Robin Thicke’s defense in “Blurred Lines” Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Apparently, Robin Thicke, singer of the best-selling single in the world last year, “Blurred Lines”, is suffering from a blurred memory. Robin is now dismissing statements he made during prior interviews about how the song was created. Originally, Thicke said the song was inspired by Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” If you listen to Gaye’s song, there is no question the two are similar to a high degree. However, under oath in a recent deposition, Thicke said “Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song.” Thicke adds to his defense by saying he was too high on Vicodin and alcohol during the creation of the song, and he was lucky enough to even be in the room with Pharrell.

Yeah right. Thicke claims that the prior interviews should not be taken as fact because he was not sober during his interviews for the past year, but adds that he is currently sober. When the attorney asked if Thicke was dishonest in interviews, he said, “I tell whatever I want to say to help sell records.” We find that often stories change once litigation condenses and parties realize maybe the truth works against them. Such is likely the case here. Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams filed a preemptive lawsuit against the Gaye family, who in return, countersued claiming copyright infringement. The Gaye family expert musicologists, Judith Finell and Ingrid Monsons, claim the two songs “share a constellation of similarities in hand percussion parts, bass lines, drum set parts, vocal melodies, backup vocals, accompaniment parts and instrumentation that cannot be accidental.” In their original suit, Thicke and Williams claimed the Gaye family is preventing new artists from recording songs inspired by the soul legend, that the two songs are completely different in lyrics, rhythm and melody, and that the heirs had only made their infringement claims because they “smelled money.” We’ll keep you posted.