Kenny Loggins Memoir talks of copyright fued with Garth Brooks

[brettdale]

Kenny Loggins has released his memoir, in it he talks of the time he sued Garth Brooks for copyright. The case was settled

out of court in 1998. In his memoir Kenny Claimed Garth told him he borrowed from the song, but publicly said he didnt.


Loggins doing the media rounds the last month has told this story, Garth wont comment.


Not a lot of country fans here I know, but Im curious do you think the song is copied? I think Garth wouldve won the case,

if it had of gone to court.


Kenny Logins Convictions of the heart 1991

Garth Brooks Standing outside the fire 1994.

[hlthe2b]

1. Fight of two major superstars at that time, but listening, Loggins has it

Tsk tsk, Garth. Glad he settled.

[Tetrachloride]

2. Too many pronouns. He him him he.

At first glance, no way to know who is accusing

[highplainsdem]

3. Some similarities. I don't know who would have won if it had gone to trial. Juries

can be unpredictable.

OTOH, Garth's song is clearly a much BETTER song than Kenny's. That's always been one of my favorite Garth Brooks songs. There are some Kenny Loggins songs I've loved, but that would never have been one of them. Garth's song was a bigger hit, and his music video for it got a lot of attention (and deserved it). And Kenny must have found that particularly aggravating after his string of soundtrack hits in the 1980s.

I doubt it was intentionally copied. I think it's possible that Garth and/or his cowriter, Jenny Yates, had heard Kenny's song on the radio and there was some subconscious influence, probably less likely to be noticed because Garth was so excited by the "standing outside the fire" line he'd used by chance in a conversation with Jenny. Garth said they wrote the song in the next hour and a half, which would also make it more likely any copying was strictly on a subconscious level. And by the time they were through writing, the song would have been set in their minds as THEIR song, making it less likely they'd notice any similarities to Kenny's song.

Both Garth and Jenny have written too many fine songs for me to believe they'd ever felt they needed to borrow anything from Kenny.

And there's a chance the similarities are purely accidental.

And yes, I know that subconscious copying wouldn't be a strong enough legal defense.