Mr Bob Radio Blog

Accordions? Lawrence Welk. Kids in talent shows playing Lady of Spain. And your Uncle Waldo and his annual Christmas medley of O Holy Night, Ava Maria and Jingle Bells. Weird Al became a star playing an accordion but were we laughing at him or with? Guess it doesn’t matter – he laughed all the way to the bank. Personally I don’t understand it but whatever. I think it was supposed to be ironic in someway.

Now what about a beret wearing street musician playing a French love song on a button accordion in an open air café on the Left Bank? Or Astor Piazzolla playing a South American tango? See the accordion can be sexy. Well, ok with the right lighting and props. Not to mention location and casting. Great now we’re over budget.

Note how the sleeve explains - "a study in HIGH FIDELITY sound"

Hey, I dig both instruments but maybe not at the same time. There is an old joke that musicians tell. A banjo player and an accordionist get a job playing a house party on New Year’s Eve. At the end of the night the host tells them that because everybody had such a good time he would like to book them for the following New Year’s. The musicians readily agree. Then the banjo player asks. “May we leave our instruments here?”

Primo Scala and his Banjo and Accordion Band

　　The coolness of the instrument is in direct coolness to the musician playing it. Simple math equation. Maybe if the Hammond B3 solo (actually it was a Hammond M-102 if you want to be specific) in Whiter Shade of Pale was played on the accordion things would have been different for the old squeeze box.

If I may sidebar for a moment – Procol Harum released Whiter Shade in 1967 and it was a huge hit. It has been covered something like 900 times. Rolling Stone lists it at #57 of the Top 500 songs of all time. In 2005 Matthew Fisher who played organ on the track filed suit against Gary Brooker and his publisher claiming that he co-wrote the music for the song. And let’s face it or let’s hear it the organ solo really makes the song. Fisher wins the case and is awarded 40% of the composer’s royalty but not share of the music copyright and was not granted royalties prior to 2005. Ok, not great but not bad. 

Gary Brooker appeals but the judge upheld Fisher’s co-authorship – cool, well except that he also ruled that Fisher should receive no royalties as he had taken too long – thirty-eight years to bring his claim to litigation – so not so cool. Brooker gets back full royalty rights. Fisher who seems to be a man who knows how to hold a grudge gets permission to appeal this decision to the House of Lords. Which in England is a big deal. This is the first time the Law Lords have been asked to rule on a copyright dispute involving a song. I guess the Law Lords (which sounds like the name of a band) had been a bunch of stoner rockers at one time because they unanimously ruled in Fisher’s favour. From their point of view the delay in bringing the case had not caused any harm to Brooker. In fact he and his publisher had benefited financially from it. They had had thirty-eight years of not sharing which translates into a lot of sports cars in the driveway. Also turns out there is no time limit to copyright claims under English law so future royalties are returned to Fisher.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program…

You may have noticed there is no Banjo Hero video game. There was a rumour floating around that Jimi Hendrix preferred the banjo but played guitar in public because he didn’t want to set his banjos on fire. If only Jimi had played Little Wing on the banjo…

Tags: Accordion, Banjo, Fandango, Hammond B3, Law Lords