Original VAN HALEN Bassist MARK STONE Dies After Battle With Cancer

[silverfish]

From Blabbermouth

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/original-van-halen-bassist-mark-stone-dies-after-battle-with-cancer/

[ZahZoo]

Condolences to his family. Time marches on... generations pass.

[Viking]

RIP, Mark. Fucking cancer.

[FORD]

RIP Mark.

[FORD]

[Nickdfresh]

Sorry to hear this...

[Funkmonkey]

Did Mark Stone at least get any composer royalties for Take Your Whiskey Home?



nah, didn't think so





.

[FORD]

Should have got royalties for that, as well as In A Simple Rhyme. Those were probably the only songs he played on that were eventually recorded by Van Halen.

Not that he had much to do with the writing, but neither did his replacement, Sobolewski. Who was credited as a "co writer" in all the official publishing credits.

[Funkmonkey]

I get it; there are a lot of unknown musicians out there that were founders of bands that, for whatever reason, left or dismissed before the band got rich and famous. But I would hope that the Pete Bests, John Rutsies, and Mark Stones of the music world at least got a little something.

[Baby's On Fire]

Should have got royalties for that, as well as In A Simple Rhyme. Those were probably the only songs he played on that were eventually recorded by Van Halen.

Not that he had much to do with the writing, but neither did his replacement, Sobolewski. Who was credited as a "co writer" in all the official publishing credits.

How do you know whether or not MA contributed to the song composition? Did the bass lines write themselves?

Granted, EVH probably wrote the lines but that does not mean either Mark or MA did not contribute to the song.

If you're saying Mark Stone deserves writing credits on whatever songs, then why not the same for MA? Who knows what ideas he may have thrown into the mix.

I am not a musician and no experience in the music business, but as I have said many times, how can the drummer and bass player not get writing credits? Do you think Dave or EVH wrote Alex's drum parts?

Did the drums play in the studio all by themselves? Did the bass play all by itself?

You should get some writing credits just for putting in the road work in the studio and the rehearsal prior to recording, even if EVH wrote the bass lines.

If MA played on the recorded song, then he deserves some writing credits.

The royalty split is another topic, but that is between the band.

Dave and Eddie did not write the songs themselves exclusively.

[FORD]

If Sobolewski could write songs, he probably would have released a solo album at some point in the last 40 years or so, with him singing his own songs. Probably would have brought some songs into Van Halen from his old band "Snake" when he joined up in 1974. I don't own any of the Chickenshit albums, so I don't know if he has writing credits on those or not. But there doesn't appear to be any tangible evidence of Mikey writing anything. Not that he needed to, of course. While his bass playing was nothing out of the ordinary, his vocal harmonies were a major part of the Van Halen sound.

[Baby's On Fire]

It doesn't matter if he can write songs or not, or doesn't want to write songs.

To say he did not contribute to VH songs is unreasonable as far as the finished product.

As I said, I know nothing about the music business, but maybe there should be a differentiation between writing credits and contribution credits (or whatever terminology adopted).

He contributed to the songs simply by being there and rehearsing and playing at a minimum.

Certainly he contributed a lick here and there. Listen to some of the VH songs and the bass licks and I find it hard to believe it was EVH he wrote every bass line without MA throwing in his own groove

And the backing vocals alone deserve credits.

[ZahZoo]

Remind me to never attend a funeral with you knotheads...

[Hardrock69]

I agree somewhat on dividing up songwriting credits.

THE LAW SAITH......you cannot copyright drum parts. Pretty much the only part of a song you can copyright is the main melody of the song, and the lyrics, if any.

In a lot of cases, one person might write a song by themselves and bring in a rough demo. Should they be required to give away 3/4 of their money from that song to people who had nothing to do with it's composition?

Hell no. But some bands do agree to split everything equally, which seldom lasts very long.

Then, you get into cases where, certain parties are told "If you still want to be in this band and tour and play for tens of thousands of people each night, you have to sign away all rights to all publishing, royalties, and/or income."

There can be many reasons.

If I recorded an album and played all the instruments, engineered and produced it, should I share 3/4 of the publishing money with myself? In addition to the 1/4 I supposedly would be entitled to receive? Of course!

And that goes for the question of what to do if I hire a session musician. They get their scale for the session, nothing more. Hired gun, all the way down the line.

There are a thousand and one reasons why not everyone in a band gets equal shares of all royalties/publishing. And that very question has caused many a lineup change.

Look at Famous Band X. Guitarist/singer/bassist do all the actual writing and then tell drummer what to play.

The front guys have all the rights to the songs, drummer did not write anything.

I am not talking about "contributing". I am talking about the legal definition of writing and getting credit for the song.

So after awhile, drummer finds front guys buying new cars and mansions and having all this cash....while he gets whatever he gets from touring pay, merch, and anything else they split equally, still driving a hoopty, living in a shack somewhere.

Resentment steps in, usually causing drummer to leave, or band to fracture to some degree, lawsuits, etc.

No fun.

[Funkmonkey]

I'm not a copyright nor trademark attorney, but I know for music there are composition and master royalties. The person who plays on the song gets a percentage and the person who writes the song gets a percentage. If you do both, you get both.


Music Royalties article