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It has been more than two years since Frank Ocean produced and released his album, “Nostalgia, Ultra,” on his own, despite the fact that he knew he was going to have some issues with some of the songs he sampled. Specifically, he predicted that the Eagles would have a problem with him taking the entire musical part of “Hotel California” and replacing the lyrics with his own for the song, “American Wedding.” Sure enough, Don Henley and Co. refused to give Ocean permission to use their song and they demanded that he not release “American Wedding” OR ELSE!!! Well, two years later, Henley is still pretty pissed about it, especially since the song “leaked” online.
At the time, Ocean took to his Tumblr to claim that Henley was “intimidated” by his rendition and that he thought it was “f*cking awesome” that Henley wanted to sue, despite the fact that Ocean loves the Eagles. Henley saw that as arrogant, which is why he’s still bitching about it to the and threatening to sue.
“I heard it,” Henley said of American Wedding. “I was not impressed. He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works.”
“Mr Ocean doesn’t seem to understand US copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can’t do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it’s against the law. That’s a problem with some of the younger generation, they don’t understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright.”
“(Mr Ocean) was quite arrogant about it,” Henley said. “We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn’t listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn’t dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don’t understand it.” (Via the Daily Telegraph)
Ocean’s not the only artist to “borrow” one of Henley’s songs to add some new flavor to an old hit. Okkervil River also remade “The End of the Innocence,” claiming that they love the song, but when Henley’s lawyers came calling, lead singer Will Sheff called him an “old-fashioned guy who doesn’t understand… it’s not like I was making money, I figure that’s all he f—ing cares about.” Meanwhile, Henley claimed that he wasn’t impressed by their remake, so that’s why Okkervil River had to “take it down.”
The obvious solution to this is for bands to stop paying tribute to anything that involves Don Henley. Maybe take that respect and admiration and give it to someone who deserves it, like Mr. Peter Cetera.
I hate the fucking Eagles man
Agreed. I prefer Creedence.
You haven’t seen The Big Lebowski have you?
This makes me wonder what action Henley took against Gomez et Dubois for this masterpiece – [youtu.be]
He must have
1- Done nothing because he never heard of it
2- Sued and won
3- Done nothing because it’s a ridiculous french rap song
How can anyone fault Henley? He’s old fashioned yeah, but it is his work and it is his right to choose whether or not others can sample it or put a cover on their albums.
I think Frank Ocean is cool, but it is arrogant of him and disrespectful to an artist he claims to be a fan of to let his cover “leak.”
Disrespecting an artists’ wishes concerning their own work is shitty no matter the platform or genre. If said artist is unreasonable then wait for them to die.
How can you sue someone for something that you aren’t profiting off of? If I sing that shitty song at Karaoke can he sue me too?
Or I guess I should say that “they”, the party being accused, isn’t profiting off of it.
If Frank Ocean wanted to cover the song and write new lyrics, he should have done that. Ripping off the actual master is fucked up
Are you kidding me? If I were to make an Uproxx 2 site and paste all your content with a lil bit of my own commentary on it, your corporate structure would sue in a heartbeat. Dude. He straight up stole a song and sold it as his own. How are you that blind to this? Calling an dude ‘old’ because he doesn’t like being robbed seems cheap.
You’re absolutely right. But sue or get off the pot already. Quit bitching about it for two years and cut it off at the source.
Also, he’s 66 years old. He’s old.
Holy shit, way to ruin a classic.
I’ve listened to the song and I would be pissed too…..you go Don
Ocean should have just claimed that that Henley is homophobic. That would have shut Henley down. (Please note that I completely agree with Henley, but wanted to make a comment about the way public discourse typically works today.)
Shouldn’t he be able to cover this with the fact that he made zero dollars off of the release, seeing as it was a free mixtape?
EXACTLY. I actually really liked Franks cover. This guy is just making himself seem like a huge asshole. It was important to the overall story of the mixtape and cause of this asshole there’s a chunk of the story missing
I got through about 2 minutes of that song and can I say what the fuck kind of shit is that?
Also, black guys like the Eagles? Who knew?
I never want to hear hotel California again. Still, Henly should sue.
I would assume Don Henley is aware of TQ’s cover [www.youtube.com]
It was on TQ’s album, so I’d guess he does approve of some people covering his music despite being an “old-fashioned guy”. He just appears not to be a huge fan of shitty covers or having his masters stolen.