“Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve, Sunday, May 8, 2022

The synth intro to A-ha’s “Take on Me” is probably more encompassing of a decade than the intro of today’s song, but The Verve’s “Bittersweet Sympathy” also has one of the most iconic intros of the ‘90s. But it’s that symphonic riff on the band’s signature song arguably created more trouble than it was worth for the band. The band formed in 1990, experimented with drugs and musical styles before their breakthrough 1997 release of Urban Hymns.

I’VE NEVER PRAYED, BUT TONIGHT I’M ON MY KNEES. The YouTube channel Middle 8 (see below) tells the story about the musical plagiarism scandal behind The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.” The highlights of the scandal include sampling a few bars from an orchestral arrangement of The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”(see below), The Stones’ litigious manager Allen Klein suing for him to get the entirety of the royalties from “Bittersweet,” despite the fact that The Stone had no part in the composition of the orchestral cover, and finally Mick Jagger and Keith Richards settling with The Verve’s lead singer, Richard Ashcroft, granting him royalties starting in 2019. Sampling in music happens all the time and there are constantly lawsuits alleging musical plagiarism, recently Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran have been in court. Led Zeppelin just won a lawsuit that had been ongoing for decades regarding the originality of the guitar on “Stairway to Heaven.” But any Rick Beato on YouTube could tell you the bands with the best lawyers, as many of his videos have been blocked for using samples of famous sounds for educational purposes. While I do believe in copyright and that the right people should get paid, the case of The Verve makes me question if I’m doing everything in my power to follow the law? Furthermore, what if I monetized my blog? Would I need to hire a lawyer? Reviewing requires source material, pictures, etc.

I’M A MILLION DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT. “Bittersweet Symphony” was a massive hit just before I started listening to the radio. I heard the song on the fuzzy Adult Alternative station or during non-peak hours on the pop stations. As I’ve talked about with my early relationship with Rock music, especially secular music, I had to listen in my room with the door closed. At first I had to hide the music I liked from my mom, but she grew more tolerance towards my sister and I listening to music as long as she didn’t have to hear it. But as I got older, my mom started listening to Coldplay and then discover The Verve on Pandora. I came back from college and Urban Hymns was constantly on in the car. I remember when I was about thirteen asking my friend’s mom why moms stop listening to new music. My mom’s friend said that after pregnancy and raising a baby, there’s no time for new music. And by the time the kids are grown up, the music sounds so different. While The Verve certainly isn’t new music, their sound was just familiar enough for my mom when the kids were all grown up. And while I don’t have anything separating me from the music is fun “kids these days,” I’m still miss and think that the music I listened to growing up was better than most of what’s popular today. In a round about way, today’s post is a big thank you to my mom and all moms who have put their own musical tastes on hold to listen to Sesame Street songs. I wasn’t appreciative at the time, but thank you.

Read the lyrics on Genius.