“A breach of his composer agreement”: Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson ask for track to be removed from Melania doc
Barbara Rose was originally composed for Phantom Thread
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We’re sure you’re aware that in the last few years, there has been a small army of artists and musicians who have attempted to stop Donald Trump from using their music in his campaigning, or on social media.
Radiohead, or the constituent members of Radiohead, have been conspicuously absent from this long list, which includes everyone under the sun from Neil Young to Jack White to Abba. Well, you can’t quite imagine Trump getting down with his bad self up at one of his rallies to Paranoid Android, can you? And Creep? Well, not even the most unaware of his aides would suggest it…
But it’s now fallen to Jonny Greenwood to be the first band member to claim this dubious honour. He and Paul Thomas Anderson have accused Universal of included a portion of Greenwood’s score for Phantom Thread, for the documentary-come-vanity project that is Melania.
The track in question is Barbara Rose, which was originally composed for the 2017 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Melania apparently includes a long excerpt from the track.
Greenwood and Anderson have issued a statement, which says: “It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary.
While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use, which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.
As yet, there has not been any response from Universal.
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Will Simpson is a freelance music expert whose work has appeared in Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Guitarist and Total Guitar magazine. He is the author of 'Freedom Through Football: Inside Britain's Most Intrepid Sports Club' and his second book 'An American Cricket Odyssey' is due out in 2025.
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