Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[Reggae plus]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

Your explanation of "cover" is NEWS to me...and I've been in Radio and Music for 30 some-odd years. By the way...Hank's 'Twist' was out a year before Chubby took it to the top of the charts.

That Chubby did it twice in subsequent years means nothing. Hank had it up in the Top 10 before anyone ever heard of Mr. Checker. [thanks for the name Mrs. Dick Clark]

A cover is simply a remake of an established hit. That's what it's been for decades and decades and decades...in spite of the likes of Pat Boone and Bill Haley and that non-talent Elvis...who couldn't write a song to save his life...and subsequently didn't---either way.

[Scotch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
Your explanation of "cover" is NEWS to me...and I've been in Radio and Music for 30 some-odd years. By the way...Hank's 'Twist' was out a year before Chubby took it to the top of the charts.

That Chubby did it twice in subsequent years means nothing. Hank had it up in the Top 10 before anyone ever heard of Mr. Checker. [thanks for the name Mrs. Dick Clark]

A cover is simply a remake of an established hit. That's what it's been for decades and decades and decades...in spite of the likes of Pat Boone and Bill Haley and that non-talent Elvis...who couldn't write a song to save his life...and subsequently didn't---either way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thirty years ago was only 1976. Think about the actual term "cover". To be a cover it has actually to cover, conceal, hide from view. The name "Chubby Checker" is an obvious imitation of the name "Fats Domino".

[Reggae plus]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

1972...they actually started paying me to do that radio thing. And yes...Mrs. Clark did suggest the NEW name for Ernest Evans based on Fats Domino. I know Chubby personally by the way.

I suppose what folks do when they record someone else's tune is RE-cover it...but they're called 'covers' or 'cover versions' nonetheless.

Some words DO have more than one meaning. As that meaning evolves the use of the revamped word takes on a life of its own. YOUR definition of cover MIGHT well have been the case circa the mid 50s...or before that. [I don't know] At any rate THAT isn't the case anymore...and it hasn't been for a long LONG time.

[Scotch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
1972...they actually started paying me to do that radio thing. And yes...Mrs. Clark did suggest the NEW name for Ernest Evans based on Fats Domino. I know Chubby personally by the way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, oh. Now I'm in trouble.

The only reason I've heard of Hank Ballard at all, by the way, is that I was once commissioned to write a big band arrangement of "The Twist". I was obliged to pay part of my fee to Hal Leonard, the copyright owner, or, perhaps more accurately, gobbler, for permission to make the arrangement and have it performed publicly.

My point about 1976 is that I don't think covering (in the sense I'm going to continue to asseverate is the correct sense) was much practiced by then. On the hand, I don't recall that what I'm going to refer to as the debased usage of the term was very widespread by then either.

[ QUOTE ]
Some words DO have more than one meaning. As that meaning evolves the use of the revamped word takes on a life of its own. YOUR definition of cover MIGHT well have been the case circa the mid 50s...or before that. [I don't know] At any rate THAT isn't the case anymore...and it hasn't been for a long LONG time.

[/ QUOTE ]

The practice was still common enough as late as the early sixties. The Beatles, popularizing the notion of a recording act penning its own songs, may have had something to do with its eventual relative demise.

I think it fair to assume that the first person to use "cover" merely to mean record or perform a song that had already been recorded did so because he'd heard the term and misunderstood it (just as it's fair to assume the first person to use "fortuitous" to mean "fortunate", rather than "a matter of happenstance", did so because he'd heard the term and misunderstood it--likewise "definitive" to mean "definite", and so on). He likely misunderstood it because it has to do with a fairly involved matter. I'm reminded of the phrase "begging the question". It doesn't mean "eliciting doubt" as you recently find it abused to mean. It means, rather, petitio principii, a material fallacy of presumption, assuming a priori the result you're ostensibly attempting to prove. In both cases we have a debasement and a degradation of language because we've simplified to the point of superfluity a technical term (never intended to be adopted by those with no especial interest in, respectively, the music business or formal logic), and we've simplified it because we never understood it in the first place.

"Cover" has now got so far out of hand that it isn't uncommon to hear jazz performances of standards called "covers". In fact, I've twice encountered someone (two different and distinct someone's, that is) calling Jethro Tull's rendition of J.S. Bach's "Bouree" from the Anna Magdalena Notebook (otherwise known as "First Lessons in Bach") a "cover"--for me a conveniently ready-made reductio ad absurdum.

[Scotch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

We might speculate further that the first person or persons to abuse the term "cover" sensed that the term was pejorative and concluded perversely (and vaguely) that there is something wrong with performing a song you didn't write yourself.

