Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Fake Jesus of Suburbia?
Green Day Sued By Another 'Jesus of Suburbia'
Posted Oct 24th 2006 4:08PM by David Sprague
Filed under: Punk
Most folks have occasionally heard a new song and thought, "Gee, I feel like I've heard this somewhere before." But it takes a special kind of person to take things to another level, by coming to the conclusion that they actually wrote the tune sometime in their distant past.
Paul McPike, a 30-ish grocery store employee from Medford, OR , placed himself firmly in the latter category this week when he filed a lawsuit charging that Green Day's 'American Idiot' album is entirely made up of songs that he wrote when he was in high school. McPike says that he used to regale his high school pals with the "original" versions of 'Jesus of Suburbia' and other classics back in 1992, and believes that some devious ex-pal surreptitiously recorded one of his performances and traded them to Billie Joe Armstrong and co. for 30 pieces of silver (or at least unlimited access to Green Day's backstage deli trays).
A U.S. District Court Judge seemed to take McPike's pile of evidence -- which consisted entirely of a copy of the album and a claim that the lyrics sung on the album don't match those in the sleeve notes -- with a barrel of salt, but suggested he could file a more detailed copyright infringement complaint in the future. An interesting suggestion -- and one that jogs our memory of the elementary school writing class where we wrote that line about "buying a stairway to Heaven."
http://www.aolmusicnewsblog.com/
Posted Oct 24th 2006 4:08PM by David Sprague
Filed under: Punk
Most folks have occasionally heard a new song and thought, "Gee, I feel like I've heard this somewhere before." But it takes a special kind of person to take things to another level, by coming to the conclusion that they actually wrote the tune sometime in their distant past.
Paul McPike, a 30-ish grocery store employee from Medford, OR , placed himself firmly in the latter category this week when he filed a lawsuit charging that Green Day's 'American Idiot' album is entirely made up of songs that he wrote when he was in high school. McPike says that he used to regale his high school pals with the "original" versions of 'Jesus of Suburbia' and other classics back in 1992, and believes that some devious ex-pal surreptitiously recorded one of his performances and traded them to Billie Joe Armstrong and co. for 30 pieces of silver (or at least unlimited access to Green Day's backstage deli trays).
A U.S. District Court Judge seemed to take McPike's pile of evidence -- which consisted entirely of a copy of the album and a claim that the lyrics sung on the album don't match those in the sleeve notes -- with a barrel of salt, but suggested he could file a more detailed copyright infringement complaint in the future. An interesting suggestion -- and one that jogs our memory of the elementary school writing class where we wrote that line about "buying a stairway to Heaven."
http://www.aolmusicnewsblog.com/
