I don’t think I ever saw a kookaburra, much less heard one - as far as I can gather from youtube clips I just watched to find out where in the hell ‘Down Under’ is infringing on someone’s copy right, a kookaburra is a pretty annoying bird. Still, I do distinctly singing the kookaburra song in kindergarten over 20 years ago, and that was in the Netherlands!
Yeah, this is even stupider than George Harrison’s “infringement”.
Seems to me the whole thing stems from a quick ten step phrase on flute, comprised of 3 notes. Takes place first at about 0:55 in the MaW song, and vaguely resembles part of the phrase that is the Kookaburra song. Totally lame.
The kookaburra is a long-billed species of kingfisher native to Australia and known for its loud, laugh-like call. wiki
I found a link to a midi version of the basic song melody here and youtube has a number of versions posted, including this (incredibly annoying) one. Sorry, folks, but at least the riff is clearly heard, and now you know what a kookaburra sounds like.*
IMO this is lawyerly money-grubbing, about equivalent to chasing an ambulance. I hope that Men At Work’s Down Under comes out on top.
*I wouldn’t know this stuff, but about 20 years ago or so I was trying to find a small record label that had listed itself as being in Kookaburra, Australia. That turned out to be a lark (:D) done by the archivist who had put together a compilation of Australian garage bands from the 60s and 70s, and I eventually tracked them down in Melbourne. Along the way I learned a lot, including what a kookaburra was, what they sound like, and the fact they are one of the sounds played in almost every jungle movie scene ever made. Ah, there’s nothing like a bit of research to get the old synapses snapping, is there?
We in the US are familiar with the sound a Kookuburra makes because it’s placed in any movie that has a jungle scene even though the jungles aren’t located in Australia.
I wasn’t even born until 1985 and I remember “Down Under” well (I probably didn’t hear it until the early 90s). Definitely never heard of that Australian song though.
I’ve heard both songs more times than I could count and never realised the riffs are similar. I can hear it now I know, but I still think it’s ludicrous to call that fragment “infringement”. It’s, what, five notes?
Also, kookaburra laughing. Love 'em! Got a thrill to see the albino kookaburra at the Healesville Sanctuary when I was a kid, another thrill to see it still there when I visited again 15 years later
How stupid. You know, I had learned the kookaburra song in grade school (Southern US), and of course, loved Down Under in the 80’s, but until I read the spoiler boxes, I never even THOUGHT about them sounding alike. This is, at best, a stretch, and at worst, money-grubbing.
It kinda reminds me of Spike Lee suing Spike TV. Until he did that, the channel name hadn’t even brought the man to mind. Only AFTER the lawsuit did I think of him when I heard anything about the channel. I’ve often thought it very possible that he did that deliberately. “NOW anytime Spike TV is mentioned, they’ll automatically think of ME!”
(read the lyrics)
