If the heir to the writer of a children’s campfire song can claim ownership to a famous pop-flute riff, then anything truly is possible when it comes to owning the rights to music. A former Boomtown Rat hopes so, anyway.
One of Bob Geldof’s old bandmates is suing the Live Aid founder for royalties, likely in the seven figures, over the 1979 single, I Don’t Like Mondays. Johnnie Fingers says several letters to Sir Bob went unanswered over the years so he’s left with the lawsuit option. Fingers claims he wrote the opening piano riffs and most of the music and at the time asked for a co-writing credit. He claims Geldof told him to let it go or it would split up the band, and that he would get well compensated for the song becoming a hit.
Does that sound like Sir Ego Bob? It kind of does.
Geldof apparently came up with the song while the Rats were in the U.S. and a 16-year-old girl opened fire on a San Diego schoolyard, killing two adults and wounding eight children. When she was asked why she did it she responded, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” She’s still in prison.
The heirs to the creator of the kid’s song, Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, successfully sued Men at Work for back royalties over the flute solo in Down Under. We sang Kookaburra in Brownies and I heard Down Under thousands of times and never made the connection. The band lost its appeal and is coughing up the cash.
Sometimes you wonder why they wait so long to sue. But 38 years after it was written, a member of Procul Harum successfully sued for royalties after he proved he cowrote the song, A Whiter Shade of Pale. It just goes to show that music really is timeless.