RIP Paul Kantner

DrumBob

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Thinking of Paul today!

"Now I go to where I come from, now I go home to the sun."

What a guy he was.

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I signed Paul as an endorser and this ad was the result. He was a pleasure to deal with. He asked for nothing, paid for the photo shoot out of his pocket, and sent us the photo and the quote. One of the nicest rock stars I ever worked with. He endorsed the guitar because he loved it.
 

DrumBob

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Just for the record, among the worst people I dealt with concerning artist endorsement was Billy Rush, guitarist with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, who demanded seven free guitars in a very obnoxious way. We withdrew our offer and told him to take a hike.
 

wileypickett

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*Crown of Creation* came out the same week I happened to be reading *Re-Birth* by John Wyndham. (British science fiction writer most well-known for his books *Day of the Triffids* and *The Midwich Cukooos*, both of which were made into films, the latter as *Village of the Damned*.)

Within days of buying and listening several times to the record, I happened upon the passage in *Re-Birth* that was Kantner’s source for the lyrics to “Crown of Creation,” almost word-for-word taken from Wyndham’s book (and not credited!).

Great book; great song!
 

fronobulax

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*Crown of Creation* came out the same week I happened to be reading *Re-Birth* by John Wyndham. (British science fiction writer most well-known for his books *Day of the Triffids* and *The Midwich Cukooos*, both of which were made into films, the latter as *Village of the Damned*.)

Within days of buying and listening several times to the record, I happened upon the passage in *Re-Birth* that was Kantner’s source for the lyrics to “Crown of Creation,” almost word-for-word taken from Wyndham’s book (and not credited!).

Great book; great song!

Paul's attitude towards borrowing and intellectual property must have evolved. He quoted Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children in "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" on Blows Against the Empire and asked for and received permission to do so.

 

wileypickett

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Paul's attitude towards borrowing and intellectual property must have evolved. He quoted Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children in "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" on Blows Against the Empire and asked for and received permission to do so.


There was nothing in the LP credits to reflect the lift from Wyndham, and nothing when the CD reissue came out either.

I'm assuming I wasn't the only one to catch it, and with everything on the internet now, it must be more widely known, no?
 

fronobulax

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This is the internet so I can't vouch for the veracity or when the quote was made but


says

Asked during an interview with Italian Airplane historian Johnny Blasi whether the band ever got sued for plagiarizing the lyrics from John Wyndham's book, Kantner replied: "I have thousands of influences in literature and find it a turn-on to leave a little thing like that for people to find and then go to the writer who it came from and read him. I never thought of it as plagiarism."

One wonders about John "No man is an island" Donne and "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You Shortly" from After Bathing at Baxter's.

Since Kantner is no longer available to explain himself or defend himself, I think this is a case of different individuals and how they choose to define plagiarism. I have to note that in the grand scheme of things the borrowing was not important. Otherwise there would have been a lawsuit that answered the question "Are the lyrics to Crown of Creation plagiarized from John Wyndham?"
 

walrus

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Led Zeppelin never thought of what they did as plagiarism either, and look what happened to them. This actually seems more egregious, but I'm not a copyright lawyer!

Maybe its simply that Led Zeppelin had a bigger bank account to go after.

walrus
 

wileypickett

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Thanks for the link Frono!

If I had the book easily to hand, I'd try to chase down the full passage, because there's more from Wyndham in the song than the two lines quoted in the link.

And don't get me wrong -- I love the JA, Kantner, the *Crown of Creation* album especially -- I'm not trying to take anyone down a pegI When I made the discovery as a science-fiction obsessed teenager, my thought was, "Woah -- cool!" -- not, "Hey, Kantner's ripping off Wyndham!"

In the link they give Wyndham's book title as *The Chrysalids* as Kantner's source for the lyrics, a title I prefer over *Re-Birth*. However I was reading the US edition at the time, which was given the latter title.
 

crank

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We're playing this song at a jam tonight.

Looks like a 512 to me.
 
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