Chevy commercial Dando Lemonheads It's a Shame About Ray GM Lawsuit

[paquito3500]

He won!!

[EdinAmmar]

wow it's just a generic "rock" riff. your parnoid.

[TuneLaw]

@EdinAmmar "you're" - and no, it's not; suit was settled.

[EdinAmmar]

@TuneLaw OH you must be one of those annoying, people who correct grammatical errors. Does it make you feel better to do that? This is youtube's comment section get over it

[avarandado]

@EdinAmmar another moron proud of his ignorance

[thegei]

Hmmm... advertisements seem to be doing this a lot. I remember watching an ESPN highlights reel with the breakdown from "Black Dog" as the background music.

[desperatetragic]

yeah man. thats ray for sure. and so what if gm is going under doesnt mean they didnt steal evan's song. a song for a musician is a product and he owns copyrights i'm sure. get your goddamn money evan!

oh ps: saw lemonheads the other day in slc utah. good fuckin show!

[cloud52ab]

It's funny to see the lemonheads fans vote down anything that says he's gonna lose. Sarah Gavigan even said "good luck" and got downvoted. We've got some real rational fankids, here.

[ClangBanggClang]

maybe it weren't lemonheads fans who downvoted sarahgavigan

[lbgunit]

lemonheads sucks so hard

ASS: SOMEONE FROM 1992

[datomlin21]

Really - he wants to sue GM now? Since they are in Bankruptcy he'll have to wait in line to get paid back IF he wins. And really, sue them how when all these people are losing jobs and pensions Yeah, way to be awesome - seriously, stick to songwriting and his new album instead of suing an already failed company. Way to pour salt in the wounds.

[sarahgavigan]

I am sure the Agency/Music House that created this music has a "Musicology Report." If this track was used as a reference to find the right sound for the spot - then the Musicology report would be a legal binding document that states how "far" these two tracks are from one another. Precautions are (most times) taken to prevent such a law suit.

This is going to be REALLY hard to prove in court .

Good luck Evan

[truckee5]

i agree with keanon. some of you are either tone deaf or brain dead, or both. its a complete rip off.

[keanon]

I'm a Lemonheads fan. That is the EXACT melody from the song.

[cloud52ab]

Generic musician gets upset when generic music sounds just as generic as his. Why is he even surprised? It's not like he was creating super original rock or anything. Anyway, the resemblance is minute and more than likely accidental.

[wolfpartyjoe]

far from generic my friend. rock and roll has offered few musicians with as good knack for original, catchy songwriting since evan dando...

[NathantheCynic]

Oh, come on, wolfpartyjoe. Catchy and good? Yeah, sure. But Dando's melodies are FAR from 'original.' They're as old as time itself, and this whole thing is trivial and probably accidental.

[smmrblnkt]

Yeah, this is a post from a generic music listener, basically. You're the type of person who used those "11 CD's for a Penny" ads to buy every Greatest Hits compilation they could get their hands on... Evan Dando is as gifted a songwriter as they come, and the fact that GM lifted his melody for the commercial spot is proof.

[cloud52ab]

I have no idea how me thinking that his music is generic sounding makes me the type of person to buy greatest hits albums. That line of reason doesn't make much sense. Also, humans independently think of the same ideas all of the time. This melody could have been written without any knowledge of Dando's music at all. It happens. Plus, the only similarity in the music is the first melody. Besides that one part, the whole thing is different. He's gonna lose the suit.

[chuckysl]

Dream on, Evan. Hope your lawyer is working for free...

[chuckysl]

I have been involved with this type of thing before - it has to be REAL close to even have a chance - and this doesn't even sound the same - the melody is different, the instrumentation is different; i can guarantee that Dando will see not a cent here. Probably a publicity stunt, really...

[JennyOndioline]

That's totally the same tune IMHO. I thought it was intentional on GM's part. Umm guess not...Oops!

[A550RGY]

I just listened to both and I don't hear the connection. That's not to say there isn't one, because I'm sure Lemonheads fans would more easily recognize their tune anywhere, but I'm just saying I don't hear it. What part of the original song should I be listening to?

[webaab]

I remember watching this commercial and thinking it was Lemonheads. If i were Evan, i'd be flattered! But of course, he's not selling cd's today and probably not making much money.

[erock8469]

Will not win lawsuit. The odds of it are as good as him making a decent album. If that could be done who would even think of 10 seconds give or take of a commercial slightly resembling a song. Oh...keep in mind well at least for me my only memory of the band is covering Mrs. Robinson.

[willsied8]

I don't think he's winning this lawsuit. The beginning is obviously "It's a Shame About Ray" but halfway through the commercial the whistle changes and deviates from "Ray's" tune. I guess the suit deoends on how much they're allowed to copy.

[erock8469]

I had to look to find the studio version of the song. I agree with you that the suit probably won't be won. My indifference of opinion with yours is the sound. Whistling aside i think the resemlence is slight at best.

[webslinger1]

I believe the law states how much a song is allowed to be before its considered to be a copy. Doesn't matter what the different instruments are or what you use to play the music, its the actual notes played. It should be pretty clear cut either way. Remember Vanilla Ice and Queen? That one was blatant though. Beach Boys were sued by Chuck Berry for Surfin USA, that was a rip off of Sweet Little Sixteen. John Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing himself but he won.