They said to one to others you would have them do unto you.

They said do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If you treat me dirty baby, I'm going to treat you dirty too.

The song you're listening to right now is Do Unto Others by Pee We Creighton.

It was released in 1954 on the Imperial label.

Perhaps you've heard it before, or perhaps you haven't, but even if you haven't, those first few seconds of the song might have sounded familiar to you.

That's because over 10 years after Do Unto Others was released, a young musician from Liverpool decided that the

guitar intro from the song would sound great as an opening to a song he hoped would be his

band's next single.

The singer was John Lennon, the band was The Beatles, the song was Revolution, and it ended

up as the B-side to Hey Jude, which topped charts around the world.

You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world

that was the Beatles but let's hear Creighton again This is probably about as close as you can get to an open and shut case of musical plagiarism,

but Lennon said he was simply quoting the previous song.

He never had to pay Creighton a nickel. Today on the Current Affairs podcast,

we're going to talk about musical plagiarism. Is it the foundation of all culture, or is it

theft and exploitation? This audio essay is adapted from an article I recently wrote for the

Current Affairs website. It's a little different from what we usually do, but I hope you enjoy it. Marvin Gay has been dead for nearly 40 years.

Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the classic song Let's Get It On with Gay, has been dead for 20 years.

And yet, here, in 2023, pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is having to defend himself currently in a lawsuit for violating the copyright of these two ghosts.

Sheeran, it's alleged, recorded a song that sounds very slightly like Let's Get It On,

and should therefore pay royalties to Townsend's estate.

...