[78-L] Composers who steal

[David Lennick]

Hey..nobody ever sued Leonard Bernstein or John Williams, and they're two of 
the biggest thieves in the business. Lenny was a genius (Williams is NOT, he's 
just a talented cut-n-paster who should put a chunk of his fortune in escrow 
for Holst, Elgar and Bernard Herrmann) but every time I hear Dohnanyi's 
Serenade, I can point to half of the score for "On the Town" which is a blatant 
ripoff of its themes.

Richard Rodgers stole from himself all the time. Oh, sorry, "recycled". "Johnny 
One Note" is really a tune that was dropped from Mississippi, something about 
Pancho. "No Other Love" was part of the "Victory at Sea" score from a year 
earlier ("Beneath the Southern Cross"), and "Blue Moon" went through 3 sets of 
lyrics before settling on the final one.

dl

Taylor Bowie wrote:
> There are plenty of them,  and almost all of them have done so at one time 
> or another,  intentionally or not.
> 
> While some of you were torturing yourself tonight with the Tony Awards,  I 
> was playing some olde rekkids and having a fine time!  Here are two 
> interesting ones I played this evening:
> 
> Pathe 036005 Max Terr Orch. "Chansonette"  Composer credit is Rudolf Friml, 
> and low and behold it turns out to be the same melody as the main part of 
> The Donkey Serenade,  which I think was written for the film version of The 
> Firefly in 1935 or so.  No show credit is given on the label,  so I guess it 
> was just something Friml had kicking around when they needed an additional 
> song for the movie.
> 
> Bluebird 5088  Bert Lown Orch. "We'll Have A Honeymoon Some Day".  This was 
> the last Bert Lown Bluebird I was missing and I was excitied to be able to 
> buy it recently.  A very loose performance,  with a great piano solo by 
> Chauncey Grey and a full-chorus solo from Spencer Clark on bass sax...I 
> don't recall Rollini ever getting a full chorus when he was with the band.
> 
> The song itself is a dreadful redo of Side By Side,  and I wasn't surprised 
> to see that the composer credit was Harry Woods...talented but seemingly 
> undisciplined and lazy as a writer.
> 
> I guess the lesson is if you want to steal from a composer why not steal 
> from yourself...you won't get sued that way.
> 
> 
> Taylor
> 
>