Ed Sheeran didn't ge pyright of Marv Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' : NPR

Contents:

• ED SHEERAN SONG ‘SOUNDS VERY, VERY SIAR’ TO MARV GAYE’S, MIC EXPERT SAYS AT TRIAL
• VIO OM ED SHEERAN NCERT IS ‘SMOKG GUN’ MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE: ATTORNEYS
• JURY FDS THAT ED SHEERAN DIDN'T PY MARV GAYE CLASSIC 'LET'S GET IT ON'
• DID ED SHEERAN H STEAL MARV GAYE CLASSIC? TRIAL TO TELL.
• ED SHEERAN CLEARED OF GG PYRIGHT MARV GAYE LAWSU
• ED SHEERAN SGS URT AS PART OF MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE
• ED SHEERAN ULD BE ON THE HOOK FOR LNS AS THE FAY OF MARV GAYE'S SONGWRG PARTNER ACCE HIM OF STEALG OM 'LET'S GET IT ON'
• ED SHEERAN-MARV GAYE PYRIGHT TRIAL TO BEG NEW YORK

ED SHEERAN SONG ‘SOUNDS VERY, VERY SIAR’ TO MARV GAYE’S, MIC EXPERT SAYS AT TRIAL

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. “Thkg Out Loud”Ed Sheeran“Let’s Get It On”Marv GayeWhat were the trial’s highlights?

”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. Sheeran released his sixth stud album "Subtract" May, jt one day after he prevailed a jury trial related to accatns the Brish sger pied Marv Gaye's 1973 h "Let's Get On" his 2014 Grammy-wng song "Thkg Out Loud.

VIO OM ED SHEERAN NCERT IS ‘SMOKG GUN’ MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE: ATTORNEYS

Mician Ed Sheeran’s urt se ntued Wednday a high-profile pyright trial about whether his smash sgle “Thkg Out Loud” pied the classic Marv Gaye song “Let’s Get It On.

Sheeran is acced of pyg “Let’s Get It On” by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who -wrote the 1973 h wh Gaye. Gaye died 1984 and Townsend died 2003.

In his own openg statement Tuday, Townsend attorney Ben Cmp noted Sheeran played his ballad and Gaye’s song back-to-back a medley durg a ncert, and lled the moment a “smokg gun. Vio of a live performance by Ed Sheeran is the “smokg gun” a lawsu accg the four-time Grammy award-wng mician of rippg off Marv Gaye’s “Let’s Get On, ” a Manhattan urt heard Tuday. Attorneys for the heirs of late Ed Townsend – who -wrote the 1973 soul classic wh Gaye – claimed that Sheeran ma a “nfsn” when he bed the h song wh his own, “Thkg Out Loud, ” durg a 2014 ncert Zurich.

JURY FDS THAT ED SHEERAN DIDN'T PY MARV GAYE CLASSIC 'LET'S GET IT ON'

The attorney said that Gaye’s beloved tune “has been lled ‘the perfect song for that moment, ’” addg, “Some of you may know what I mean when I talk about that moment. Sheeran “regnized the magic” of Gaye’s classic song and “cid to pture a b of that magic for his own benef. His lawyer, Ilene Farkas, argued that Sheeran’s “Thkg Out Loud” — which won a Grammy for song of the year 2016 — was born om an “emotnal nversatn” about loved on dyg and qutned why Sheeran would perform a versn of Gaye’s song if he had pied .

DID ED SHEERAN H STEAL MARV GAYE CLASSIC? TRIAL TO TELL.

“[From] Buddy Holly to The Beach Boys to The Beege to Elton John… have ed this chord progrsn before Ed Townsend, ” Farkas said, argug that the chord progrsn was tght basic how-to-play piano books, cludg one published 1967– six years before Gaye’s R&B h. Ed Sheeran took the wns stand Tuday (April 25) a closely watched trial over whether his song “Thkg Out Loud” ged Marv Gaye’s famed “Let’s Get It On, ” repeatedly sparrg wh an opposg attorney as he strongly nied the allegatns. While beg qutned by an attorney for his accers before a packed Manhattan feral urtroom, Sheeran said over and over that he had not pied Gaye’s song, and echoed the re legal fense advanced by his lawyers: that the only siari between the two tracks were mon mil elements that nnot be pyrighted.

Tuday’s proceedgs marked the official start of a long-awaed trial a pyright lawsu filed way back 2017 by heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s longtime producer who -wrote “Let’s Get It On, ” over Sheeran’s “Thkg Out Loud” — a mercial and cril succs that h No. (Gaye’s actual heirs, who famoly won a jury verdict 2015 that Rob Thicke and Pharrell’s megah “Blurred L” ged the sger’s “Got to Give It Up, ” are not volved the se. Ed Sheeran arriv at Manhattan Court to ttify on the pyright trial where he is acced of pyg Marv Gaye’s song, New York, Uned Stat on April 25, 2023.

