One of the greatest pieces of news is that Richard Ashcroft has finally seen some justice. For years, he had been denied royalties to “Bittersweet Symphony”, which is the one Verve song everybody knows. “Bittersweet Symphony” is basically a round, constructed around a sample of a version of “The Last Time”, off an album that featured versions of the songs of the Rolling Stones performed by a symphonic orchestra. As the story goes, the Verve were allowed to use a sample of the recording, but because they used too much of that recording, they were sued, and the judge ordered them to pay all the songwriting royalties to Jagger and Richards.
This has been one of the most egregious songwriting copyright cases and is often used as exhibit A to show that songwriting copyright often involves miscarriages of justice. But for me, I think the larger truth is even more complicated than this.
For example, people will usually say that “Bittersweet Symphony” resembles the version on the symphonic orchestra version of “The Last Time”, rather than the original recording found on the album “Aftermath”. Why? Because the elements that the Verve cribbed from the symphonic version don’t actually appear on the original recording. So this was the first problem: Jagger and Richards actually didn’t have anything to do with the portions of “The Last Time” that were replicated on “Bittersweet Symphony”. Those portions were actually written by the arranger, ….. But Allen Klein, the manager who sued the Verve on the Rolling Stones’ behalf, managed to obtain the songwriting royalties, because they were stealing from a recording whose songwriting copyright belonged to Jagger and Richards.
So that’s why this case is unjust. The string figures, the stolen portions were actually the work of the arranger, and he didn’t obtain the royalties. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who had absolutely nothing to do with writing any portion of “Bittersweet Symphony”, ended up getting all the songwriting royalties. Richard Ashcroft was probably alluding to that when he sarcastically commented that “Bittersweet Symphony” was the best song those two had written in 20 years.
Secondly, you might notice that there are many other elements of “Bittersweet Symphony” that have nothing to do with the symphonic version of “The Last Time”. The chord progression is the same, but the melody’s different. The lyrics, which have touched the hearts of millions and made the song iconic, were written by Ashcroft. The string figures are central to the music, but the brilliance of the composition actually lies in the intricate arrangements that lie on top of the string figure – Nick McCabe’s guitar work, the beeps and squals of the synthesizers. The song would absolutely not work if it were just that string and tympani figure. Instrumental parts float in and out like patrons entering and leaving a bar, and they help to make the music panoramic. The key word here is panoramic: the lyrics might sound weighty and pretentious, but because the music is able to convey the vastness of the human experience, they actually manage to pull it off.
In essence, there’s no doubt that “Bittersweet Symphony” is a brilliant composition. But the real work lies in the arrangement. The Verve were most definitely not just Richard Ashcroft the brilliant songwriter and a few other musicians. The Verve were a great jamming band, albeit one who could not really stand each other. At their best, they could go toe to toe against say Led Zep and you couldn’t tell which one was more brilliant. Nick McCabe was a phenomenal guitarist, albeit a shy and assuming one and he never got (or asked for) the credit that he really deserved.
If you want more proof of that, here’s the history of the band. They released two great albums, “A Storm in Heaven” and “A Northern Soul”. The second album was their more brilliant one, when the strength of the songwriting fell into place. Then inexplicably, they broke up due to internal frictions. Then Richard Ashcroft came back with an even more brilliant set of songs, and they got back together and made “Urban Hymns”, one of the greatest albums of the 90s.
But which was more important, the compositions or the instrumental prowess of the rest of the band? I’d argue that both were equally important. Richard Ashcroft’s songs were simple, but they allowed the band to stretch out and jam and play up to their strengths. There are a few other songs on his first solo album which may have sounded great if they were played by the Verve, but by then he had burnt those bridges, and as a result, his solo career has to be considered fairly disappointing. Then there was one time when he swallowed some pride and went back to the Verve, reunited, produced one album and one tour. And then the old tensions rose up and they split up again. This would mean that the Verve basically split up after recording their second, third and fourth albums. Even then, you could see that “Forth” by Verve is probably the best album Richard Ashcroft put out after “Urban Hymns”, and it just shows the massive debt that he owes to the rest of his erstwhile bandmates.
So here’s why I don’t really feel that sorry for Richard Ashcroft. He may have been robbed of the songwriting credits for “Bittersweet Symphony”, but I think that it’s not entirely fair that he gets the songwriting credits for most of the Verve’s songs. Here, I’ll just let Nick McCabe tell his side of the story of what was going on in the Verve at that point in time.
Point is, they were brilliant as a band. They may not have been able to stay together. Paradoxically, Richard Ashcroft’s arrogance was one of the things that made the band work: they needed a guy who fit the rock star archetype: brash, arrogant, charismatic. The rest of them just weren’t able to convey much of a personality other than through their playing, so he was a very useful focal point.
Music Composition 