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Proof
Apr-10-2010, 08:57 GMT
USA - United Staates America

...AFFINITY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT7uZf7lew

Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can´t you hear, can´t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can´t you hear, can´t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?"
And he said,

"Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can´t you hear, can´t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Cher
Apr-21-2010, 18:27 GMT
USA - United Staates America

I Love that. Did you write it?
My second vegemite song.

Helen
Apr-22-2010, 00:50 GMT
Australia

This song is legendary in Australia. It was the unofficial anthem when Australia won Americas Cup in 1983, and was in closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. It is very well known. Recently a court case ruled that they stole the song´s flute riff from the children´s song ´Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree´ another very well known Australian song.
A very controversial ruling, never had anyone noted any similarity between the two songs, until someone mentioned it on a popular music quiz show Spicks and Specks in 2007. Now the music company (Larrikan) who bought the rights to the song in 1990 after the writer died, are claiming copyright infringement. I wonder how much they paid for the copyright.

This youtube video has 18 million views.

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/men-at-works-
down-under-ripped-off-kookaburra-court-20100204-nf
iq.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/04/2809
848.htm

Helen
Jul-21-2010, 00:38 GMT
Unknown

If interested, the damages ruled in this case are Larrikin to pay 5 per cent of future profits, as well as royalties dating back to 2002.

I think the ruling was sensible, and Larrikin not able to claim the excessive 60% of total profits it was seeking.
The Kookaburra song was written in 1934 by a teacher for the Girl Guides. Down Under was a hit in 1982. Larrikin Music bought the copyright to Kookaburra in 1990, and made the claim in 2007.

Ian
Jul-23-2010, 11:50 GMT
USA - United Staates America

As an Australian it would seem terribly unpatriotic to say anything negative about this song,so I´ll say yeah,it´s a great song,but I can´t for the life of me work out what the song has to do with the name of this thread,and furthermore what it has to do with Paul Simon. I know there must be some esoteric link,but it´s beyond my feeble wits I´m afraid. Lol. Anyone?

Ian
Jul-23-2010, 11:59 GMT
USA - United Staates America

Hi Helen,when you say ´the writer died´,are you taking about Colin Hay or Greg Hamm or do mean the author of the kookaburra song? If it´s the former,that´s something I hadn´t heard about. I bought Colin Hay´s solo album in 1986 and thought it pretty good. He has a very unique voice imo.

Helen
Jul-23-2010, 15:23 GMT
Unknown

Hi Ian,
The author of the Kookaburra song, no-one from Men at Work have died as far as I know. The lyrics to the song were posted (and I don´t know what it has to do with Paul Simon or the name of the thread ) but the copyright issue about that song was current at the time. I had been thinking of the ´bashing´ Paul still receives about copyrighting Scarborough Fair, a traditional song before S&G recorded it and whether that was the right thing to do. If he recorded it without copyrighting and it was a big hit, could someone else have bought the copyright at later date and then claim 60% of all profits which Larrikin was asking.
I think Paul was savvy about copyright, because of the thing with Bob Dylan and the Animals and House of the Rising Sun, which was also traditional song, a couple of years previous. Bob recorded it first but the Animals made a big hit with it, and Bob Dylans version became known as the cover version and he stopped playing it live.

Mimi
Jul-23-2010, 21:30 GMT
Austria

I have read an interview with Marty Mccarthy (spelling?) who was on bad terms with Paul for a long time because of that song. He said that after a lot of years of frustration he checked with the British copyright institution and found out that Paul Simon never copywrited Scarborough Fair and never got any money out of that. So he spend a long time of his life in anger over something that wasn´t true.

But maybe in this case the complicated thing was, that it consisted of two songs and one of it (Canticle) was a Paul Simon tune that belonged to him.

Helen
Jul-25-2010, 13:19 GMT
Unknown

Sorry, Men at work are to pay Larrikin 5 per cent of future profits, as well as royalties dating back to 2002 (not Larrikin to pay ..)

Helen
Jul-25-2010, 14:02 GMT
Unknown

Hi Mimi,
Paul learnt the song from Martin Carthy, but I think Paul´s version of Scarborough Fair in the folk clubs was probably much better and his growing popularity and his style of playing guitar was more that upset him. It was recorded unofficially on the Queens College 1964 recordings (a great more traditional version) but Paul didn´t record Scarborough Fair on the Songbook album produced in England, and waited until Parsley, Sage Rosemary and Thyme in 1966 to record it back in America. Then it was more a vehicle for Paul to add in his Canticle part because it went so well with the song, I think.

It´s a real pity that the Scarborough Fair and words to the Canticle part are missing from the Lyrics book, and they don´t sing the canticle live.

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