XPost: rec.arts.disney, alt.music.disney, rec.arts.disney.misc   
   XPost: alt.cable-tv.disney, disney.misc.general, alt.disney   
   XPost: alt.fan.disney   
   From: ken@objectech.co.uk   
      
   In 1939, a South African man named Solomon Linda sang into a mic,   
   creating "Mbube" with his soaring falsetto ringing the melody   
   over the haunting zulu chant "uyiMbube" (he is a lion).  In 1962,   
   he died with $25 to his name.   His family live in poverty in a   
   shack in Soweto, the township outside Johannesburg.   
      
   Yesterday Disney won a ruling in court that Mr Linda had sold his   
   rights to the song, and anyway, his family were suing for restitution   
   from the wrong subsidiary of the multinational corporation.  Mbube   
   is better known today in the variant "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", used   
   by Disney in The Lion King.  The word also leant its name to a great   
   musical style, characterised by Ladysmith Black Mumbaza.   
      
   In its first year, The Lion King movie had generated $312,000,000 in   
   revenue, and is estimated to have returned over a billion dollars.   
   Over 20 million people have seen the Lion King musical generating   
   probably around $100,000,000 in gross profit for Disney.   Solomon   
   Linda's family only ever received $15,000 in total for his song.   
      
   Disney contends Solomon sold his rights for $40, and is owed nothing.   
   Under applicable copyright law, rights reverted to his family after   
   25 years.  Phil Collins and Elton John will have received dozens of   
   millions of dollars for their musical efforts in Disney's productions.   
   I suppose the "Circle of Life" is really more of a pyramid, and poor   
   Africans are at the bottom of the food chain.   
      
   One blurb reads, "The Lion King, following in the Disney tradition,   
   aspires to offer a positive lesson for children about behavior that   
   Disney values by associating itself with deeper myths.  The first myth   
   that The Lion King alludes to is the biblical narrative of life in   
   Paradise before the fall into sin."   
      
   Sounds kindof appropriate.   
      
     http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3872677.stm   
     http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1151120.htm   
     http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linernotes/thesongs/Wimoweh.htm   
      
   --   
   Ken Tough   
   Pretoria, South Africa   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)