Tom Waits is suing over a sound-a-like being used in an Opel car ad. He's previously sued for similar reasons over Audi advertisements. Guess that distinctive voice sells cars?
Posted by duver001 at April 25, 2005 06:51 PMI love Waits, he's fantastic but I always found it a bit strange that he'd sue over a soundalike. Considering he's taken more than a few leaves out of the books of Captain Beefhart and Howlin Wolf it seems more than hypocritical. Using the same rationale Beefhart should be sueing Waits, especially since it seems that Waits intentionally moulded his voice (and emulated his musical ancestors) into its current form. Notice how put-on it seems on an album like Heartattack and Vine while he's still experimenting with the new vocal sound (or the second-hand sound to be more accurate).
I always thought that a style wasn't really copywritable anyway but I guess I'm wrong. What next, Ramblin Jack Elliot in a law suit against Bob Dylan for sounding EXACTLY like him on the first couple of Dylan discs? Emulation's just a part of the musical process really. If the car company actually used one of his songs without permission (either a Waits recording or a soundalike's or whatever) that would be another issue altogether and I'd understand the reasoning behind the legal case.