A Threat to Western Civilization
4 A’s worth sharing this week: Ed Sheeran threatens to quit music, the legacy of singer-songwriter, Connie Converse, the Hollywood writers strike ramps up, new music, and more…
Here are four things (A’s) we thought were worth sharing this week:
A1. Who is Connie Converse? Although considered a pioneer of the singer-songwriter era of the 1960s, Converse did not begin to receive recognition until 2004 when an NYU student heard a 1954 bootleg of one of her songs. Years later, the student, Dan Dzula, released a compilation album of Converse’s tunes entitled How Sad, How Lovely.
Ellen Steckert, singer, folk music scholar and song collector referred to Converse as the “female version of Bob Dylan.”
She was even better than him, as a lyricist and a composer, but she didn’t have the showbiz savvy, and she wasn’t interested in writing protest songs.
Converse left New York City for Ann Arbor, Michigan in pursuit of reinventing herself as “an editor, a scholar, and an activist” (NYT). And in 1974, shortly after her 50th birthday, Converse disappeared and was never seen again. Although “she was intensely private, she kept a diary, scrapbooks, and voluminous correspondence offering clues about what the Manhattan chapter of her life was like.”
A2. Ed Sheeran said he would quit music if he was found liable in a recent plagiarism lawsuit that was filed by the heirs of Ed Townsend, the late songwriter who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Marvin Gaye. The lawsuit concerned Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” and its alleged similarities to the aforementioned song about “getting things on.” Many initial reactions to the suit sided with Sheeran—an opinion article in the Washington Post went so far as to call it “a threat to Western civilization,” equating the Townsend allegations to arguing that a painter could “own the copyright to a particular shade of red.”
Luckily for Ed Sheeran fans, and creatives everywhere, he won and is going to keep writing songs.
As Sheeran’s lawyers said repeatedly, what the singer was accused of copying included a stock chord progression and syncopated rhythmic pattern. Those elements are so generic that the judge in the case, Louis L. Stanton, stipulated they were not protected by copyright.
The plaintiffs (the family of Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend) needed to prove that the combination of those elements—their “selection and arrangement”—was original enough to warrant protection. In general, courts place a high bar on such claims. Ultimately, the jury decided that “Thinking Out Loud” was created independently, and never addressed whether those aspects of “Let’s Get It On” were protected. (“6 Takeaways From Ed Sheeran’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Case,” The New York Times)
While Sheeran was on the stand, his attorney Ilene Farkas asked what Sheeran would do if he lost the case. Sheeran responded, “If that happens, I’m done. I’m stopping… To have someone come in and say, ‘We don’t believe you, you must have stole it.’ I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”
A3. Writers strike; songwriters would if they could. This week, a writers strike halted creative work in Hollywood, as writers continue their fight for fair compensation. “You see how much this strike has impacted film and TV already,” songwriter Michelle Lewis said, “but we don’t have that option in the same way. Our industries aren’t the same—people will point out that songwriters own copyrights—but you see so many similarities with us. It comes down to reform in the streaming economy. And what makes me feel the most bummed out today is the stark realization of how little power we have. We have no power.”
On a slightly more positive note, it is true that “songwriters have seen some notable victories in recent years,” with groups like the Songwriters of North America (SONA) playing a prominent role in advancing initiatives like the Music Modernization Act that passed in 2018, while in the past year the Copyright Royalty Board has “issued better rates for songwriters’ royalties” (Rolling Stone).
A4. New music this week: from London-based singer-songwriter Jessie Ware as she doubles down on her devotion to the dance floor and—after the varnished opulence of What’s Your Pleasure?—embraces a looser, louder, more live sound. That! Feels Good! Is (almost) all up, with brass and string arrangements, choruses of voices, very winking lyrics, and, perhaps most surprisingly, rapping à la Blondie or Tom Tom Club. “I wanted it to feel free, and I think that was indicative of how I was feeling. This record was about celebration and joy. I wanted it to feel like the sexiest slap around the face” (Apple Music / Spotify). On their second album Through and Through Atlanta-based artist Baby Rose, brings the audience back to a time of “smoky love ballads coated in classic soul and funky flourishes” (Apple Music). According to Pitchfork, the release “lives in the swimmy non-existence of lost futures: lifetimes loved only in hope and projection, crushes that never manifested into relationships, loves that never materialized into babies” (Apple Music / Spotify). Ryan Beatty released his third studio album Calico which explores his folkier territory. According to the album’s liner notes on Apple Music, “his unhurried songs are still appealingly fluid, liable to glide into unexpected but elegant turns, but they largely unfurl on guitars and pianos, enriched but never overwhelmed by a visceral tug of strings or a soft hum of electronics” (Apple Music / Spotify).
And shout out to friend of Foray, Swedish-born singer-songwriter, Signe Levin, who released a stunning new single this week, “Into the Sand” (Apple Music / Spotify). Check it out! 🎉
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