Music

It Turns Out Radiohead May Not Actually Be Suing Lana Del Rey

Several pockets of alt-music fandom were riled this week when a report by The Sun claimed that Radiohead were suing Lana Del Rey over musical similarities between the former’s undying “Creep” and the latter’s Lust for Life album track “Get Free.” LDR confirmed that she was being pursued by the band’s lawyers on Twitter and in concert, and thus her fans, a particularly passionate community, went to war on Radiohead. However, it seems that the band themselves are denying that they sued her.

A spokesperson for Warner/Chappell Publishing gave this statement to Noisey regarding the dispute:

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As Radiohead’s music publisher, it’s true that we’ve been in discussions since August of last year with Lana Del Rey’s representatives. It’s clear that the verses of ‘Get Free’ use musical elements found in the verses of ‘Creep’ and we’ve requested that this be acknowledged in favour of all writers of ‘Creep’. To set the record straight, no lawsuit has been issued and Radiohead have not said they “will only accept 100%” of the publishing of ‘Get Free’.”

So this is not a “Bitter Sweet Symphony” situation, it seems—wherein one party claims full songwriting credit and royalties from someone else’s song because of sampling and/or interpolation. Radiohead just want their names (and probably those of The Hollies, who were interpolated on “Creep”) on “Get Free”‘s credits. Maybe now the flame wars can stop?