Liz Taylor Blues

Wouldn't it be fun if she'd sing Get Free tonight in Denver? I know she logically won't, but... 

Damn, men are always trying to steal Lana's happiness from her. 
I mean, it's kind of true, the similarities melody-wise have been talked about since Get Free first came out, but it's just the verses. The pre-chorus and chorus from both songs are very different, not to mention the overall message of the two songs are completely different. Creep's about feeling like an outsider and wanting to die, Get Free's obviously about trying to get out of the darkness and embrace life. 
And 100% of the publishing is ridiculous, especially since they can't claim her lyrics. It's a horrible move for Radiohead and looks really hypocritical on their part since they are always going on about being anti-corporation/anti-greed, etc. 
Good for Lana for fighting back and not accepting this bullshit. I bet she's already prepping her Adidas tracksuit for the date. 

Reminded me of this great video on how similar pop songs can be:

Little witches, join me at midnight London Time // 7pm EST 
Get a paper, write 'Creep' on it. With a red marker.
Get your cauldron with hot water. Put rosemary & thyme and some ruined peaches and then put the paper that has 'Creep' on it.
Then chant the chorus of Get Free while you stream it on Spotify.
 
Oh, and only black outfits are allowed.
 

Skinny always wins

we love a smart gay

i agree, she is going to win.
 
long analysis below.
 
 
no one song owns 100% of the rights to its chord progression. as far as the creep progression goes, it's far from groundbreaking, it's just a natural voice leading progression on the guitar. anyone arrogant enough to think they invented a chord progression knows nothing about writing music. as far as melody goes, they're only similar in the way that they both sing notes in the scale. 
 
the creep progression is G - B - C - Cm
get free (i should mention, only in its verses and prechoruses) is Bb - D - Eb - Ebm (once it gets to the chorus it's Bb - Gm - Bb - Gm - Bb - C - Bb - C)
 
so they're not even in the same key, they just use the same harmonic progression. but again, who would be arrogant enough to think they own 100% of the rights to that progression? the use of secondary chords can be traced back to the fucking baroque period. 
 
as far as copyright infringement goes, even if it is decided that lana was inspired by creep for the song, the purpose and character of the work is transformative. they are her own lyrics, a very natural melody over those chords if it is decided that it's similar to creep, and completely different instrumentation. even getting 40% of the publishing for get free would be incredibly generous of lana to do, because legally, there's no reason that the songs share any striking similarities compositionally that either party could argue that they "own". lana does not sample creep, she barely even interpolates it. 
 
and even on top of all of this, there's NO logical reason to ask for 100% of the publishing rights on Get Free because they don't fucking own 100% of Creep. After they were sued by the Hollies and lost, Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood were given (and still have to this day) writing credits on Creep. they split the royalties.
 
this is just ridiculous to me, and i'm pretty sure radiohead is going to lose this case, bigtime.

tweet it

Okay so as some of you know, I'm studying to be a lawyer and this is what I know:
 
Chord progressions are not protected under the law because they are generally universal products and easy to copy -- it's like if Hershey or Toblerone said that they were the only manufacturers allowed to make chocolate. Radiohead can't sue based on chord progressions. Musical theorists have a saying that "everything is a remix." It's impossible to make a song that has no echo of a past song. The legal standard for copyright infringement is "substantial similarity" which is a relatively hard test to prove. Radiohead's attorneys need to prove that the songs are substantially similar in order to win, if they are going for copyright infringement, which is a lot harder than just proving that the songs are "similar." "Substantial" is the key word. Wasn't Radiohead sued by The Hollies for this song? And they lost? If so, this gives them very unsteady legal ground to stand on. I'll update as I think of more.
 
Update: also, intent doesn't matter much in the context of copyright infringement; whether Lana/Nowels etc. intended (meant) to copy Creep is irrelevant. If the court finds that she did, in fact, copy the song then it won't matter if it was a mistake or not.

I think that some Lana fans are pretty immature too for going to their IG page and spam their comments section...
 
Creep sounds similar to Get Free until the line "I'm a weirdo", and that's it. Maybe they think they deserve more % since that melody is sung twice in Lana's song? And that Lana's song goes kind of silent again at the second verse (just like Creep). And that they both end silently (but Lana's end is soooo much more heavenly ♥).
I dunno, I'm just trying to see it from their perspective and hearing whatever similarities they might hear.

I think this all plays into a very sad, recent trend of older musicians filing frivolous lawsuits against younger, current musicians. It's been happening so much recently and I think it's really discouraging to see how desperate and vicious older acts are when the opportunity to monetize. Current artists grow up listening to these songs and it's only natural that some of that would come out in certain melodies that sound similar. Thom Yorke is extremely financially secure, in no way does he need (nor deserve) 100%. I think it's such a dangerous artistic prescient to be setting restricting artistic expression.

lol when you pay attention to Creep lyrics... No wonder...
  "You're so fucking special, I'm a creep"   Men are intimidated by Lana   in·fe·ri·or·i·ty com·plex   I loved that song and still love it though. But the band's attitude...??   

Im surprised and dissapointed that Radiohead a band I used to respect is suing over the use of chords that they themselves stole from another artist. That's a Taylor Swift level misuse of copyright law

Im surprised and dissapointed that Radiohead a band I used to respect is suing over the use of chords that they themselves stole from another artist. That's a Taylor Swift level misuse of copyright law

Im surprised and dissapointed that Radiohead a band I used to respect is suing over the use of chords that they themselves stole from another artist. That's a Taylor Swift level misuse of copyright law

Lana will drop a track "Queen of The Court Room"

Cringy Radiohead fans are also commenting and disliking Get Free on youtube. Ugh.

40% was way more than what they deserve
They shouldn't get 5%. They were sued already. It's not a tough case. 

Denver show out with anti Thom Yorke banners at the show tonight no more fucking around let's go

Fuck Radiohead, Lana is skinny.

Imagine being that talented that some old guys try to get their piece of cake just because a few chords sound similar.

Soooo....Who's coming for the #RadioheadIsOverParty ??? Cuz obviously they're gonna lose. I have already started celebrating their downfall :Muahahaha:

Lana will drop a track "Queen of The Court Room"

Lana will drop a track "Queen of The Court Room"