They Fought the Law: Rock Music Goes to Court

By Stan Soocher

Book Overview

This work traces the difficulties all rockers have faced dealing with bad contracts, personnel problems, litiginous fans, and crooked accountants and managers. It includes such names as Elvis Presley,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0825672414
• ISBN13: 9780825672415
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Glad I Bought This For Class ? Very Useful

I bought this book for a course I'm taking about the music business and after reading it, I'm so glad I did. It's an easy read since it's broken into several chapters...each about a particular musician or group. The chapters tell the story of a legal battle or a deal gone terribly wrong. It illustrates the pitfalls that lay before artists when it comes to publicity, trademarks, estate planning, merchandising, copyright infringement, royalty claims, publishing, bankruptcy, and so much more. I particularly enjoyed the stories about Elvis Presley, Billy Joel, The Beatles, and Judas Priest. A terrific addition to your personal library.

So sue me!!

Nothing says "big business" like a good lawsuit or two... and here's a book that's full of them. Whether it's Billy Joel suing his brother-in-law (who was also his business manager), the Shirelles suing George Harrison, the Beatles suing each other, or some hick parents suing Judas Priest for "causing" their kids to commit suicide (even though they came from physically violent homes), it's all fun and games in the rock and roll courtroom. Most of these are fairly well-known cases, but Soocher's light-handed style lends itself to a quick read. He doesn't get hung up on minutae, and keeps the narrative down to a minimum (although conversely, he also has a genteel streak wherein he sometimes alludes to lurid incidents without fully explaining them, which can get irksome...) Censorship comes up in a few of these cases, but mostly it's all about money, money, money, with a little concern for intellectual property thrown in for good measure. Oddly enough, I found George Michael's lawsuit against Sony to be one of the more interesting chapters in this book -- maybe just because it was one of the least familiar cases. At any rate, if you want to keep your illusions about showbiz intact, you might wanna veer away from this one. If, on the other hand, you're curious about what makes a multi-million dollar contract tick, then snap it up.

Not for the faint of heart...for musicians

If you have an interest in music, law, business or any combination, this is a fascinating book.Anyone thinking of getting into the music biz MUST read this. All the pitfalls, dangers, stupid moves that one could encounter are told in harrowing style.From the smallest fry to the biggest names, legal missteps are illustrated in a VERY readable style by an attorney. You won't believe these stories, stranger than fiction.I couldn't put this down.