ABOVE: Is Bon Jovi’s “I Love this Town” stolen from another musician? Compare songs, below.
Just when you thought that plagiarism lawsuits were the realm of pop tarts (Miley Cyrus plagiarism lawsuit), pop stars (Coldplay plagiarism lawsuit) and, well, washed-up rockers (Axl Rose plagiarism lawsuit), along comes news that one of the land’s most enduring, clean-cut rock crews is also being accused of song theft for one of their hits: Bon Jovi.
(Read: New Bon Jovi Album and Tour Follow Jackson’s Footsteps)
A judge initially rejected Boston musician Samuel Bartley Steele’s $400 billion case alleging that Bon Jovi’s “I Love This Town” was copied from his own baseball-themed track, “(Man I Really) Love this Team.”
Steele has filed an appeal to reopen the case against the Bon Jovi song, a lesser hit which garnered national attention primarily because it was broadcast by Major League Baseball in ads and promotions for the season’s play-offs.
Reuters reports that Steele claims, “… frontman Jon Bon Jovi either heard the song when he was campaigning for John Kerry in Boston in 2004 or that some executive passed it along to him.”
Time Warner and Major League Baseball are also named in Steele’s lawsuit.
On its MySpace page, Steele’s band, Chelsea City Council, describes itself as playing, “underground to an alternative A.D.D. rock’. Bart’s biggest influence[s] were Phish, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Lenny Kravitz, Cats in Boots, Grateful Dead, and the Lemonheads…add them all together: ADD Rock!”
If Bon Jovi actually stole a song from these dopes, they’re even lamer than we thought.
Do you think Bon Jovi copied this song?
Listen to Steele’s song and tell us what you think of his accusation!
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Music News Review: Country Star Attacks Swift, Bon Jovi Goes Broke? | Music Vixen Blog says...
11.13.09 4:49 pm
[...] clean-cut rock crews is also being accused of song theft for one of their hits: Bon Jovi. (Full Story) 4Lady Gaga: Razorblades and Dancing Vampires photo credit: [...]
Christopher Hunt says...
11.14.09 11:39 am
My name is Christopher A.D. Hunt, of The Hunt Law Firm LLC, and I represent Mr. Steele in his case against TBS, Major League Baseball, Bon Jovi and several others.
Respectfully, your story, like most stories currently being published on the case, contains several factual errors (that keep being repeated in the news) and, more importantly, completely misses the legal and factual grounds for Mr. Steele’s lawsuit and appeal. There are far too many facts, and the case is far too complicated legally, to fully address all of the issues here. The public record in this case, which is the source of all of the facts below, is extensive. Nonetheless, I will address some of the more salient issues.
First, there is no $400 billion dollar demand. There was such a demand, for a very short time, when my client filed his initial complaint pro se (representing himself). Steele has, since last March, sought only what a jury of his peers finds appropriate.
Second, consider Mr. Steele’s own words, in response to a media outlet’s request for information:
“I do not simply claim that Bon Jovi copied my song. I fully understand the skeptical response to a song-to-song comparison. Their audio work was, in fact, most certainly developed with a ‘musicologist’ specifically to withstand a song-to-song copyright challenge. But this is only half the story.
“To correctly understand my legal claim, one must view the video portion of the TBS/MLB commercial played with the audio to my song. This version is in the Court record, and may be viewed at http://www.mySpace.com/chelseacitycouncil, or by searching the web for “Man I Really Love This.”
“The similarities are striking. For one, they are chronologically exact to the tenth of a second. Many other similarities are listed below. Defendants do not dispute the similarities, but rather claim the similarities are “obviously mere coincidence.”
“I registered my titles “Man I Really Love This Team” and “Man I Really Love This Town,” as writer/publisher, with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). This can easily be confirmed at http://www.ascap.com.
“When ASCAP saw my evidence, long before I filed suit, their exact words to me were; “We find it very hard to believe this was independent creation on their (Bon Jovi’s) part with the whole baseball and video thing.” They subsequently froze royalties on Bon Jovi’s audio, “I Love This Town,” from the MLB/TBS commercial. Bon Jovi has not challenged ASCAP’s freeze. This is all a matter of public record.
“Keep in mind the defendants have admitted access to and possession of my country-rock Red Sox playoff baseball anthem—which I sent them at their request—three years prior to defendants’ release of the TBS/MLB commercial. I also told Major League Baseball that my song could be adapted for use in any city, and I even sent them suggested lyrics for such a song, which I titled “Man I Really Love this TOWN” - all well before the TBS/MLB commercial and Lost Highway’s “I Love This Town” were released.
