Famous Aussie pop band Men At Work have been fighting a battle with Larrikin Records over a riff in their song ‘Down Under’.
It’s alleged the riff played by a flute is a rip off of the song ‘Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree’, written by Marion Sinclair 75 years ago.
And certainly, if you hear the two pieces together, they do sound rather similar.
The question is… does this story stink of opportunism on the lawyers part…
Here is what Justice Peter Jacobson had to say in ruling in favour of Larrikin this week …:
“Perhaps the clearest illustration of the objective similarity is to be found in Mr Hay’s frank admission of a causal connection between the two melodies and the fact that he sang the relevant bars of Kookaburra when performing Down Under at a number of concerts over a period of time from about 2002,”
Colin Hay from Men At Work, recalled writing the song in 1978 and playing it for a year before the band even existed or flautist Greg Ham added his part and insisted “I appropriated nothing from anyone else’s song”.
Hay said Miss Sinclair never made any claim that Down Under bore similarities to her song before her death in 1988.
It’s interesting to note that no claim was ever made on this song until Larrikin bought the rights from the estate of the Kookaburra writer Marion Sinclair..
Larrikin is is owned by multinational company Music Sales Group based in London.