Sunday, 3 May 2020

See Hear Podcast episode 31 - Interview with Harry Hayes,director of You Better Take Cover




June 2016

Welcome to episode 31 of See Hear podcast. 


In a first for the show, Bernie, Tim and Maurice invite a film director on the show to discuss his work. Specifically, the crew is joined by Harry Hayes who has directed a terrific award winning documentary called You Better Take Cover. Back in 1981, Australian band Men At Work released the single Down Under from their debut album Business As Usual. The song became famous around the world and became an unofficial Australian national anthem - it has certainly been used at international sporting events involving an Australian team. 


The story of the song's rise to fame would have been interesting enough for a short film, but the story had an unexpected second act. In 2008, Australian TV music trivia show Spicks And Specks posed an innocent question asking what children's nursery rhyme a flute riff played in the song by Greg Ham was based on -  the answer had sad and ultimately tragic consequences. 


The crew ask Harry about what prompted him to put the documentary together, his investigation into Down Under as a cultural phenomenon and as a legal case. We discuss about the use of quoting riffs from one sing in another - why does the legal fraternity interpret homage as plagiarism? Is their profession equipped to understand the difference? Were the publishers of the nursery rhyme genuinely protecting their "property” or were they just greedy opportunists? 


We thank Harry for his time. The film is available to watch at You Better Take Cover.



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Download episode 31 from here.


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