“Consider the following undisputed facts in the court docket, comparing my song to the promo audiovisual:
- Both fade-out at 2:38 seconds
- Title phrase and ‘hook’ similar: “I Love This (Team/Town)”
- Both prominently feature the Boston Red Sox (promo contains mostly Red Sox visuals (23), followed by Mets (16), Braves (8), Cubs (7), Dodgers (7), etc.)
- 96% (149 of the 155 video sequences) are synchronized to my song’s tempo/beat/measure
- “Over 50% of the commercial’s lyrics are identical to, or paraphrased from my song, according to a number of professional musicians and video experts.”
- Narratives are the same: from the fanfare on the streets around, then inside the stadium, where fans get up, get tough and scream “I Love This (Team/Town)!”
“Now look at these painstakingly synchronized visuals–in industry terms, “spotting-cues”—which the defendants and their expert musicologist characterize as “obviously mere coincidence:”
“Chronology Similarities between Steele Song v. TBS/MLB Promo
00:06:60 – 00:07:30 Both feature Guitar
00:08:00 – 00:08:40 Both feature Drum
00:09:10 – 00:10:80 Song lyrics “goin’ round,” Promo camera circling a baseball stadium
00:11:80 – 00:13:50 Song lyrics “hometown” (Red Sox), Promo features Red Sox
00:18:00 – 00:18:80 Song lyrics “out on” (Yawkey Way), Promo fans out on Yawkey Way.
00:18:80 – 00:19:80 Song lyrics “Yawkey Way,” Promo features street sign “Yawkey Way”
00:22:40 – 00:24:70 Song lyrics “in red have come to play,” Promo fans dressed in red cheering
00:35:50 – 00:36:00 Song piano descends, Promo baseball descends
00:40:90 – 00:42:20 Song lyrics “Tigers,” Promo features Detroit Tigers
00:56:00 – 00:56:80 Song lyrics “off your seats,” Promo fans off their seats cheering
01:04:30 – 01:09:50 Each time Song says “got,” Promo features hand-slapping
01:07:50 – 01:09:00 Song lyrics “stay tough,” Promo features chest-thumping
02:02:40 – 02:05:50 Song lyrics “spirit far and near,” Promo baseball trajectory far to near
02:05:50 – 02:08:50 Song lyrics “The Fenway Fans,” Promo features Fenway Fans
“I am asking the Court to properly analyze my claim: My song was used as reference to create the baseball video and the Bon Jovi audio for the TBS/MLB television commercial. The defendants and their audiovisual expression - a 2:38 country-rock playoff baseball commercial, primarily featuring the Boston Red Sox, whose narrative follows the fanfare on the streets around, then inside the stadium, where the narrator exhorts fans to get up, get tough, and scream “I Love This (Team/Town)!” - violates my rights under copyright law in derivative and synchronized works.”
In sum, Mr. Steele’s case is not about Bon Jovi simply plagiarizing Mr. Steele’s work. Rather, the allegations are - and always have been - that Major League Baseball and TBS created their television commercial for the 2007 World Series using Steele’s work as a “temp-track,” which, though a widespread practice in advertising, is illegal. The exact role of Bon Jovi in all of this remains unclear because the court dismissed the case after allowing only limited discovery, which did not allow Mr. Steele to investigate the extent of Bon Jovi’s role in creating the commercial (other than the obvious performance of the audio portion).
Keep in mind that the copyright owner of the MLB/TBS commercial, including the Bon Jovi audio, is Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the non-baseball multimedia marketing arm of the MLB, rather than Bon Jovi. MLBAM also happens to manage many A-list entertainers and their websites, including, for example, Madonna. So the Bon Jovi/MLB/TBS business relationship is tight and long-standing; in fact, Bon Jovi, TBS, and MLB teamed up again just this fall to promote baseball on TBS.
Our contention on appeal is that the District Court failed to apply the proper legal standard to Mr. Steele’s case. Defendants mislead the Court into focusing on whether my client’s work merely sounded like the Bon Jovi audio that accompanied the MLB/TBS commercial, rather than comparing Steele’s work with the complete audiovisual TBS/MLB commercial, which is what copyright law actually requires.
Thank you.
waggy says...
11.14.09 1:04 pm
wow those two songs can’t be any more diffrent. the guy is nuts