I’d guess (total WAG) it’s a combination of him, Warner Bros, Arista and his various side projects (Times, Revolution, NPG, Vanity 6, 3rdeyegirl, Wendy & Lisa etc)
I thought that was only the case for parodies. You here, from time to time, about Weird Al choosing not to parody a song because he couldn’t get permission…adding on that he can still do it under Fair Use, but usually won’t without permission.
I’ve never heard that anyone can just take someone else’s song, record, make a video and tour all of the world with it without permission from whoever holds the rights to it.
And, as usual, it’s tough to look up anything right now since all the google results about Prince, Sinead O’Conner or Nothing Compares 2 U are about Prince’s death.
Then stop jumping in like Beetlejuice any time someone says drugs or Percocet or OD.
We’re going to talk about it, it’s gonna happen. Until we have the full autopsy result all we can do is speculate based on the little snippets of news we get here and there. If you’re getting so sick of it stop checking the thread every time there’s a new post.
This entire thread is, more or less, about speculating how he died, if all your going to do is foam at the mouth every time someone says ‘drugs’, I’m not sure why you keep checking in on us. Go post in the “Why is Prince considered to be a genius?” or just ignore all the drug related stuff and post some Prince videos and celebrate his life.
They can. For any song already commercially published (as “Nothing Compares 2 U” had been, five years before on The Family ), provided they comply with the law on Compulsory Licensing, and pay the required songwriter royalty fees. Prince made good money on Sinéad’s record.
Compulsory Licensing does not cover parodies or major rearrangements, but it does suffice for typical cover versions. Getting permission, if possible, may be preferable and cheaper, but it is not legally necessary.
That’s what I was looking for, like I said, I didn’t know (and never really gave it any thought). I looked into the compulsory mechanical license, but very quickly got lost in a sea of copyright law and kinda took everyone’s word for it (and assume if she wasn’t allowed to use it, it would have been stopped a long time ago).
Or… maybe you could NOT speculate on it and just wait for the results.
It’s not random people on the internet that piss me off so much as the so-called journalists who are really muckrakers making a profit off their speculating. It’s disgusting, not just now but when any celebrity dies.
What makes that story so loony is that Prince apparently has to have famous drug dealers. Why can’t he just hire a garden-variety shady doctor? I’ve known more than one in my day, even though I’m not famous, and I’ve never sought out or used their services.
I think you make a fair (and legitimately discussable) point, here. There has definitely been a tone of 'ooooh, you knew we’d find out that he was a drug addict!!!’ in many outlets covering Prince’s death. They offer that perspective because there IS an audience eager to believe that 'black people are weak/sinful/prone to drug problems’ is a valid worldview.
It’s an ugly feature of our society; shame on anyone who panders to it.
Does everything have to be about race? Based on his previous assertions I believed Prince not to be a user of recreational drugs. When I read that he had a problem with Percocet due to hip pain I felt that if he had a drug problem it was with that and was somewhat understandable. Now comments are coming out that he may have been a heavy user of cocaine and had been for quite a while. I attributed that (to the degree it may have been accurate in the first place) to his wealth and his rock musician lifestyle. At no time did I ever think “Yeah, figures! He was a black guy so it’s no surprise he was doing drugs.” Far more famous white musicians have died from drug problems than black ones and I really don’t think that to the degree people are thinking Prince had a drug problem it has anything to do with his race.
Am I the only person that would back Sinead O’conner in a punch-up with Prince?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Prince, but intimidating he is not.
In one of the few instance’s where I prefer someone else version of one of Prince’s songs. To me Sinead’s version has more raw emotion than his, though I really, really love the live version of Nothing Compares to You that Prince does with Rosie Gaines.
In the spirit of having a bit of levity here: hmm, who to back? A certifiably crazy pint-sized Irish woman with a great voice, or a pint-sized overall musical genius who had stories told about his mad skillz in basketball, roller skating - and I remember a Rolling Stone article starting off with “wow, I Prince can do a hand stand!”
So Prince would get my vote.
As for the actual developments: this has NOTHING to do with race. This has everything to do with “reclusive, rich musical genius dies out of the blue - there MUST be a story there.” Unfortunately, between painkillers, stories about addiction intervention, etc., it appears that Prince was far more involved with substances than seemed possible given his output. So sad.
Sorry if I was unclear. You need to get some form of permission from the copyright holder and pay royalties (you saw this already in later posts) if you are selling your recording. You don’t even really need the mechanical license if you are giving it away for free. You sort of do, kinda, but not in any way anyone will ever enforce. Same deal for live covers.
I am not sure where the ‘black people are weak/sinful/prone to drug problems’ comes in considering that dying from overdoses is a standard way to go for musicians. I mean, seriously.
Just this decade the following musicians have died from overdoses (not including Prince):
Jay Reatard (The Reatards)
Paul Gray (Slipknot)
Mike Starr (Alice in Chains)
Amy Winehouse
Jani Lane (Warrant)
Mikey Welsh (Weezer)
Whitney Houston
Dave Brockie (Gwar*)
Jimi Jamison (Survivor)
Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots)
Note, only one of those is black. The issue isn’t that Prince is black, it is that Prince is a musician and it is all too common for musicians to die from drug overdoses. So speculation along this line seems perfectly reasonable**.
Of course it is much easier to blame racism, now isn’t it?
Slee
I opened for Gwar back in about 1989. Great show. Backstage was very, very odd.
** Reasonable as in it is a very common death for musicians.
Not to mention, Dr. Kornfeld’s son Andrew seems to be the one who made the 911 call. He took a redeye flight to Minnesota on less than a day’s notice. Hardly anonymous, and there seems to be no speculation here. It’s tragic, and a damn shame that this keeps happening over and over, but like it or not, it’s looking like the truth.
^ This. If it turns out Prince had a physical dependence or died of an overdose the most likely source is a doctor or doctors, not some street dealer or famous celebrity. But no one has heard of Dr. Joe Smith so it’s not so sexy a story.
I think it’s more him being a rock musician than his race.
Saw a headline on a ragsheet yesterday proclaiming Prince died of AIDS. Funny, that same [del]toilet paper[/del] ragsheet claims EVERY celebrity died of AIDS. But that one would pander to those making a big deal out of the man’s fashion sense and somewhat androgynous costuming.
It’s not reporting, it scandal sold for profit and all too often made up scandal for profit.
Yeah, great attorney - why is he talking about his client’s business to the media?
Maybe I’m just getting pissed over the “addiction” hammer - seems to me a physical dependence due to long term opiate medication is more likely here, which is more of a medical side effect than what is usually brought to mind by the word “addiction”. Addicts have a mental need to get high, and the psychological crap is often harder to kick than the physical. People with a physical dependence certainly have things like withdrawal symptoms, but they don’t seek drugs to get high. You taper those folks off whatever they’re dependent on and it’s not usually a big issue with cravings or them going back to the drug. It could happen if the underlying pain isn’t controlled, but fix the underlying problem they no longer have a reason to use.
Accidental death by use, overuse, or misuse of prescription drugs is more common than most people realize. If that is what happened here I hope Prince’s death will shed some light on the problem instead of becoming hur, hur, another dead guitar player.