You know, I always wondered how Prince felt about Dump’s ‘tribute’ album That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Pitched Voice?; Yo La Tengo’s James McNew covers a dozen Prince tracks, from “Raspberry Beret” to what is possibly the most depressing version of “Pop Life” ever (and yes, it’s a real downer to begin with). Now, if you watched Prince’s recent interview on Lopez Tonight, you know the answer. Minneapolis’s favorite son has always been protective of his work, but what he told George Lopez the other night goes a little beyond a regular ‘Mother Hen’ complex. In the music industry, the compulsory licensing law gives artists the right to rework other musicians’ songs. Apparently, Prince would prefer that it be downright illegal for anyone to cover his songs — which puts a damper on my friend’s college cover band, Erotic City, or any band that wants to record “When You Were Mine” for a crowd-pleasing throwaway track. Watch the full interview here.
“Covering music means your version doesn’t exist anymore. A lot of times people think I’m doing Sinead O’Connor’s song or Chaka Khan’s song when in fact I wrote those songs. … There’s this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission,” Prince griped to George Lopez. “And that doesn’t exist in any other art form, be it books, movies. There’s only one version of Law & Order. There’s several versions of ‘Kiss’ and ‘Purple Rain’.” Solid logic, Prince. Bottom line: if you’re a fan or a personal friend, whatever. If you’re in the industry, hands off Prince!
• Prince: http://prince.org
