Released: 1963
It seems almost boring to talk about mundane things like copyright and intellectual property in the mid-20’s; the digital world resembles the Wild West, an environment where what law there is exists only to serve the needs of those who’ve already profited off your sweat several times already.
The music industry had in fact experienced a few decades of relative stability until the dawn of Napster, but that had only been a temporary truce. Take for example the history of Louie Louie, one of rock n’ roll’s signature numbers, instantly recognisable anywhere and widely credited to The Kingsmen.
Like many others of the time the song itself had a past, firstly in the hands of one Richard Berry in 1956, before being lifted by The Fabulous Wailers five years later. Revived on local radio stations in Portland in 1963, both The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders brought out newer, nastier versions, with the latter’s rumoured to contain some cusswords and the subsequent notoriety meaning they won that particular race.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but sixty years later that sort of theft is no longer a crime.
The Voice Of Unreason 