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Thursday Night Sanity Break: Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

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makeitstop5/24/2019 4:40:29 am PDT

‘Morning, Lizards,

After waking very early from a hellish dream involving volcanoes and walls of rocks crushing rocks during a visit to California (yeah, I dunno either), I read the good news that the Rolling Stones have given the songwriting credit for ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ back to Richard Ashcroft from The Verve.

The Verve’s best-known song, “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” famously samples an orchestral cover of the Rolling Stones’ 1965 song “The Last Time.” The portion sampled was written by arranger David Whitaker. It is not part of the Stones’ original song. But while the Verve cleared the rights to sample the orchestral recording, they did not get the publishing rights from the Stones.

In the late ’90s, longtime Stones manager and music industry figure Allen Klein, whose company ABKCO Records owned the copyright to “The Last Time,” subsequently sued frontman Richard Ashcroft, resulting in Mick Jagger and Keith Richards receiving songwriting credit and 100% of the songwriting royalties from “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

Now, according to a press release from Ashcroft’s camp, Jagger and Richards have agreed to unconditionally give their songwriting credits and publishing rights for “Bitter Sweet Symphony” to Ashcroft. The decision comes on the heels of Ashcroft’s management making a direct plea to the Stones members, according to the release.

The lawsuit was the work of the repulsive Allen Klein, who went from destroying The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to managing the Stones, and eventually stealing from them as well. The royalties could add up to millions, and I’m glad Ashcroft will finally get his money for writing one of the 90s’ biggest hits. A tiny little corner of the universe has been set right.