When Is A Cover Version Not A Cover?

In the course of a discussion on cover versions at coth's party at the weekend, I commented that most people thought Cydni Lauper had covered Roy Orbison's I Drove All Night, when it had really been the other way around. This surprised a few people, so I thought I'd better check that I had my facts straight.

Well, as explained here, I was half right. I Drove All Night was written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, who wrote a lot of Lauper's material. It was offered to Orbison, who recorded a rough demo, but ended up being recorded by Lauper and released on her A Night To Remember album, which came out shortly after Orbison died. The Orbison demo was later edited and released posthumously, and it is now the version that most people remember.

So, in actual fact neither Cyndi Lauper nor Roy Orbison covered the other. Both recorded I Drove All Night separately, Orbison before Lauper; Lauper's version was released first, but Orbison's ultimately became better known.

This post has been brought to you by the Campaign For Real Musical Pedantry.

MC

Getting Sued for Libel: Now Available to Americans!

Legal Clanger's helpful law advice service here.

Are you American? Do you have a blog, maintain a website, post to LJ or Usenet, or even publish anything that you know might be put up on the web? If so, be very careful what you say about anyone English, because as described here, a couple of recent decisions by the English courts mean that you are opening yourself to being sued for libel in England. Which, as many unwilling litigants have found, is a spectacularly expensive activity.

[EDIT] As Displacement of Concepts notes:

"So let's put these two rulings together. If you say anything about anyone who has a reputation in England, and you could have foreseen that that statement would go up on the web, you're likely to be sued for libel in England. It doesn't matter that everyone concerned was in the US, it doesn't matter that you were talking to a US newspaper with no print circulation or target audience in England, it doesn't matter that what you said was permitted comment in US law and dealt with mainly US issues. You could still be dragged through expensive and lengthy proceedings in the English courts. Notwithstanding the protestations of the court in Lewis, a free-for-all is exactly what this creates."

On a lighter note, one of the potential defendants now facing the prospect of an English libel trial is none other than Arnie. Presumably he will now be referred to as The Litigator. For that matter, if the case goes to appeal, the Court of Appeal's decision will doubtless be reported as 'Litigator 2: Judgment Day'.

MC

And you thought Cthulhu Filk was bad enough...

Whilst checking up contacts for small presses as part of some SFF work I'm doing, I came across Elegantly Amused Press, and their first publication: the works of HP Lovecraft recast as limericks:

There was a Mad Arab who said

That Cthulhu, though dreaming, is dead,

But some future night

When the stars become right,

He'll abandon his watery bed.



Aaarghhh!

MC