OFF: copyright permissions (was: Artists needed!)

[Jerry]

>A nearly identical scenario occured with David Bowie.  In 1974 (I think),
>he came up with a few songs setting Orwell's 1984 to music.  In the midst
>of his composing period, he (or the label) contacted Orwell's estate, and
>Orwell's widow refused to let Bowie release any album with the above
>description.  (Probably something about not wanting to release anything
>about 1984 until 1984, though Mrs. Orwell may have simply not liked
>Bowie's music, or she was afraid of bisexual glam rockers, or something.)
>So Bowie simply completed the songs that he already had mostly written,
>then wrote the rest of the album, which was relatively unrelated to the
>book, and called it Diamond Dogs.

Spirit had a song called "1984", and they wrote it in 1972 or even earlier.
In 1978 they sang "just six years from tonight", in 1983 they sang "just one
year from tonight" and I have to re-listen to the 1995 tape on which they
played it again.
When the single was about to be released, it was banned from the radio,
because the contents were supposed to be politically objective. I don't
think Spirit ever thought about asking for permission, but eventually it got
banned anyway - by radio.

Jerry