Re:

[ QUOTE ]
...that non-talent Elvis...who couldn't write a song to save his life...and subsequently didn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing "subsequently" is a typo, and you really mean "consequently". (Hence his eventual death?) I can't tell if you are calling Elvis (Presley) a "non-talent" BECAUSE he didn't or couldn't write songs. I hope you aren't, but that does seem to be the implication. I think you'd might as well call him a "non-talent" because he was lousy at figure skating or painting watercolors. (If I remember correctly, he had some hand in "I Can't Help Falling in Love", based on "Plaisir d'Amour", and "Love Me Tender", based on "Aura Lee", but that's beside the point.) Conversely, you'd might as well call Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein "non-talents" because they didn't or couldn't sing. Or you could call Hammerstein a "non-talent" because he couldn't compose music. (After Hammerstein's death, Rodgers did eventually write some of his own lyrics--for a show called "No Strings"--, and in my opinion they were mediocre, but that's beside the point.)

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court



'Family Man' loses £60-m suit against Marley family

MICHAEL EDWARDS, Entertainment editor
Friday, May 12, 2006

THE UK High Court yesterday ruled against Wailers bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett in his £60-million claim against the Marley family and their record label.

Barrett was reportedly denied on all 23 points of the suit in a 172-page judgement.

Barrett had claimed the sum on behalf of himself and his late brother Carlton, in respect of contracts from 1974, including copyrights on six songs, and royalties.

But during the trial, Marley's widow, Rita, testified that the late reggae king had not considered the rhythm section to be full members of the band, rather that they were merely session players.

Barrett, who was travelling outside of London yesterday, had apparently not yet been informed about the verdict in the case.

"I haven't done anything wrong. I just don't have any friends in high places like them," he said, in reaction to the news.
The verdict brings to a close a long and bitter fight on the part of the bassist, who insists that he was legitimately contracted to the late reggae king.

If the decision stands, it is likely that Barrett will also stand the legal costs of his opponents.

Leading Marley archivist Roger Steffens, who also spoke by phone to the Observer, said the verdict was a tremendous blow. "For all of us who believed that he had a good shot at this, the verdict is incomprehensible and devastating," Steffens said.

Adding insult to injury, he said, the result came on the 25th anniversary of Marley's passing.

[email protected]
'Family Man' loses £60-m suit against Marley family

[evanovitch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

sometimes i wonder just how Gong muss be feeling wen him look dung and see allll a dis weh a happen....guess di lyrics need fi change to 'i dont rememba wen wi use fi sit, eena govament yaad etc etc etc '



Aston 'Family Man' Barrett faces huge legal bill

AP
Tuesday, May 16, 2006



LONDON (AP) - Aston "Family Man" Barrett, the bass player in The Wailers who lost his lawsuit for a share of the late Bob Marley's royalties, is now facing a bill for legal costs estimated at nearly two million pounds (euro3 million, US$3.8 million).

Barrett, who was Marley's bass player for almost a decade, was seeking up to 60 million pounds (euro88 million, US$115 million) he claimed he was owed since Marley died in 1981 without making a will.

Justice Kim Lewison agreed with arguments by Universal-Island Records Ltd and the Marley family that Barrett surrendered his rights to any further royalties in a 1994 settlement in exchange for US$500,000.

Lewison issued an order barring Barrett from taking any further action without the court's permission. Barrett had sued on behalf of himself and his late brother Carlton.

"We always felt that this would be the outcome and it was hard to listen to Aston Barrett reduce his friend Bob to someone who was more interested in playing football than making music," the Marley family said in a statement issued after the judgment was announced.

Lewison said Barrett had the "greatest difficulty" in answering questions about business dealings and his testimony was not reliable.

"He was plainly close to Bob Marley himself, whom he trusted implicitly," the judge said.

"His recollection of events was hazy; and I also consider that, as often happens, he has reconstructed events in his mind according to how he would like them to have been," Lewison said.

[evanovitch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
Re: "All one has to do is listen to the Wailers' material recorded with [the HIGHLY over-rated] Lee 'Scratch' Perry and compare it to what they immediately there-after laid down with the brothers Barrett. TWO different worlds. A quantum LEAP forward that was truly international in flavour and scope."

To my ears the greater difference in sound came with Island Records, and it seems reasonable to me to say that without Chris Blackwell and his associates there would never have been an international reputation nor any significant royalties over which to fight.

Re: "The best rhythm section in the history of Jamaican music...bar none..."

It is arguable that the Barrett's were the best bass and drums duo, I suppose, but it seems to me Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar have the greater reputation. The ENTIRE group, however, (not counting the I-Three's and occasional brass and reeds) was a rhythm section.

[/ QUOTE ]

Scotch, how do u rate Santa .... i like to think that even Horsemout and Sly paid attention to him.....certainly up dere wid Barrett since they r from same era so to speak , working in similar camps....he wid Peter etc etc

[Blackstar*]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

I feel sorry that Family Man lost. He should have been awarded something - maybe not 60mil quid though.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
sometimes i wonder just how Gong muss be feeling wen him look dung and see allll a dis weh a happen....guess di lyrics need fi change to 'i dont rememba wen wi use fi sit, eena govament yaad etc etc etc '



Aston 'Family Man' Barrett faces huge legal bill

AP
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think Bob would have been surprised. Read and Listen to his own words on the matter of the Wailers and the future of his own kids.
There were five wise virgins and five foolish virgins.
I think Fams drew some bad caads.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
Re: "My Ex-Girlfriend Sister has a daughter by him."

