Like a city or a multinational corporation, a samba band involves a lot of moving parts: musicians, singers, instruments, equipment, compositions, lyrics, improvisations — not to mention its audience.
If Micky had been the singer he wanted to be – Elvis, Gene Vincent, Jim Morrison – or even a "non-singer" whose style captured the listener the way Bob Dylan or John Lydon did, his writing may have remained a sideline, or been confined to the composition of lyrics.
They must pay hundreds of dollars in licensing fees to Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Warner Music Group that enforces a copyright for the song's composition and lyrics, or risk a lawsuit that could result in penalties of $150,000 for each violation.
The UK Music report says there are four "commercial assets" which create value for the industry; "musical composition and/or lyrics"; a "recording of a musical composition"; "live musical performance" and "an artist him or herself (as a brand, reputation or image)".
Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)", a Pete Seeger composition with lyrics adapted almost entirely from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes.
"Bye Bye Baby" received mixed reviews from music critics, who complimented the composition and lyrics, but were disappointed with Madonna's vocal delivery.
Her superb taste in songs ranges from Dave Frishberg's brilliantly sour apercus to compositions with lyrics by the indefatigable Fran Landesman like "Scars," a ballad that advises us to wear our emotional wounds like battle ribbons.
This confession of youthful indiscretion was at once more sober and more lyrical than those proffered by Presidents Forty-two ("I didn't inhale") and Forty-three ("When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible"), and it comes as little surprise to discover that another, less publicized intoxication to which the young Obama succumbed was the composition of lyric poetry.
A great idea on paper, but one drawback is that over time the imperfections, limitations and graininess of the original versions of a song become as much a part of the composition as the lyrics and melodies.
