On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Joe Coughlin <[email protected]>wrote:
> I would have imagined that they were operating under a blanket > license. Perhaps their procedure is not to have it go through the eyes > of producer to get music approval, but they submit the song elsewhere > for clearance reasons, but not for content reasons. > > I imagine this will no longer be the case. > This (http://www.jambase.com/Articles/18465/The-Roots-How-They-Got-Over/1) is from 6-16-2009. If it is accurate, it is still unclear how it relates to the current discussion. On the one hand it says they work on the walk-on song as much as a month in advance (though a political guest like Bachmann probably was not scheduled more than a week, if that, in advance). OTOH, it sounds like Questlove decided literally at the last minute to do Poker Face (I guess they then just have to pay whatever the price is later), so it sounds like it is at least possible he went impulsively and on his own with Lying Ass Bitch (the more I write that song title the more I realize it could equally be a rap song or a country and western song): *********************** "Not surprisingly, the band also pulls out all the stops for the terribly brief "walk-on" songs, which accompany a guest's walk from behind the curtain to the chair next to Fallon. For Denise Richards, the band played "Wild Thing," and for Vanessa Williams, they nodded to her starring role in *Ugly Betty* by riffing on Ram Jam's monstrous "Black Betty."<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMLnDuzgkjo>When Stephen Baldwin visited the show, the band played the Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin,'" poking fun at the actor's recent comments<http://vodpod.com/watch/1635625-stephen-baldwin-on-jive-talking-obama>about President Barack Obama on *Fox News*. Questlove looks at the show's guest list one month in advance so that he can get legal clearance from song publishers for clever walk-on choices. A typical walk-on rate for a five-second clip is a few hundred dollars, but that number gets bigger fast for big-name artists. "In the case of Justin [Timberlake] <http://www.jambase.com/Artists/Artist.aspx?artistID=40760>, he's more expensive than The Beatles or Eric Clapton<http://www.jambase.com/Artists/Artist.aspx?artistID=6547>," Questlove says. That forced The Roots to make a last-minute audible for Joan Rivers' recent entrance, as Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" was deemed too expensive. As they cut to commercial break right before Rivers was to appear, Questlove jumped online - he keeps a laptop next to his drum kit at all times in case he wants to Twitter - and downloaded Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." "We had exactly 35 seconds to learn 'Poker Face,'" he says. "It was like, ok, uh-huh, ok, got it, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Joan Rivers!'" "That's probably the hardest part of the show," he says." -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