I hope you mean your ex-girlfriend's sister.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes....thanks for the correction.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court


NEWSMAKER - Severing all 'Family' ties
published: Tuesday | May 23, 2006

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

ON MAY 11, fans of reggae legend, Bob Marley, marked the 25th anniversary of his death. That same day Aston 'Family Man' Barrett, his former colleague in The Wailers band, lost a long-running battle in the British High Court.

Three years ago, Barrett filed a lawsuit against the Marley family and Universal-Island Records for non-payment of royalties.

He also filed on behalf of Carlton 'Carly' Barrett, his younger brother and former drummer in the legendary band, who was murdered in 1987.

According to the 60-year-old 'Fams', he and Carly are owed millions in royalties dating back to February 1981 when Marley died without leaving a will.

But High Court Judge, Kim Lewison, ruled in favour of the Marleys and Universal-Island. He said that Barrett had signed off his rights to further royalties when he agreed to a US$500,000 settlement in 1994.

Adding insult to injury, Lewison issued an order barring Barrett from taking any further action without the court's permission.

FRIENDSHIP

"We always felt that this would be the outcome, and it was hard to listen to Aston Barrett reduce his friend Bob to someone who was more interested in playing football than making music,'' the Marley family said in a statement issued after the judgment.

The Associated Press quoted Lewison as saying Barrett had the "greatest difficulty'' in answering questions about business dealings and his testimony was not reliable.

"His recollection of events was hazy; and I also consider that, as often happens, he has reconstructed events in his mind according to how he would like them to have been,'' Lewison said.

Barrett left court with a hefty legal bill, estimated at two million pounds. There was also the startling revelation that he fathered 52 children, hence his nickname.

The Barrett brothers were establishing themselves as studio musicians when they first met The Wailers, Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (Wailer) in 1968.

From the Beeston Street section of Kingston, they were members of the Hippy Boys band as well as The Upsetters, producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry's house band.

GROUP SPLIT

They played on Duppy Conqueror, a seminal hit song for The Wailers. When the group split acrimoniously with Perry in 1971, the Barretts went with them.

Marley, Tosh and Livingston signed with Island Records the following year, cutting two critically-acclaimed albums Catch A Fire and Burnin'. But just before the group's third album for the London-based company was released, Tosh and Livingston left.

That album, Natty Dread, was released in 1974 and is considered by musicologists to be the record that launched Marley worldwide. Carly is credited as writer and cowriter, respectively, on Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) and Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock).

'Family Man' is credited as writer of Talkin' Blues.

On 1976's Rastaman Vibration, Carly is listed as author of Want More. The siblings get credit for co-writing Who The Cap Fit while Family Man and football star Alan 'Skill' Cole are named as writers of War.

Since Marley's death, there have been several lawsuits dealing with royalties. Danny Sims, the African-American producer, and the estates of Tosh and Wailer, have all settled suits with the Marleys and Island Records.

During the last 25 years, Aston Barrett has helped hold The Wailers together. He has filled the role his friend, Bob Marley, once held by leading the band through countless world tours.

In the aftermath of the May 11 ruling, it's left to be seen if The Wailers will ever perform again.

All in the family: Barrett brothers trivia

Aston Barrett was reportedly an unruly teenager. He served one year at the Cobbla Youth Camp in Manchester.

He is a major influence on Robbie Shakespeare who played bass on Concrete Jungle, from The Wailers' Catch A Fire album.

The Barretts played on Return of Django, produced by 'Scratch' Perry. It was a minor hit in the United Kingdom.

They worked with some of reggae's creative producers in the 1970s including Augustus Pablo. They played on his dub classic, Rockers Meets King Tubby's Uptown.

They also played on Peter Tosh's major record label debut album, Legalise It.

Both were with Marley when he was shot at his St. Andrew home in December 1976

NEWSMAKER - Severing all 'Family' ties

[evanovitch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]

[b]"We always felt that this would be the outcome, and it was hard to listen to Aston Barrett reduce his friend Bob to someone who was more interested in playing football than making music,'' the Marley family said in a statement issued after the judgment.



[/ QUOTE ]

and the fake will which was presented after Bob's death was wat exactly....'tief neva like fi see tief wid long bag'

[Scotch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

[ QUOTE ]
Scotch, how do u rate Santa?

[/ QUOTE ]I don't know. I haven't paid much critical attention to him, I'm afraid. I don't personally say that Sly and Robbie are better or worse than the Barrett brothers either, for that matter. I only say that Sly and Robbie have the greater reputation. It appears that Carlton Barrett was very innovative but technically limited, and this is the sort of difficulty we have when attempting to compare pop (and even jazz) drummers. Was Buddy Rich a better drummer than Max Roach because Buddy Rich was more technically accomplished?

[Scotch]

Re: Ex-Wailer Gets Up, Stands Up in Court

I'm not surprised at the verdict. The case seemed pretty shaky to me. I suppose the real winners, as usual, are the lawyers--or will be if they manage actually to collect.