How Siar Is ‘Blurred L’ To A 1977 Marv Gaye H? – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• JURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED LJURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED L
• RULG THAT ‘BLURRED L’ PIED MARV GAYE SONG ROCKS MIC WORLD
• HOW SIAR IS ‘BLURRED L’ TO A 1977 MARV GAYE H?
• ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS PIED OM MARV GAYE BLURRED L, URT NFIRMS
• MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE
• BLURRED L: MARV GAYE'S FAY KEEPS $5M PAYOUT
• JURY FDS ROB THICKE, PHARRELL RIPPED OFF MARV GAYE SONG 'BLURRED L'
• MARV GAYE'S FAY WS 'BLURRED L' APPEAL; PHARRELL, ROB THICKE MT PAY
• ‘BLURRED L’ INGED ON MARV GAYE COPYRIGHT, JURY RUL
• ​JURY: PHARRELL, ROB THICKE PIED MARV GAYE FOR "BLURRED L"
• GOT TO GIVE $7.4 MILLN UP: JURY FDS PHARRELL AND THICKE COPIED MARV GAYE SONG

JURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED LJURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED L

Source Associated Prs Mar 10, 2015, 10:06 PM UTC|Share this storyRob Thicke and Pharrell pied a classic Marv Gaye song while wrg their 2013 h "Blurred L, " a jury found this afternoon. The Gaye fay is now askg for an junctn on sal of "Blurred L, " acrdg to The Wrap's Pamela 's fay sued after noticg siari to their father's song the 2013 h.

There's no hidg that micians often emulate sounds om the past, but Gaye's lawyers argued that Thicke's song went que a b further than that, reportedly posg that parts of Gaye's song appeared all but two bars of "Blurred L. The product, “Blurred L, ” went on to bee the biggt song of 2013 and brg lns of dollars each for Williams, sger Rob Thicke and the rerd obscure procs — “magic, ” Williams’ attorney lled — and what, if any, part the late soul sger and songwrer Marv Gaye played were the subject of a two-week-long trial a downtown feral urtroom which attorneys, mic experts, valuatn experts and micians argued over the age-old qutn of where spiratn ends and theft Tuday, a feral jury cid that “Blurred L” had pied Gaye’s 1977 chart-topper “Got To Give It Up, ” and found that Williams and Thicke should fork over nearly $7. Gaye’s dghter, Nona, clung to her attorney and sobbed when the verdict was oute uld reverberate throughout the mic dtry, given how prevalent is the bs to draw spiratn, and sometim more, om earlier Sam Smh agreed earlier this year to share royalti om his song “Stay Wh Me” after parisons to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down, ” the olr mician wrote on his webse that was a “mil accint, ” and sound a sympathetic note: “All my years of songwrg have shown me the thgs n happen.

“This may put a se on the Gaye fay’s face, but ’s a dark day for creativy, and the end, this will be a loss for mic fans, ” he said. ”The Gay’ attorney, Richard Bch, said after the verdict that the trial was not about spiratn or the mic bs, but the pyg of one song. ”The eight-person jury, most of whom appeared to be more of Gaye’s generatn than Thicke and Williams’ mographic, heard “Blurred L” several tim durg the trial and twice watched the rnchy mic vio — but never got to hear the full rerdg of “Got to Give It Up.

RULG THAT ‘BLURRED L’ PIED MARV GAYE SONG ROCKS MIC WORLD

” Bee laws when Gaye wrote the song allowed only the sheet mic posn, not the sound rerdg, to be pyrighted, jurors heard short snippets and a stripped-down versn created by Thicke and Williams’ milogist wh jt Gaye’s vols over a bass le and chords on a said there were pied elements — cludg the bass and keyboard le, the hook and a repeated theme — all but two bars of “Blurred L. ” Thicke and Williams disavowed statements they ma over and over aga prs terviews about how they talked about or channeled Gaye as they wrote the oath on the wns stand, Thicke said he had been dnk and high the day the song was wrten and durg his prs terviews, and had sought to unservedly take cred even though he had wrten none of said he had misremembered the events of the night and only realized his error when he heard Williams’ rellectn at a posn. Williams ttified that he ma the nnectn to Gaye only hdsight, and that though he was raised listeng to Gaye and rpected the mician “beyond words, ” he did not take om his mic.

