Why do all songs sound alike? Let’s compare notes, says Bacharach
WITH 60 years of songwriting behind him, Burt Bacharach knows a thing or two about original tunes. And he has reached a conclusion: there may be none left.
Led Zeppelin and Ed Sheeran are among the high-profile stars to face court cases in recent years, accused of ripping off other artists’ songs. But Bacharach says the glut of plagiarism suits is unfair because, for songwriters, there are only “so many notes”.
“It’s not a perfect science,” he said. “There are just so many notes when you look at the keyboard. It’s one octave right there, and that’s what you’ve got to play with, right? So some songs sound like others. Things are messy enough in the world of pop music, with downloads and free music and things like that. And then on top of it, to have this suing – I don’t like it.”
Bacharach is behind some of the most beloved songs of the 20th century, from The Look of Love and Anyone Who Had A Heart to Say A Little Prayer and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.
He faced a plagiarism accusation of his own, over the 1969 Oscar-winner Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head. “I’ve had people sue me – somebody who I never knew said, ‘You know, I wrote Raindrops’,” Bacharach said.
“Then you have to protect yourself lawyer-wise and prove that you wrote it, not the other person.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Bacharach said the laws on plagiarism should be changed to protect songwriters.
“I think what needs to be done is, there has to be maybe three [or] four outstanding experts – musicologists – who can be trusted, who can differentiate and say, ‘That’s derivative, that’s not derivative’.”
One of the most famous openings in rock music, the riff from Stairway to Heaven, was the subject of a plagiarism suit last year. It was claimed that the song ripped off a 1967 instrumental, Taurus, by a US psychedelic band called Spirit. The estate of Spirit’s guitarist, Randy Wolfe, brought the case.
But Led Zeppelin won in what their lawyer described as an attempt “to take an iconic song and [say] it’s got a new parent”.
Like Bacharach, some songwriters take a relaxed view on the subject. Tom Petty was given a songwriting credit on Sam Smith’s hit Stay With Me, after his publishers said it was similar to the 1989 Petty hit I Won’t Back Down.
Smith’s team “acknowledged the similarity” but Petty said afterwards: “All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. I wish Sam all the best for his ongoing career. Peace and love to all.”
In his interview, Bacharach, 89, ventured the opinion that memorable tunes are harder to come by these days.
He has just scored his first musical in 48 years. Some Lovers opens on August 24 at The Other Palace in London for a limited run of 12 performances.