Further to rock nyc's report the other day, Prince declared in the George Lopez talk show that he wants the law changed so other musicians cannot cover his songs! He disagrees with the ‘compulsory licensing law’ allowing artists to cover someone else’s hit songs:
‘There's this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission. And that doesn't exist in any other art form, be it books, movies – There's only one version of 'Law & Order'. There's several versions of 'Kiss' and 'Purple Rain'.’
Prince is crazy, I know that already, but this sounds like his highness’ latest caprice. Last year, Hollywood reporter wrote about him demanding to remove a 29 second YouTube clip of a toddler dancing to a Prince song! If this doesn’t tell you anything about what a control freak he has become, nothing will.
And the funny part is that Prince did cover other artists’ songs, like Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ in 2008 Coachella, that Thom Yorke found hilarious (and not in a good way), or the Foo Fighters’ ‘Best of You’. On record everything from "One Of Us" to "Betcha By Golly Wow". So I suppose it works only one way for his majesty
.And remember, Prince is also the person who declared the internet was completely over, has refused digital sales of his albums, has banned iTunes from using any of his music, and has even closed down his own official website.
He is a crazy guy but does he even produce relevant music these days?