Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

[Come along, Min]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

I cant hear Stay With Me or Sam Smith anymore without thinking about this "performance".

[Whittaker]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

It seems to have drifted off the radio, but when they play "Alejandro" by Lady Gaga, I do find myself at the right moment thinking "na na na coco jambo, na na yeah".

Alejandro sounds much more like Coco Jambo to me than Blurred Lines does to Got To Give It Up.

[Jah Womble]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Another, for anyone who remembers either tune, or can be arsed:

Southern Belles in London Sing - The Faint (2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-EaBjYVTo

Remembrance Day - B-Movie (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93sCH85732o

[Stumpy Pepys]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

When I listen to You're Pretty Good Looking (For A Girl) by the White Stripes, I often think it's going to turn into the Shoop Shoop Song.

[ad hoc]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

This is the week of people being done for things when they should really have been done before for other things. Clarkson gets away with serial racism and then gets done for something else. Now Thicke gets away with basically praising rape, and then gets done for something else

[Stumpy Pepys]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

ad hoc wrote: Now Thicke gets away with basically praising rape …

Well, Thicke didn't write the lyrics and I'd argue they're too ambiguous to say they 'praise rape'.

I won't defend the video though. Or the Miley Cyrus mullarkey.
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[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

I heard "Won't back down" in the supermarket today. It's fucking everywhere.

[Sundeporino]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

So where does this leave The Fine Young Cannibals with their "Good Thing/Can I Get a Witness" pastiche?

[Stumpy Pepys]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Sundeporino wrote: So where does this leave The Fine Young Cannibals with their "Good Thing/Can I Get a Witness" pastiche?

Guilty as hell.

Neil Innes must be worried too.

[ad hoc]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Stumpy Pepys wrote:

Now Thicke gets away with basically praising rape …

Well, Thicke didn't write the lyrics and I'd argue they're too ambiguous to say they 'praise rape'.

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Maybe "praise rape" is not the best way of putting it. More like "make the case that all women are asking for it", thus justifying rape

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

The bloody thing is called "blurred lines" for god's sake.

[G-Man]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Has thgisd been mentioned yet:

Gaye's family say Pharell ripped off Ain't That Peculiar for Happy.

Marvin didn't even write Ain't That Peculiar (Smokey Robinson and the other Miracles did), and Smokey produced it. Plus, it sounds nothing like Happy.

Don't make me support rapey stripey pants man, Marvin Gaye Family...

[Bored Of Education]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

It is only today that I saw the full lyrics of "Blurred lines" and, fuck me, every cunt involved in it deserves to be sued within an inch of their lives.

Pharrell Williams is the living proof that "catchy =/= good"

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

G-Man wrote: Has thgisd been mentioned yet:

Gaye's family say Pharell ripped off Ain't That Peculiar for Happy.

Marvin didn't even write Ain't That Peculiar (Smokey Robinson and the other Miracles did), and Smokey produced it. Plus, it sounds nothing like Happy.

Don't make me support rapey stripey pants man, Marvin Gaye Family...

I think they're trolling him.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

When in doubt, sue in case something sticks. It's the American Way.

Having listened to Blurred Lines, the similarities end with the feel of the instrumental base and Pharrell's falsetto. I agree with the defendants' attorney; I don't think tere is much of an objective base for this veredict beyond the jury listening to the songs and saying "Yeah, they sound a bit similar".

[Bored Of Education]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

As you can probably tell, I haven't looked into this too much, not least because I didn't want to listen to "Blurred Lines' too much, but when "Got to Give It Up" came on, I initially thought it was "Lowrider" by War which shows that similarities go all ways.

It is a ridiculous case, notwithstanding the joy of seeing Williams and Thicke sued especially when the latter apparently didn't do anything but stick his name on the credits.

[Jah Womble]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

The only similarity I can hear between Low Rider and Got To Give It Up is the use of a cowbell in the intro. It certainly isn't in the same league as Blurred Lines in those terms.

[Borracho]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Low Rider is a lot faster than Got To Give It Up, in a different key, and with a totally different rhythm to the main melody/riff.

I'd say Curtis Mayfield's estate will be the next to start combing through Pharrell Williams' back catalogue. A lot of his schtick draws, shall we say, not inaudibly on the work of the great man.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Green Calx wrote: Low Rider is a lot faster than Got To Give It Up, in a different key, and with a totally different rhythm to the main melody/riff.

I'd say Curtis Mayfield's estate will be the next to start combing through Pharrell Williams' back catalogue. A lot of his schtick draws, shall we say, not inaudibly on the work of the great man.

Happy might as well have been a lost Mayfield recording.

[Bored Of Education]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Jah Womble wrote: The only similarity I can hear between Low Rider and Got To Give It Up is the use of a cowbell in the intro. It certainly isn't in the same league as Blurred Lines in those terms.

As far as I can tell, the presence of the cow bell is what the whole similarity accusation is based on. To be fair, it was only a snatch that they played of Got To Give it Up.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

This will go to appeal and, if there's any sense in the US justice system, it'll be thrown out.

Otherwise the floodgates will open and it'll get very silly indeed. One wonders what Apple Corps could do with this.

[gjw100]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

David Hepworth speculates that Marvin Gaye may not have had that much to do with writing 'Got To Give It Up' in the first place.

[G-Man]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Pat McGatt wrote:

Low Rider is a lot faster than Got To Give It Up, in a different key, and with a totally different rhythm to the main melody/riff.

I'd say Curtis Mayfield's estate will be the next to start combing through Pharrell Williams' back catalogue. A lot of his schtick draws, shall we say, not inaudibly on the work of the great man.

Happy might as well have been a lost Mayfield recording.

Only if it is sped up.

[Jah Womble]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

To repeat an earlier point (made by myself and many others far and wide), if it's all so apparently ridiculous, why did Williams feel the need to make public a preventative 'counter claim' long before this went to court?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Pharrell/Thicke vs Gaye

Is this realistically likely to be overturned? On the face of it seems to have some similarities to the Luis Suarez tribunal, where the direct evidence, wasn't so strong, but there was troubling inconsistencies in the defence, i.e. an initial admission, and then an incredible retraction, that demolished the credibility of the defendant. (I.e. I told pharell to copy Got to give it up, followed by "don't pay any attention to that interview, I'm a drug addicted liar.")