If you can’t beat copyright laws, cover the tunes. After a drawn-out battle with Universal Music over digital royalties, Def Leppard has decided to throw in the towel (sort of). Instead of figuring out who owns what, the vintage heavy metal band has decided to re-record its own songs and reap all the digital rewards. The band, which is one of a few whose back catalog can’t be found in digital stores like iTunes, calls the new versions “forgeries” and are going the extra mile to get the fakes to sound just like the originals. Billboard.com spoke to lead singer Joe Elliot:
While the business side seems cut and dried, Elliott says the creative part of recreating songs that date back 25 years or more is not. “You just don’t go in and say, ‘Hey guys, let’s record it,’ and it’s done in three minutes,” Elliott notes. “We had to study those songs, I mean down to the umpteenth degree of detail, and make complete forgeries of them. Time-wise it probably took as long to do as the originals, but because of the technology it actually got done quicker as we got going. But trying to find all those sounds…like where am I gonna find a 22-year-old voice?
Sure, trying to get yourself to scream like a 22-year-old is tough, but how on earth are they going to re-create “unta-gleeben-glauben-glowben” with accuracy? Good luck Leppards.
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