Marvin Gaye Heirs seek to Ban Sales of Blurred Lines

The heirs of Marvin Gaye seek to ban the sales of Blurred Lines, a song by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, that is apparently a plagiarism of Marvin’s song Got to Give it Up.

It seems that human greed knows no limits. Especially in a litigious society such as the United States, any person who has an issue is likely to solve it by suing the hell out of the other party. 

Such happened recently in case of a song by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and the rapper T.I. titled Blurred Lines. It became a #1 classic of 2013 and sold many millions of copies. Now the song does bear a little too much of a resemblance to Got to Give it Up, a song by Marvin Gaye. 

But that was only because Pharrell Williams had been listening to Marvin Gaye in his home environment since he was a little kid. He said so in court that he wouldn’t dream of reaching the heights of fame as the models of the past such as Marvin Gaye had. 

He had only channeled the lyrics and melody of Marvin Gaye unconsciously and subliminally in his song Blurred Lines. Yet after hours and hours of comparison by musicology experts, the verdict was reached by the jury that both Robin and Pharrell owed $7.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye. 

That was settled willy nilly. But there were bigger surprises that awaited both Robin and Pharrell. Now the lawyer of the Marvin Gaye Estate has told Rolling Stone that the further sales of Blurred Lines ought to be banned unless a certain specific agreement is reached between the singers and the family of Marvin Gaye regarding money matters. 

Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have chosen not to answer this latest foray into bleeding them dry of their funds. We /4/give the devil his due by saying that yes those pop stars copied some of Gaye’s lyrics and tunes in their controversial song, but to completely ban the latest song appears to be a vicious and vile move by the heirs of Marvin Gaye. 

The lawyer said that on the contrary they were on the receiving end and had not started the whole issue. But of course, now that they have benefited so amply (to the tune of $7.3 million) they ought to let matters rest. However, it is human nature not to be satisfied with anything and leave well enough alone.