After the jury the “Blurred L” se found the song had ged Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up, ” Thicke and Williams were ultimately orred to pay a $5 ln judgment, pl ongog royalti om their song.

ED SHEERAN CLEARED OF GG PYRIGHT MARV GAYE LAWSU

Superstar Marv Gaye, to his home Los Angel, to hear some new tun. Gaye and Townsend agreed to spl their share of the posn’s future earngs.

ED SHEERAN SGS URT AS PART OF MARV GAYE PYRIGHT SE

Gaye rerd the song L. Gaye, addn to his soarg vol, played keyboard on the rerd.

The song, Gaye’s first No. “Let’s Get It On” lnched a new phase Gaye’s reer; four years later, his song “Got to Give It Up” also reached No. Before his ath, a filici by Marv Gaye, Sr., 1984, Gaye had a fal smash wh “Sexual Healg.

ED SHEERAN ULD BE ON THE HOOK FOR LNS AS THE FAY OF MARV GAYE'S SONGWRG PARTNER ACCE HIM OF STEALG OM 'LET'S GET IT ON'

” He did jt that wh “Blurred L, ” his 2013 h wh Rob Thicke, for which he seemed to metabolize almost every aspect of Marv Gaye’s 1977 h “Got to Give It Up, ” cludg the crowd nois and the wbell. In 2015, found that the posers of “Blurred L” had illegally pied Gaye’s song. The songwrers were ultimately forced to pay the Gaye fay $5.

The dissentg judge on the Nth Circu Court of Appeals, Jacquele Nguyen, scribed the lg as “a vastatg blow to future micians and posers everywhere, ” bee allowed “the Gay to acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style. “I n’t tell you how many lls we get after the Grammys, ” Judh Fell, who was the Gaye fay’s expert milogist the “Blurred L” se, told me.

Stewart heard enough siari between the two songs to wre a report sayg that Sheeran and Wadge were gg on Gaye and Townsend. Gaye’s piano and the Funk Brothers’ addns to the groove, such as the bass le, weren’t on the pos py. Gaye, who didn’t read mic, probably never even saw the transcriptn.

ED SHEERAN-MARV GAYE PYRIGHT TRIAL TO BEG NEW YORK

) Ingrid Monson, the Qucy Jon Profsor of Ain Amerin Mic at Harvard, who also served as an expert wns for the Gaye fay the “Blurred L” trial, told me, “There uld be no pyright system ls sued to rewardg the creativy of Ain Amerin mic than the one we have.

To crics, her prentatn was all smoke and mirrors, signed to trick the jury to thkg that a llectn of unprotectable elements was forensic proof that “Blurred L” was staed wh Marv Gaye’s mil Sheeran leav a Southern District of New York urthoe on April 26th, after ttifyg Griff v. He timated that seventy per cent of the “mil value” of Sheeran’s song was rived om Gaye and Townsend’s. He poted out that the chord progrsn Ed Townsend had played for Gaye was so mon that was elementary mic-method books such as “How to Play Rock ’n’ Roll Piano, ” published 1967.

”Ilene Farkas, who closed for the fense, noted that we were all here bee, exactly fifty years ago, Ed Townsend sat down at his piano and played Marv Gaye four chords. I., and Pharrell Williams, “Blurred L” (Star Trak); Johnny Cash, “Folsom Prison Blu” (Sun Label Group); The Chiffons “He’s So Fe” (Capol Rerds); Marv Gaye, “Let’s Get It On” (Motown Rerd Company); Cory Daye, “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (Featherbed Mic); Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down” (MCA Rerds); Gee Harrison, “My Sweet Lord” (G. Estate); Gordon Jenks, “Crcent Cy Blu” (Universal Mic); Miguel Bosé, “Don Diablo” (Sony Mic); Sami Swch, “Oh Why” (Sami Swch); The Gap Band, “Oops Upsi Your Head” (One Media); Sam Smh, “Stay wh Me” (Capol Rerds); Paramore, “Misery Bs” (Atlantic Rerdg); Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You” (Asylum Rerds); Bno Mars, “Uptown Funk” (Kobalt Mic); Matt Cardle, “Amazg” (Columbia); Dua Lipa, “Levatg” (Warner Rerds UK); TLC, “No Scbs” (LaFace Rerds); Katy Perry and Juicy J, “Dark Horse” (Capol Rerds); Olivia Rodrigo, “Good 4 U” (Geffen Rerds); Ed Sheeran, “Photograph” (Asylum Rerds UK); Ed Sheeran, “Thkg Out Loud” (Asylum Rerds UK); Led Zeppel, “Stairway to Heaven” (Mythgem); Marv Gaye, “Got to Give It Up” (Motown Rerds); Flame, “Joyful Noise” (Cross Movement Rerds); Spir, “Ts” (Sony Mic); Artikal Sound System, “Live Your Life” (Controlled Substance Sound Labs).