A local music historian says Burton Cummings’ latest setback in his legal battle against the current lineup of the iconic Winnipeg rock band is tarnishing its legacy — and creating similar rifts between the band and former members. can do.

The band’s former frontman has scrapped deals with performing rights organizations for every song he’s written and published, meaning fans of such hits American woman or These eyes According to one story, won’t be able to hear them play live in concert. Published this week by Rolling Stone magazine..

Winnipeg music historian John Enarson said it was an unprecedented move that showed the fight between Cummings and the band “had taken such a turn for the worse.”

“The thing that always burns like Burton Cummings’ butt is Jim Calle and Gary Patterson, who were original band members, going out with the name Gus Who,” says Anerson, who The band has been written about extensively.told Faith Fundel on CBC Up to speed on Friday.

“But they’re singing songs that Burton sang, and he doesn’t like it at all.”

Cummings has now taken “a very soft music arm of the business that collects (royalties) for songwriters” when their music is played on the radio or in concert, “and he’s weaponized it,” Anerson said.

CBC News has reached out to Burton Cummings for comment.

Cummings has been involved in a decades-long feud with bassist Kale and drummer Patterson, who along with Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman were among the founding members of the Winnipeg band.

Last year, Cummings and Bachman filed a lawsuit accusing Kale and Patterson of defrauding fans by having a band tour under the Gascon name.

Kale has not performed with the latest incarnation of the band. The case of Bachman and Cummings known as a “cover band” — since 2016, and Patterson has performed infrequently with the group, according to the suit.

But in their own court filings, Kelley and Patterson argued that they had always been upfront about the band’s various member changes and had never advertised Cummings and Bachman as part of the current lineup. .

However, Cummings’ latest move means the band can’t predict who’s most successful.

Cummings confirmed the move in Thursday’s Rolling Stone story, saying the band will be sued every time they perform a song he wrote. He accused the band of taking his life story and pretending “it’s their story”.

“I’m willing to do anything to stop a fake band,” Cummings said in a Rolling Stone article.

‘Devastating’ for band: Manager

Because nearly every venue in the U.S. has contracts with performing rights organizations, the termination means that most U.S. venues cannot host any performances of Cummings’ songs.

It also means, however, that Cummings will lose the royalties he normally earns from these performances.

“It’s really damaging the legacy of the appraisers,” Einerson said. “It’s a terrible thing to do.”

Randy Erwin, the manager of the current Guess Who lineup, said he would be willing to sit down with Cummings to talk, but whether or not it happens “depends on him.”

“It’s devastating,” he told CBC News by phone on Saturday.

“(My) biggest concern is for Jim and Gary, the owners of the Guess Who trademark, and the band members and everyone associated with the band’s performance to be able to make a living and continue to work.”

Several shows in Florida and Alabama have been canceled since the band learned of the voided contracts last Saturday, the day they were expected to perform, Erwin said.

Since it was a weekend, they were not about to contact Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), with whom the band had a contract, to see if the songs should be pulled.

“It’s, you know, damage control. We’ve been in contact with the venues for the shows that are going to happen and are consulting with our legal team,” Aaron added. That about 70 or more shows are already booked for 2024. .

Like Einarson, he said Cummings’ approach is novel.

“In my 50-plus years in this industry, I’ve never seen anyone weaponize actual copyright,” he said.

‘doesn’t look right’

Now other artists may be facing similar problems, Einerson said.

“It really opens up a whole floodgate of, you know, potentially a lot of negative things happening and a lot of artists who discover that they can’t perform anymore because somebody else is giving them that,” he said. preventing it from doing.”

It’s not just the band members who will suffer financially, Erwin said. Commercial companies, venues with overbooked shows, promoters and venue staff will also lose out.

“It’s hurting a lot of people,” he said — including Cummings. “He makes money every time we work there.

“It doesn’t feel right.”

Einerson said he thinks there is an element of jealousy in Cummings’ move.

“It’s not being motivated by money,” he said. “It’s really about that very personal thing.”

He also doesn’t buy Cummings’ claim that fans are being duped into thinking they’ll see him and Bachmann in concert.

In the 1960s and 1970s, “nobody ever knew who was in the band. It wasn’t Burton Cummings and the Gass,” said Anarsson.

“That’s one of the things that hurt Burton’s solo career when he went out on his own after Guess Who, a lot of people said, ‘Well, who is that?'”