A German county court has ruled that the guitar intro to Gary Moore’s hit “Still Got The Blues” from 1991 is stolen. German musician Jürgen Winter had maintained that not Gary Moore but he himself had written the legendary guitar riff in 1974, more than 15 years before Gary released the song.
The court were faced with deciding whether Gary could have heard Jürgen’s song, as it had never been released on vinyl or cassette. It had however been played at concerts and was broadcast at least once on the radio. As Gary Moore had been in Germany at the time, the court ruled that it was possible that he had heard the song, and an expert for the court decided that it was possible that Gary could have remembered the melody all those years.
It was stressed that the court didnt think that it had been copied purposely, but that was irrelevant.
Now Gary has to proove how much he earned with this song…
If you want to judge for yourself, both songs are (at present) on youtube
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=hqudqHsrQaY
The Original from Jürgen Winter recorded in 1974. The song is over 12 minutes long, but you want to listen to the interesting passage that caused the controversy from 6 minutes 20 seconds
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx3yXUunEq8
Still Got The Blues – Gary Moore
What do you think?
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This song happens to be one of the staples of my music with Griff n* … I do hear a similarity with the two, but also with a Lionel Ritchie piece as well. So, is Winter going after Ritchie? Moore is cleaner, sharper, and sounds a whole lot better than “the original”, but that’s just my opinion. I wonder why it took so long for Winter to put in a claim. Twenty-six years is quite a gap. “Stolen” says Moore was dishonest, but I don’t think that’s the case. I will have to admit that I’d have not listened to 12 minutes of the original. I just don’t think it’s very good. The riff is a lot better than the other melody in the piece, again, just my opinion and seems to me to be rather strange. It will be an interesting follow-up to see what kind of money Winter gets out of this.
Hi Ellie
I must admit it’s the first time I’ve heard any similarities between Gary Moore and Lionel Ritchie, but this song from Winter does sort of bring it together …
I do think it is Winter’s right to stake his claim if he feels that his song has been copied, and this court case has been going on for a number of years, so I don’t think it’s a case of him having waited too long. The court in question by the way has stressed that the decision in favor of winter was influenced by the fact that the riff is played in the same key at the same speed and with the same timbre, making it very unlikely (so the reasoning) that Gary Moore could have arrived at the same melody without having heard the original.
Onlookers have in the between time pointed out similarities to other pieces of music, going back as far as Beethoven.
However I was talking to Caro about this the other day – her first reaction was “It’s (Still Got The Blues) a Blues … how could it have been stolen?”. That kind of says it all I think
By the way, I have since posting the story heard that the Youtube version of Winters song was recorded in 2007, so one has to be careful on that account I would say ….
At any rate, Moores lawyers are expected to file an objection against the verdict, so I think we haven’t heard the last of this
That german is one greedy f*cker… Gary is the greatist guitarist ever!!!