Henley to Speak on Labor Law

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Don Henley and Courtney Love are scheduled to testify at a California Senate hearing on that state's contractual laws in Sacramento on September 5th.

The hearing will specifically examine the "Seven Year Statute," which limits personal service contracts to a maximum of seven years. While the statute has its roots in movie studio contracts, it was amended in 1987 to provide a limited exception for recording contracts. Courtney Love is currently involved in a lawsuit with Universal Records that speaks to this issue. Love is seeking to free her band Hole from its recording contract with Geffen Records under the Seven Year rule. Henley and Luther Vandross had been involved in similar lawsuits addressing that statute.

Chairing the hearing is California State Senator Kevin Murray, a former music agent for the William Morris Agency and personal manager and an attorney for both artists and small record companies. "Virtually every other industry in California -- with the exception of the record industry -- is held to personal-service contracts that cannot legally run longer than seven years," Murray said. "I am aware that there are two side to this issue, that is precisely the reason this hearing is necessary."

The hearing will also examine other issues facing the entertainment industry, including music and movie piracy and online music sharing.

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Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »

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