The Clash songwriting credits after London Calling

[ArmagideonTim]

Monty Norman did very nicely out of Vic Flick's £6 guitar riff on the bond theme.

[Kory]

Musicians since the dawn of recorded popular music have complained that their parts are seen as mere ornamentation while the lyric and vocal melody writers get all the money. It's a contentious area.

It's one of the main reasons I quit my band a couple months ago. The singer still goes by the (I think) pretty archaic "lyrics/melody are the song" and thought she was throwing me a bone with 16%, even on songs that are pretty much built on my basslines. I think if you're in a band, it's an equal partnership, or you need to pay me a salary, because the other system totally fucks the drummer in almost every case. If the song is only lyrics/melody, I'll be really interested to see how well your a cappella album does.

[Kory]

The cynic in me would suggest that it would be around this time that Paul and Topper would have seen the publishing cheques arrive and made stronger claims for their contributions to songs.

Even if that is the case, it's very much to Joe and Mick's credit that they seem to have responded with "yeah, you're right, let's fix it," rather than fighting the other two on it.

[Kory]

Musicians since the dawn of recorded popular music have complained that their parts are seen as mere ornamentation while the lyric and vocal melody writers get all the money. It's a contentious area.

It's interesting to compare Ray Davies' solo work to the Kinks', or any other main songwriter once removed from the band that gave them their best work. You can see what was added. What's Waterloo Sunset without its sha lala?

But did Ray or Dave write the sha lala?

It was the bassist.

Yeah, I'd consider that an important part of the song. It's a similar situation with the Jam, Weller took sole credit for most of their output but I'd be surprised if Bruce and Rick never chipped a few musical ideas in. Then you hear about the bloke who wrote and played the sax riff on Baker Street receiving a one-off fee for his efforts while Gerry Rafferty raked it in for years on the strength of the two short verses he wrote.

Tube Station alone deserves an equal split. I couldn't believe that Weller wrote that bassline.

[Heston]

It's interesting to compare Ray Davies' solo work to the Kinks', or any other main songwriter once removed from the band that gave them their best work. You can see what was added. What's Waterloo Sunset without its sha lala?

But did Ray or Dave write the sha lala?

It was the bassist.

Yeah, I'd consider that an important part of the song. It's a similar situation with the Jam, Weller took sole credit for most of their output but I'd be surprised if Bruce and Rick never chipped a few musical ideas in. Then you hear about the bloke who wrote and played the sax riff on Baker Street receiving a one-off fee for his efforts while Gerry Rafferty raked it in for years on the strength of the two short verses he wrote.

Tube Station alone deserves an equal split. I couldn't believe that Weller wrote that bassline.

We're back to the lyric/melody means royalties argument. A lot of bands split the royalties 50% for the band, 50% for the writers. That seems a fairer way.

[Red Angel]

Musicians since the dawn of recorded popular music have complained that their parts are seen as mere ornamentation while the lyric and vocal melody writers get all the money. It's a contentious area.

It's one of the main reasons I quit my band a couple months ago. The singer still goes by the (I think) pretty archaic "lyrics/melody are the song" and thought she was throwing me a bone with 16%, even on songs that are pretty much built on my basslines. I think if you're in a band, it's an equal partnership, or you need to pay me a salary, because the other system totally fucks the drummer in almost every case. If the song is only lyrics/melody, I'll be really interested to see how well your a cappella album does.

Often the composition is confused with the arrangement. The composition is text and music, everything else is an arrangement. If not, every 'cover' should rewrite the authors, think in jazz where every artist reinvents the song. Then there are compositions that start from a bass line or from a guitar riff and in that case make up the musical part.

[101Walterton]

It's interesting to compare Ray Davies' solo work to the Kinks', or any other main songwriter once removed from the band that gave them their best work. You can see what was added. What's Waterloo Sunset without its sha lala?

But did Ray or Dave write the sha lala?

It was the bassist.

Yeah, I'd consider that an important part of the song. It's a similar situation with the Jam, Weller took sole credit for most of their output but I'd be surprised if Bruce and Rick never chipped a few musical ideas in. Then you hear about the bloke who wrote and played the sax riff on Baker Street receiving a one-off fee for his efforts while Gerry Rafferty raked it in for years on the strength of the two short verses he wrote.

Tube Station alone deserves an equal split. I couldn't believe that Weller wrote that bassline.

What is Tube Station without Rick’s drumming contribution.

[101Walterton]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

[matedog]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.
[/quote]

He composed the vocal melody and the basis of the chorus lyric ("I'll be watching you" vs. "I'll be missing you", etc. which is very significant. Not saying Summers or to a lesser extent Copeland don't deserve cowriting credit, but how you worded it was a bit understated.

[Heston]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

To be fair Sting wrote the vocal melody which is copied by Puff. And Summers is just playing arpeggio notes over Sting's chord sequence. See above post about arrangement vs song/text.

[Heston]

But did Ray or Dave write the sha lala?

It was the bassist.

Yeah, I'd consider that an important part of the song. It's a similar situation with the Jam, Weller took sole credit for most of their output but I'd be surprised if Bruce and Rick never chipped a few musical ideas in. Then you hear about the bloke who wrote and played the sax riff on Baker Street receiving a one-off fee for his efforts while Gerry Rafferty raked it in for years on the strength of the two short verses he wrote.

Tube Station alone deserves an equal split. I couldn't believe that Weller wrote that bassline.

What is Tube Station without Rick’s drumming contribution.

Yes it is great but milkman don't whistle drum patterns.

It's back to the essence of a song being the vocal melody/lyrics.

[101Walterton]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

To be fair Sting wrote the vocal melody which is copied by Puff. And Summers is just playing arpeggio notes over Sting's chord sequence. See above post about arrangement vs song/text.

Sorry I didn’t know it was be nice to Sting day!!!

[Heston]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

To be fair Sting wrote the vocal melody which is copied by Puff. And Summers is just playing arpeggio notes over Sting's chord sequence. See above post about arrangement vs song/text.

Sorry I didn’t know it was be nice to Sting day!!!

It pains me to give him any credit but even wankers need defending now and again.

[matedog]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

To be fair Sting wrote the vocal melody which is copied by Puff. And Summers is just playing arpeggio notes over Sting's chord sequence. See above post about arrangement vs song/text.

The vocal hook is copied by Faith Evans, not Puff, idiot.

[101Walterton]

Sting makes $2,000 per day from Every Breath You Take which is 100% of the royalties.
He gets virtually all the royalties from Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You which sold 7 million even though he does not feature anywhere on the track only the guitar riff which was written by Summers.

To be fair Sting wrote the vocal melody which is copied by Puff. And Summers is just playing arpeggio notes over Sting's chord sequence. See above post about arrangement vs song/text.

The vocal hook is copied by Faith Evans, not Puff, idiot.

Summers gets nothing 0% of Royalties even though his guitar riff is sampled in the PD track.