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Anonymous
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Re-gendering lyrics is very common when it comes to cover versions, but I think any more substantial changes might leave you open to legal issues. Many years ago Megadeth did a cover of Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots are Made For Walking' (of all things), and changed some of the lyrics. The original songwriter got pissed and made them pull it, so in any re-issues the lyrics are either bleeped out or have been redone so they are the original ones.Probably a dumb question, but do you have to get permission to change a song like this when you cover it?
Obviously the sound of cover versions can be dramatically different from the original, but it's much more rare to re-write the words to such an extent, right? To what extent is this still 100% Graham Gouldman's song, if the lyrics are changed like this at the end?
Anyway, in this instance it appears Gouldman didn't have any issues with the lyric changes as he speaks highly of it: “It’s a very Mancunian song for some reason,” Gouldman says. “It makes me always think of Manchester, and I love Morrissey’s cover, it’s great. I never met Morrissey but I quite like him — he is so Mancunian and so am I. In fact, I like the Smiths and I love Johnny Marr; he is great, really great! He is someone that I’d like to work with one day. I don’t know him, but I hope our paths will cross one day.” https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-b...-never-heard-of-spills-after-a-covid-19-bout/