“Pop guru Mike Batt is being sued for putting out a song that is nothing but silence — amid claims he STOLE it.
“Batt, 51 — famed for creating 70s group The Wombles — recorded the track ‘A One Minute Silence’ for his new band The Planets,” The Sun UK reports.
But lawyers claim it sounds just like a 50-year-old piece by the late UScomposer John Cage. That song –entitled 4
3 Replies to “Footnote Me”
Well, it’s a simple matter – just compare the two scores. It it can be demonstrated that Batt didn’t use the same notes, in the same order as Cage didn’t, then it’s a slam dunk.
Maybe Batt is going to claim he just sampled Cage’’s work?
The great thing about stories like this, is no matter how stupid you get in talking about them, you’re still in the game! Nobody can say that you’ve just said a non sequitur.
It is all kind of amusing. I’d say that Cage’s lawyer has a point–the other song is obviously a rip-off of the original Cage piece–although it’s less clear if that’s something that could be covered by a copywright.
What I’m wondering is what Batt was thinking. He was aware of the previous piece, as I’d imagine anyone who cares about contemporary classical music is. The whole point of the Cage piece was as a statement about the nature of music and the concert experience, but it’s something that could only be said once. So what is Batt trying to do? How does an artist justify to himself stealing someone elses idea and passing it off as their own? What’s the purpose artistically of redoing something that’s already been done and said (leaving aside wether there was apoint in the first place.)
I have to disagee with Doug, here. Cage’s stated purpose was to show that there was in fact NOT silence, but the sound of the performance environment, which changed from movement to movement and from performance to performance.
Batt’s piece is true silence, digital 0’s, which is the same every time–static silence.
Next up–angels on the head of a pin!