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Liddle Britain

J.S. Bach should claim the royalties

Rod Liddle

Wednesday, 15th November 2006

Rod Liddle reflects on the Procol Harum case and the stunning pretentiousness of 1970s pop groups that ripped off classical music with appalling results

But you wonder, too, about the concept of intellectual copyright. The thing which made people buy ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ was the melodic construct conceived by Bach. Whether it was Matthew Fisher or Gary Brooker who ever so slightly altered it should not really matter; it is, beyond doubt, Bach’s song. Procol Harum should get the performance fee and maybe a few pennies for the silly lyrics — but to haggle over who slightly changed bits of ‘Air On a G String’ seems to miss the point. Plagiarism cases come before our courts a lot these days and, strikingly, precedent has established that it is the first seven notes of a song which, in the case of pop music, will prove ownership. Think of it: seven notes, maybe a bar and a half at most. That fact by itself sums up the sophistication and value of our popular music.

Intellectual copyright extends well beyond pop music, of course — and into other, much revered, examples of our popular culture. The Ethiopians recently ran a programme where useless amateurs sang songs in front of an audience and a panel of professionals, who would then be intentionally rude to them and vote them off the following week’s programme. However, the stunningly imaginative format for this show had been patented by a Western media company. Can you imagine, claiming ‘intellectual copyright’ over such a thing? It is, I would suggest, an oxymoron.

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