Six months later, Avril and the Rubinoos have decided to settle out of court, but Lavigne's people still aren't admitting that she ripped off their song.
Members of the Rubinoos, a '70s rock band that neither you nor your dad has ever heard of, filed the suit against Lavigne, claiming she ripped off their 1979 song, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." Lavigne denied the allegations, claiming - much like most people under 45 - that she'd never heard the song before.
Mraw! I'm not surprised that Avril hadn't heard "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" before. She mispronounced David Bowie's name (to rhyme with "Maui") at the 2003 Grammy nominations, so she probably isn't that well versed in rock and roll history. Avril's "Girlfriend" co-writer (in quotes) Luke Gottwald also claims that he never heard the song, but he produced a band called the Party who covered "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" (on a different album) so he's probably lying. And I don't think the "I've never heard the song" defense would hold up in court.
I think the Rubinoos were just after a little cash, and who can blame them really, so this out of court settlement is best for both sides. Hopefully the Rubes got enough cash so they can afford to play more locally, which Tommy Dunbar says costs them about $1500 for every show. They've certainly gained a lot more name recognition from the Avril generation, which was probably another part of what they were after.
Even though "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" is one of my all time favorite songs, I don't like Avril's "Girlfriend", even though it's almost the same song. "Boyfriend" has a a nice buildup of verses leading up to the "hey you!" chorus while "Girlfriend" is nothing but chorus. It's like being hit on the head over and over with a mallet.
I know the similarity is just five words, but there isn't much left if you take those five words out of Avril's song. The chorus even more prominent in her remake with rapper Lil' Mama -- it's all "hey you" and "Lil' Mama and Avril Lavigne". Why do they need to spend the first minute of the song saying their names? It's like some bad early 80s SNL rap parody by Joe Piscopo "I'm rappin' dad and I'm here to say! I'm the rappinest dad in the USA!".
Even better is the cover by Avril and the Chipmunks. That's something the Rubinoos could probably get behind, because they opened their show at the GAMH last month with a cover of "Witch Doctor" by Chipmunk svengali David Seville. Having the fake Chipmunks cover a song that lifted from one of their songs makes up for not getting any of their songs on Chipmunk Punk. Three Knack songs and no Rubinoos songs.. what was up with that?
This article in Miami's new times claims that Avril's "Girlfriend" is "one of the all-time top 10 songs by that name", going on to say that it's "definitely better than the crappy version done by the Rubinoos, some Seventies bandmates who claim she ripped them off". Forgetting for the moment that the Rubinoos' song is called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" , I can admit that Avril's song has to be one of the all time top ten songs with the title "Girlfriend".
I have around 6000 songs in my iTunes library, and 5 of them are called "Girlfriend". This means that .083% of the songs in the world have "Girlfriend" as a title. Unfortunately for Avril, the four other "Girlfriend" songs in my library are better than hers. They're older songs from the 60s and 70s (plus one from the 90s) which might not be familiar to most people under 45.
Four "Girlfriend" songs better than that Avril's
1. Harry Nilsson - Girlfriend
Most people know this as "My Best Friend". It was the theme to "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", a sitcom that ran on ABC from 1969-1972. It was in an episode of "That 70s Show" (the one with Tommy from "Third Rock") but the song itself was from the 60s.
2. The Modern Lovers - Girlfriend
The Modern Lovers were labelmates of the Rubinoos on Beserkley Records. This song was recorded in the early 70s but not released until the mid 70s. They were before your time, but you might remember the lead singer Jonathan from the movie "There's Something About Mary".
3. Wings - Girlfriend
Wings were another 70s band. Back in the 60s, their leader was in a band called the Beatles. Then he died and became an angel. That's why he called his 1970s band Wings.
4. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
This song is from the early 90s. It had a cool anime video and was featured in Guitar Hero 2.
3 comments:
So basically it sounds like Lavigne and company used the time-honored plagiarism defense of "I couldn't have heard, much less ripped off, something that myself and all the cool young people and the media have labeled as lame and obscure". I guess if she was going to steal something, she would only steal from the popular, well-known stuff. You know, the tunes everybody would recognize.
If I were the Rubinoos, I'd be pretty pissed off right now about how I was being characterized.
And I don't think the "I've never heard the song" defense would hold up in court.
The plaintiff does, in fact, have to prove not just that the new song is similar, but that it was copied from the plaintiff's song. If the songs are sufficiently similar, or the original is sufficiently well-known, you can appeal to the jury's incredulity, but neither is the case here.
"Boyfriend" has a a nice buildup of verses leading up to the "hey you!" chorus while "Girlfriend" is nothing but chorus.
Hm, they seem to have pretty much the same structure to me: verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus. Lavigne's all suck while The Rubinoos' are excellent, to be sure.
I happen to really like the Avril song and thought it was just a cool, modern teeny-bopper update of what The Rubinoos were doing. I don't see the need to sue for anything like that. I mean, isn't The Rubinoos song just borrowing from the Stones anyhow? The only real similarities between Avril and The Rubinoos is the "Hey Hey You You" bit and the "I Wanna", right?
Don't get me wrong, I love The Rubinoos and want them to get money, but this mess left a bad taste in my mouth.
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