Sam Smith, Tom Petty Settle Over "Musical Accident"

Take a listen to Sam Smith's Grammy-nominated hit song "Stay With Me" and you'll hear what could legitimately sound -- to some ears -- like a slowed-down replication of Tom Petty's 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down." But Petty downplayed the similarity, saying it was "a musical accident no more no less." Still, Petty and Jeff Lynne are credited as co-writers on Smith's track. And The Sun reported over the weekend that Smith settled a copyright dispute with Petty over the song. But Petty says the agreement was easy to come to, and that Smith's people "were very understanding of [Petty's] predicament." Petty adds that the word lawsuit was never used.

Smith is up for six Grammy Awards, including song of the year.

Politicians Who Don't Get It...

Last week, Tom Petty called on Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to stop using "American Girl" at campaign events. We've seen this before, most famously when Bruce Springsteen asked Ronald Reagan to stop using "Born in the USA" during the 1984 campaign. (Reagan didn't realize Bruce wasn't singing about blind patriotism with that one.)

Anyway, here's an interesting read that mixes my day job -- covering politics -- with the culture of music. And it helps shed light on the cultural divide between Republicans and the musicians whose songs they tend to co-opt for political purposes.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58255.html