Remember the iconic Australian track from Men at Work, ‘Down Under’? Well, some 28 years after the track hit number one, the Men at Work song writers are in court Down Under, defending themselves against charges of infringing copy write.
The band are accused of stealing Down Under’s famous flute riff (remember him sitting in the tree in the video?) from ‘Kookaburra sits in the old oak tree’, written by Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition more than 75 years ago.
Larrikin Music claims it owns the copy write to the riff, and is suing in a bid to gain compensation from EMI Music, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert.
The court listened to Ms Sinclair’s original Kookaburra song before watching the Down Under video clip, where Greg Ham is seen sitting in a gum tree playing the riff on a flute to a koala.
The prosecution stated “(There is an) unmistakable reproduction of the first half of the Kookaburra melody,”
A lawyer for Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs Australia, said Men At Work had been looking for something Australian, but only afterwards did they realise the similarities to the “folk song”.
“The notes are different, the harmony is different, they are in different parts of the musical sentence, the key is different,” David Catterns QC said.
“If this reproduction of a substantial part (of Kookaburra) is so clear, as our friend says it is, how come Larrikin, who was aggressively and properly defending the rights of Kookaburra, didn’t notice until 2007?”
Colin Hay, the bands lead singer played an acoustic version of the song in the witness box today stating, “I think the main element in Down Under is the chorus and the intro.
“The choruses were the anthem of the song that gave it its anthemic quality. I’ve played the song for over 30 years … and mostly in solo performance [without the flute part].
“In those 30 years no one has ever come up to me and asked me about where the flute was,”
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One Response to “Men In Court”
Comment by Marshall Stacks — October 30, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
Festival are unaware that their 1932 lyricist imposed her lyric on a traditional old Welsh tune, so the tune can be used by anybody.
It has been 70 years since the anonymous composer died.
I’d hate to see Hay go down for this.
Hate Festival – they had the option to release James Taylor’s Fire & Rain in 1970 and did not, yet they sued anybody who imported US pressings. asshats then and asshats STILL.