When Frank Ocean’s rather awesome Nostagia, Ultra came out last year, many predicted Ocean — who self-produced the record and released it on his own via his Tumblr — would have trouble getting copyright clearance for some of the samples used on it, making a major label re-release of the album kind of tricky.
One song in particular, seemed especially troublesome: Ocean’s use of The Eagles’ “Hotel California” in his poignant track, “American Wedding.” Even Ocean himself saw this coming, telling MTV months ago that “the Eagles sample has no chance in hell of being cleared.”
And he was, apparently, right! Based on a couple of posts Ocean made to his Tumblr this afternoon, one member of the band in particular, Don Henley, has threatened to sue Ocean for even performing the song at any point going forward.
Word is that “American Wedding” is the only song that hasn’t been cleared for a re-release by Def Jam. Coldplay and MGMT, two other bands whose songs Ocean sampled, were reportedly “cool” and “chill” about it all.
In other words, the Eagles, Don Henley in particular, are a bunch of old as$holes.
(Pic via: Frank Ocean’s Tumblr)
