Words by Marcus Walkom You’ve got to give it up to the lawyers for the estate of Marvin Gaye — the recent decision by the jury of the California District Court has resulted in some blurred lines for all songwriters… Paul McCartney famously confessed to Guitar Player magazine in 1990, “a good artist borrows, a great artist steals — or something like that. That makes The Beatles great artists because we stole a lot of stuff.” This famous quote from McCartney is of course incredibly pertinent when it comes to modern popular music — there’s always been some blurred lines when we consider the originality of some of the greatest songs of all time. Led Zeppelin have recently been battling the estate of a deceased and relatively unknown Randy California – the songwriter and frontman of the Californian rock group Spirit – who has argued that Led Zeppelin’s seminal rock ‘n’ roll opus “Stairway To Heaven” ripped off the chords of Spirit’s 1968 track “Taurus”. George Harrison was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” on his 1970 smash-hit “My Sweet Lord” and more recently British crooner Sam Smith reached a settlement with Tom Petty and Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” co-writer … Continue reading BLURRED LINES