Bon Jovi is still being sued for $400 billion

Remember that $400 billion lawsuit against Bon Jovi that was filed last year? And remember how we laughed and laughed about it because $400 billion is a really stupid amount of money to sue someone for, even if the song was stolen? Man, those were good times. I love to laugh. I wish we could bring those times back, you know what I mean? I mean, I miss those old days and time is fleeting and you gotta appreciate the good times and…oh, wait. What's this?

Well, what do you know?... It seems the Massachusetts man, whose name is Samuel Bartley Steele -- but who I think I am going to call The Massachusetts Man, or TMM for short, because I like the ring of it – is pursuing the suit, according to Reuters, which got it from the Hollywood Reporter.  

The suit, filed last year, alleged that Bon Jovi stole The Massachusetts Man's ode to the Boston Red Sox, '(Man I Really) Love this Team,' released in 2004 and performed by the Bart Steele Band. 

Reuters says "Steele says he handed out copies to Red Sox executives, sent copies of the song to players, performed it live on local television, and sent it to MLB with the idea for a 'country' song that would market baseball."

Then…

"During the 2007 playoffs, Bon Jovi released a song, 'I Love This Town,' that was used by MLB to promote playoff baseball on Time Warner's TBS cable station. Steele claimed that frontman Jon Bon Jovi either heard the song when he was campaigning for John Kerry in Boston in 2004 or that some executive passed it along to him."

And then…

"Steele's own musicologist testified that the songs weren't very similar. The district judge ruled that no reasonable jury could conclude there was substantial similarity between the songs and dismissed the claim."

But TMM is going ahead with the $400 billion lawsuit, which includes Time Warner, anyway and has taken it to an appeals court. I am assuming that he's adding a lot of "pain and suffering" in there as the potential earnings off the allegedly stolen material are probably a few bucks short of the amount sought.

Want to hear the songs? Here's TMM's MySpace. It's now the Chelsea City Council, and you have to scroll down the playlist to find '(Man I Really) Love This Team.' And here's Bon Jovi's song.

Now, granted I'm no musicologist (though I have studied musicology), but I wouldn't say they're not at all similar. The actual 'love this town' vs the 'love this team' bits have similar melodic progressions, it seems (again, no musicologist). They kind of sound like sister songs**. And, if I'm being totally honest, I like TMM's better. But I'm not suggesting there is truth to the claim (so please don't get mad at me #1 Bon Jovi Fan, you know who you are) and TMM is clearly either very crazy or very funny -- $400 billion, it could be a joke, right? -- and I'm kind of curious to see how this plays out.

Posted by Elizabeth Bromstein

 

** OK. OK. Clearly you all think I'm drunk and on crack. I still hear it but will bow to your assessment and say they must not sound the same at all.
Also, I did not see this in the articles I read, but commenter, Babbs, had this to add, which I thought worth moving up:

I have to clear something up here. Bart Steele is not claiming that the two songs are alike, he is claiming that the defendants used his song as a temp track in the production of a commercial for Major League Baseball. Here are a few of the details from the filed court documents:

- at the exact time I am singing "Yawkey Way", the video shows a Yawkey Way street sign, and Bon Jovi is singing "this street"

-at the exact time I sing "Tigers", the video shows a Detroit Tigers player

-over 50% of the commercial's lyrics are identical to, or paraphrased from, my song

-96% of the commercial's frame cut editing is in perfect synchronization with my song's tempo, beat and measure

-the commercial and my song are exactly the same length.

Now, watch the video of the commercial again with the Bart Steele Band's voice-over of the song in question. I think you may see that his case should and probably will be heard.

Thanks Babbs.