The Beatles Bible - Topic: My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Joe on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:17:31 +0000

I agree with vonbontee. It's all about "My sweet lord/Oh my lord" versus "He's so fine/Wish he were mine". Also, the melody of the doo-lang-doo-lang vocals aren't dissimilar from the repeated "Hallelujah/Hare rama" etc. I bet Spector knew about the similarity all along, even if Harrison had forgotten about the Chiffons' song.

Von Bontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:20:04 +0000

"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal"

meanmistermustard on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:47:56 +0000

The Beach Boys record label threatened Katy Perry, or her representatives, with legal action over her single 'California Girls' as they felt it was synonymous with their own song and that one of the lines was very similar to the other. Barmy to say the least. There are too many laywers and executives in the music business who are only interested in making a buck. Apple are great at issuing legal action at the merest hint of beatle copyright being used infringed. Its one thing to protect your interests but not to the point of killing creativity. The beatles were always stealing ...

vonbontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:55:10 +0000

It's more about the vocal melody than the chord progression.

McLennonSon on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:09:55 +0000

mr. Sun king coming together said:

George was sued in 1971 for supposedly stealing part of the Chiffons hit He's So Fine. (Note: I'll post videos of the respective songs in about 10 minutes. as well, I just found an allumingating article which I will share as well.) He was forced to pay about $600,000 because of it. My question is, right call? Was it subconscious plagiarism?

No. It was only one chord progression he stole, the ii-V in the verses.

He's So Fine in the ''chorus'' has only a I chord, but ''My Sweet Lord'' has the repeat of I-vi in ...

Von Bontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:56:43 +0000

Heh...everybody was doing "oldies" albums in those days, and they all did a Chuck Berry song or two! But it was really Morris Levy, music mogul/gangster, who launched that lawsuit - he owned the publishing rights. I doubt that Berry was even aware of "Come Together".

The Walrus on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:03:37 +0000

John earned a large amount for Berry's people by covering three songs for Rock And Roll. The agreement was to cover them for Walls And Bridges, but John forgot so rushed Rock And Roll.

vonbontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:27:08 +0000

Well, "Run For Your Life" only took a single line (or two, depending how your write it out) from "Baby Let's Play House", and none of the melody. (Also, I wouldn't be surprised if "I'd rather see you dead little girl..." had already first appeared in some other old blues song predating THAT one.) And whereas John was sued for a different two-line bit in "Come Together" - even though he didn't even take two lines word-for-word, although his phrasing of them was similar to Chuck Berry's - that case was settled out of court, so the result's not the ...

meanmistermustard on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:31:55 +0000

Ive always found He's So Fine to far inferior so id agree with Til There Was You. When my brother and i first heard about the case years ago we played both one after the other and the similarities were very noticable so its real surprise the lawsuit came.

It would be interesting to see what changed between Run For Your Life/Baby, Lets Play House where nothing happened even tho John stole two lines and Come Together/ You Cant Catch Me. Maybe if it had been in the mid 60's George would have gotten away with it. Was it only that whilst RFYL was only an album ...

vonbontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:02:13 +0000

Useful addition to my longwinded post up there: I was just leafing through an anthology of old Rolling Stone reviews, and I found Ben Gerson's original (positive overall) review of All Things Must Pass from Jan. 7/71, in which he bluntly calls "My Sweet Lord" an "obvious rewrite" of the Chiffons song. So that better illustrates my point about the similarity being instantly apparent, at least to professional music reviewers.

mr. Sun king coming together on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:50:24 +0100

vonbontee said:

Great article Mr. Sun, thanks for the link!

It's probably only fair that George had to surrender some royalties. Although that judge's methods used to determine the amounts struck me as far too unfair and punitive to George.

No Problem.

Just like the author, eh? I agree. Although it really is an inexact science. Welcome Back, BTW! (Go Canucks)

PennyLane on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:49:12 +0100

mr. Sun king coming together said:

And you're surprised why exactly? It's Klein, the King of greed and stupidity. (No offense meant to PL). That was a shitty thing to do, changing sides.

Oh I'm not surprised. It was cold and low and real douchey. But thats the thing that stands out to me the most about the case. Some people are real a-holes.

vonbontee on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:48:34 +0100

Great article Mr. Sun, thanks for the link!

The article gives the date of February in '81 as the date a decision as to damages was reached. I remember this day because, by way of commenting on the news story - the exact circumstances I didn't hear until later in the evening - my local AM station played the two songs back-to-back in the morning. I knew both the songs (MSL probably since the age of 5), but never noticed their similarity until that morning. Again, note that I didn't know anything about that pending lawsuit until I read the news in the evening ...

StrawberryLakiesha on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:21:25 +0100

Hinduism is actually a monotheistic, which means they only believe in one god their gods are all different parts of the same god, or something like that.

mY sWEET lORD IS WAAAAAAAAAY BETTER THAN hE'S sO fINE AND SO THEY SHOULD'VE PAIL GEORGE SOME MONEY$

FOR BEING NOT SO PARTICULARLY SMART!!!

I hate CAPS lock!!

Till There Was You on My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:30:43 +0100

But also, the content of the song. George made his about his god (the reason why it is not capitalized is not out of disrespect, but because he was going under a conversion from the Catholic Church, to Hinduism. They believe in multiple gods, but according to my friend, a Hindu, some people worship three, especially). He added Christian and Indian (right?) chants to it. He made more out of the song than just "doo-lang". There was actual meaning.