Bitter Sweet Symphony
Yesterday, I stumbled across an old UNKLE remix of Bitter Sweet Symphony, which, of course, reminded me of the original version by The Verve. I'm not ashamed to admit that Bitter Sweet Symphony is probably one of my favorite songs. I was around 18 or 19 when it came out, and at the time, my friends and I were in London. I remember hearing it everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. I once walked down a random little street and heard it blasting from a tiny coffee shop. The entire street was filled with those soaring violins. I was young, in London, feeling rebellious, and that song just amplified everything I was feeling. Listening to it the other day made me smile, instantly transporting me back to what feels like a completely different life, a completely different time.
After a few very loud listening sessions (and successfully driving my wife and daughter crazy), I remembered that Bitter Sweet Symphony's iconic melody wasn't actually written by The Verve. Its signature hook was based on the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's instrumental version of a Rolling Stones song called The Last Time, which itself was based on a song by The Staple Singers called This May Be the Last Time, which was inspired by an even older gospel song. Musical inception.
Unfortunately, even though The Verve had legally licensed the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's violin hook, they ran into legal trouble because the vocal melody closely resembled the Rolling Stones' version. Since they had only secured rights to the violin sample, but not the vocal melody, they got sued by the Rolling Stones' lawyers. In the end, Bitter Sweet Symphony wasn't credited to Richard Ashcroft but to Jagger and Richards.
Now, I'm no lawyer, but in my opinion, Bitter Sweet Symphony is better than all the previous versions combined. Honestly, I don't care if The Verve were inspired by, or even outright ripped off, the original. I love that damn song. It represents a time in my life that I cherish, and no amount of legal battles or accusations of plagiarism will ever change that. The Verve took something incredible, tweaked it, and made it their own. They created a classic.
So where does that leave us? I love a song that was "ripped off" from another song that was ripped off from another song. Is that morally okay? Should I love the original version instead? Does it matter that they licensed one part of the melody but not another? Or… maybe none of that matters. Maybe taking an existing creation and reworking it, even if only slightly, is completely fine. Maybe that's just the nature of art. The nature of creation itself.
Or maybe I'm just overthinking it.
It's just a song.
…Or is it?