel 4 U. Maybe I am wrong, but I am pretty confident he was not upset that it became a big hit. He offered her other songs to sing later.

[Edited 4/19/11 18:01pm]

Cloudbuster said:

NDRU said:

I think he is just an egotist and inconsistently changes his mind to suit how he feels on any given day. Well we all do this to some degree so I can't totally fault him for it.

When Nothing Compares or I Feel 4 U were popular everyone knew that Prince wrote them. He thanked Sinead O'Connor in the liner notes to Diamonds & Pearls.

Now that people are no longer talking and saying ignorant things like Tom Jones wrote Kiss, he is bitter. But he got paid for that, and plenty of songwriters have not let other artists cover their material when they didn't want them to. I am not a lawyer, but there are some famous examples, such as Bruce Springsteen saying someone could not cover a particular song because it was not a girl song.

So Prince must have had some say as to whether Chaka covered I Feel 4 U. Maybe I am wrong, but I am pretty confident he was not upset that it became a big hit. He offered her other songs to sing later.

[Edited 4/19/11 18:01pm]

Like I said in the vegan/vegetarian thread, he's only saying things to get a rise out of people (like most stars) so I can't really take it too seriously. He should be upset at the illiterate folks who don't know he did Kiss first.

Tremolina said:

leonche64 said:

This stance I really don't get. Prince has covered, recorded, and released as singles, songs by other artist. He has performed these on television without mentioning he was not the writer. In concert he says "Ya'll know who wrote this?", when he covers a song he wrote. (Yes, it is possible to cover your own song if you are not the artist that brought the song to prominence). Does he say the same thing when he covers Bonnie Rait, Radiohead, the Delfonics, Tommy James and the Shondellas, The Foo Fighters, James Brown, The Ohio Players, and the others he drops in at individual shows. It is very hypocritical. Him comparing the writing of music and the writing of a novel like Steven King, while soundbite worthy, is legal Apples and Oranges.

Someone asked if it was possible to cover a song that had not been released. The answer is not without the permission of the person who holds the rights to the song. If a song has been released, it is deemed to be in the public domain, and can be recorded with or without permission. The compensation ranges on a multitude of factors. However, there are restrictions on performing the song. Then there is the issue of a cover vs a parody. Think Prince performing One of Us and Weird Al performing Eat it to get the point.

No, a song is only in the public domain when its copyright has expired.

What Prince is referring to in the interview is the system of 'compulsory licenses'.

He makes it an issue that it is only with music, not with books or TV shows or anything, that somebody can 'take' your song and cover it without permission, just as long as you pay the compulsory licences fee.

It's not as simple as he makes it to be tho'.

And he uses this system himself too.

--

[Edited 4/19/11 15:02pm]

I did not mean in the "public domain" per se, in that it can be used without compensation. A poor choice or words on my part. I agree with the rest of your post.

Timmy84 said:

Cloudbuster said:

... bottom-line is that if Prince didn't 'sign' with WB he wouldn't be a millionaire now, if he would've stayed 'independent' he would've still been a starving artist or druggie, one would think. I agree with him about the music business because I've worked in it (was an artist) and I got screwed out of the use of my name I chose to use in the music business and the label I had at the time.