Men At Work Ordered To Pay Royalties On ‘Land Down Under’
If you’re a fan of eighties music, then I’m sure you’ve heard of Men At Work’s song, “Land Down Under”. What you might not have known is that they totally ripped off the flute solo, at least that’s what we hear.
Today, a judge ordered the band to fork over five percent of the royalties from the hit song, after the court determined that the flute solo was similar to the song, “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree.”
Personally, I listened to the flute solo by Men At Work and the Kookaburra song and have found no similarities between the two.
The rights to the song were purchased by Larrakin Music. They sued Men At Work for 60 percent of the royalties for the song. The original song writer, Marion Sinclair, has since passed away.
Listen to Men At Work’s song, “Land Down Under”:
And now the Kookaburra song:
What do you think???
source: Men at Work Losing 5% of Royalties Over Flute Solo – [popeater]
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Perhaps you’re taking “flute solo” too literally. The musical figure at issue isn’t the “solo” proper, it’s in the interludes (0:12 and 0:53, among others).
And from the very first time I heard this song (oh my, was it really almost 30 years ago?) I recognized that Greg Ham was making a deliberate musical reference to Kookaburra. “Down Under” a song about being Australian, and “Kookaburra” is a distinctly Australian tune.
The surprise isn’t that there’s a similarity. That’s both obvious and intentional. The surprise to me is that the children’s song isn’t public domain.
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