HOW SIAR IS ‘BLURRED L’ TO A 1977 MARV GAYE H?

”Nona Gaye, one of three Gaye children who prevailed the se, said the fay had taken on mic dtry giants for her father, who died 1984.

Will return to Los Angel feral urt on Tuday to fight claims they pied their multiplatum song om Gaye’s 1977 h “Got To Give It Up. The sger’s children Frankie and Nona Gaye rpond wh unterclaims that the micians ged “Got To Give It Up” — and that Thicke and ex-wife Pla Patton pied a send Gaye song, “After The Dance, ” -wrg Thicke’s 2011 track “Love After War. In recent motns, Thicke and Williams’ attorneys threw the Gay a pyright curveball wh the argument they don’t own their father’s mercially released rerdgs — they only own the posnal elements the sheet mic “lead sheets.

ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS PIED OM MARV GAYE BLURRED L, URT NFIRMS

” (The rerdgs belong to Motown Rerds, which is owned by Universal, which turn owns Interspe — the rerd pany that released Blurred L and a fendant the Gay’ untersu.

His cisn enforced that the Marv Gaye rerdgs of “Got To Give It Up” and “After The Dance” uldn’t be heard urt — the attorneys are only g stripped-down stmentals. But more importantly, the cisn means that cidg whether gement occurred, the jury will only nsir whether “Blurred L” and “Love After War” borrow excsively om what’s the Gay’ lead sheets. The Gay’ attorneys argue that what’s left — the lyrics, the vol melody, the keyboard le and the bass — still remble Thicke’s songs enough to say they’re gement.

On Thursday and Friday, the Gaye fay’s attorney Richard Bch lled a pair of milogists to the stand, and the urtroom beme a urse on mic theory wh their ttimoni on what they hear mon between the posns. “Signature phrase”: Judh Fell, the Berkeley-ted head of a milogy nsultg firm, labeled one phrase per song the immediately intifiable “signature phrase”: the openg lyrics “I ed to go out to parti” Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” and the chos opener “And that’s why I’m gon’ take a good girl” “Blurred L.

MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE

The Gay’ other mil expert, Harvard profsor of Ain-Amerin mic Ingrid Monson, argued that Gaye’s bass le and s pairg wh a reggae- or ragtime-fluenced keyboard melody were highly unual Motown mic. That means ’s hard for Thicke and Williams to claim they were fluenced by the genre general, she said, stead of the Gaye songs specifilly. Le by le, the experts pared lyrics cludg Gaye’s “move up / Turn ’round / Shake down” and Thicke’s “Shake around / Get down / Get up.

BLURRED L: MARV GAYE'S FAY KEEPS $5M PAYOUT

The rap verse “Blurred L” begs and ends at the same pot the song as the Gaye song’s “parlando” — a lyril chantg Fell scribed as “a precursor to rap.

” The jury looked amed while Bch and Fell pared lyrics om the parlando and the rap verse, cludg pairg Gaye’s “Let me step to/ to your erotic zone” wh a le of T. “Theme X”: Fell intified a short, recurrg melodic le she labeled “theme X, ” heard Gaye’s sung lyrics “dancg lady” unr the ma vol.

JURY FDS ROB THICKE, PHARRELL RIPPED OFF MARV GAYE SONG 'BLURRED L'

Miller rpond that Thicke’s vols don’t match the Gaye sheet mic, but Fell said the discrepancy is bee Thicke’s theme X match a harmony not wrten but implied the lead sheet.

