The Verve

There is a perfect cruelty in the story of The Verve.

They wrote a song called "Bitter Sweet Symphony", about how bittersweet life is. And that same song became the most bittersweet story of their own lives.

It was an enormous anthem, one of the biggest of its decade, and its author could not call it his, or earn a penny from it, for twenty-two years.

Wigan, 1990

The Verve formed in Wigan, in the north of England, in 1990, around Richard Ashcroft — an intense, almost messianic singer, and lyricist — and guitarist Nick McCabe, who wrapped everything in psychedelic, atmospheric layers.

They were a volatile band, splitting up and reuniting several times.

But in 1997, during one of those reunions, they recorded their masterpiece: "Urban Hymns", a record their label puts at more than ten million copies sold and which made them one of the biggest bands of the era after Britpop.

There were "The Drugs Don't Work" — which went straight in at number one in the United Kingdom —, "Lucky Man", and above all "Bitter Sweet Symphony", with that majestic string arrangement that made it unforgettable, and that iconic video of Ashcroft walking down a London street, bumping into people and never once stopping.

The four-bar mistake

And that is where the nightmare began.

That string arrangement was built on a sample of an orchestral version of an old Rolling Stones song, "The Last Time", recorded by the orchestra of their former manager, Andrew Loog Oldham.

The Verve had asked the label Decca for permission to use the recording, and they had it. What they had not fully cleared were the rights to the underlying composition, the Jagger and Richards one.

By the time the label realised the mistake, millions of records had already been manufactured and the song was a worldwide hit.

And then Allen Klein appeared, the Stones' former manager: a fearsome negotiator, owner of the band's old catalogue and a furious enemy of sampling. There was a prior agreement for half the rights, and Klein declared it void.

The matter never went to court. It was settled by negotiation, and the result was brutally unjust: The Verve had to hand over one hundred per cent of the publishing rights to the song, and the writing credit came to read "Jagger / Richards / Ashcroft", when Ashcroft had written every word and every melody, and the borrowing was barely a string figure.

What that means

Think about it for a moment.

The man wrote one of the best songs of his era from start to finish, watched it become a global anthem, and not only did he earn nothing from it: for more than twenty years, the world believed somebody else had written it.

His manager put it bluntly: for a songwriter, his songs are like his children, and one had been torn away from Ashcroft.

It was devastating for him, and rightly so.

The bright ending

But this time the story had an ending that hardly ever happens.

On 23 May 2019 — the same day he was receiving an Ivor Novello award for his career —, it emerged that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, together with Jody Klein, Allen Klein's son and heir at ABKCO, were voluntarily giving Ashcroft back the rights and the credit to the song.

Allen Klein had died almost ten years earlier, in July 2009. Throughout the whole conflict, Jagger and Richards had stayed silent, and had made a fortune out of it.

Twenty-two years later, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was his again.

Ashcroft said it was something that restored his faith. And he summed up what it meant with a domestic, disarming line: "At least I can sit next to my son now and go, 'Yeah, I wrote that.'"

It was a late gesture, but a noble one.

A bittersweet symphony

The Verve made a handful of beautiful records and one absolutely immortal song, and their story ended up being, itself, a bittersweet symphony: a masterpiece taken from its author and, after two decades, given back to him.

Put on "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "The Drugs Don't Work" or "Lucky Man", and you will hear a band that brushed against greatness, and a man who wrote one of the great songs of his time and had to wait twenty years to be allowed to say so out loud.

Dispossession first, and justice at the end. There is no better way to describe that story than with the name of the song itself.

Sources

The Verve, English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990, made up of Richard Ashcroft (vocals, lyrics), Nick McCabe (guitar), Simon Jones (bass) and Peter Salisbury (drums); psychedelic and epic in sound, they had a history of several break-ups and reunions. Their third album, "Urban Hymns" (1997), is cited by their label at more than 10 million copies sold worldwide (10x platinum in the United Kingdom) and included "The Drugs Don't Work", which went straight in at number one in Britain on 1 September 1997, "Lucky Man" and "Bitter Sweet Symphony". The latter was built on a sample of the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's orchestral version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time". The Verve obtained authorisation from Decca for the use of the recording, but did not fully clear the rights to the underlying composition (Jagger-Richards); there was a prior agreement for 50% that the Stones' former manager, Allen Klein (ABKCO), considered void. The case never reached a ruling: it was settled out of court, with ABKCO keeping 100% of the publishing rights and the writing credit assigned to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft, despite the fact that Ashcroft wrote the lyrics and melody in their entirety. On 23 May 2019, the same day Ashcroft was receiving an Ivor Novello award, Jagger, Richards and Jody Klein — son of Allen Klein, who died on 4 July 2009 — voluntarily handed the rights and the credit to Ashcroft, who declared: "At least I can sit next to my son now and go, 'Yeah, I wrote that'". The video, with Ashcroft walking down a London street, is one of the most iconic of the decade. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Interpretations of the meaning of their work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Data gathered from NPR, Variety, Official Charts, NME, Wikipedia and other press coverage.