MARV GAYE'S FAY WS 'BLURRED L' APPEAL; PHARRELL, ROB THICKE MT PAY

A US feral appeals urt has upheld a pyright gement verdict agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams over the 2013 h song Blurred L, agreeg wh lower urts that the song illegally pied om Marv Gaye's Got to Give pots:In a spl cisn, the urt affirmed that Gaye's pyright is entled to broad protectnThe dissentg judge warned the cisn allowed the Gaye fay to pyright a mil styleMore than 200 micians had backed the appeal, sayg the se uld hurt the mic dtryIn a spl cisn om a three-judge panel, the 9th US Circu Court of Appeals led the fay of the late soul sger was entled to the $US5. 8 ln) was award a se that has been closely watched the mic dtry for s potential effects on pyright and judg rejected the fence's requt to overturn a jury verdict or orr a new trial, sayg Gaye's pyright on the song was entled to broad protectn.

‘BLURRED L’ INGED ON MARV GAYE COPYRIGHT, JURY RUL

”Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams were sued 2013 over their song “Blurred L” by members of Gaye’s fay, who argued that pied his dis-era h “Got to Give It Up. The Gay’ expert poted to a “nstellatn” of var mil elements, which stck many mentators as vague but was enough to persua the jury. The verdict was upheld on appeal, but a dissentg judge said allowed the Gaye tate “to acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style.

​JURY: PHARRELL, ROB THICKE PIED MARV GAYE FOR "BLURRED L"

Sheeran (2023)‘Thkg Out Loud’“Let’s Get It On”Marv Gaye“Thkg Out Loud”Ed SheeranIn a long-nng se that was layed part by the ronavis panmic, heirs of Townsend, Gaye’s -wrer of “Let’s Get It On, ” acce Sheeran of pyg the “heart” of that song for his h “Thkg Out Loud. Circu Court of Appeals said Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up” served “broad” pyright protectn, and the March 2015 jury verdict favor of Gaye’s three children uld stand bee there was “not an absolute absence of evince” of siary between the two songs. And Interspe should be liable, but the appeals urt “Blurred L” se has transfixed the mic dtry, promptg bate over the le between plagiarism and honorg works by popular artists like Gaye, whose songs also clu “I Heard It Through the Grapeve” and “What’s Gog On.

Wednday’s cisn prompted a strong dissent om Circu Judge Jacquele Nguyen, who said the cisn let the Gay “acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style, ” and expand the potential for further pyright ligatn.

GOT TO GIVE $7.4 MILLN UP: JURY FDS PHARRELL AND THICKE COPIED MARV GAYE SONG

”Williams, whose songs also clu “Happy, ” admted urt to beg a Gaye fan sce childhood but said “Blurred L” and “Got to Give Up” were siar genre has terviews acknowledged drawg on Gaye’s song but mataed sworn statements that he exaggerated his ntributn to “Blurred L. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe heirs of Ed Townsend, who -wrote “Let’s Get It On” wh Marv Gaye, had acced the pop star of pyg “Thkg Out Loud. “Y, Amy Wadge and I wrote the song ‘Thkg Out Loud, ’” he Newman/Associated PrsIn a closely watched mic pyright trial, jurors ultimately sid wh Ed Sheeran, who had been acced of pyg his Grammy-wng ballad “Thkg Out Loud” om Marv Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On.

”ImageEd Townsend was a songwrer and producer who llaborated wh Gaye on the “Let’s Get It On” Ochs Archiv/Getty ImagWhat parts of the songs are dispute? The trial was watched closely mic and legal circl as the latt example a seri of s that have alt wh whether monplace bs of harmony or melody n be owned by any poser or are part of the public trend began 2015 when a jury found that Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams, their h “Blurred L, ” had ged on the pyright of another Gaye tune, “Got to Give It Up, ” and they were orred to pay more than $5 ln damag. Image source, InterspeImage ptn, Blurred L went to number one the UK while s X-rated vio provoked ntroversyRob Thicke and Pharrell Williams pied one of Marv Gaye's songs to create their 2013 smash Blurred L, an appeal urt has urt upheld a 2015 verdict agast the stars, which means Gaye's fay will get to keep a $5m (£3.