Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera's new book Revolución To Roxy has revealed how the guitarist discovered a riff from his 1976 solo album K-Scope had been sampled on the opening track to Kanye West and Jay-Z's 2011 album Watch The Throne.
Fielding a call from a representative of Roc-A-Fella Records in New York one day, Manzanera at first thought they'd been a mixup when he was informed that the artists had sampled his riff for an album due to be released the following week.
“It’s nice of you to call,” the guitarist recalls responding (via an extract published by inews), “but I’m afraid I think you’ve made a mistake. I’m sometimes confused with Ray Manzarek who’s from The Doors. I think you probably mean him.”
There was no mistake – the track Watch The Throne track No Church In The Wild features Manzanera's riff from the title track to K-Scope looped throughout its 4:32 duration. The song also included guests Frank Ocean and The-Dream.
"Delving as deep as I knew how into the furthest recesses of my memory, I vaguely recalled being near the end of recording and at a loss for something new to play," wrote Manzanera. "One evening I’d been sitting on the sofa and noodling with my guitar when I came across this riff which I quite liked. I played it only a few times, recorded it in the studio the next day, and then forgot all about it."
Now that riff was back in his life in a big way, but the guitarist discovered he had no say in it being used by Jay-Z and Kanye West on the track produced by 88-Keys (who sourced the sample), Mike Dean and Om'Mas Keith alongside West. Thankfully this was not like recent examples where clearance was not sought.
"I called the business affairs people at Virgin and spoke to an executive," continued Manzanera. "I told her about the phone call from Roc-A-Fella Records and asked if she knew anything about it. “Oh yes we know about it,” she said cheerfully, “we’ve been discussing it with them for weeks.”
The Virgin executive responded that they didn't need his permission because the label owned the copyright. But they added that they'd already negotiated the guitarist would receive a third of the royalties from sales of the track. The executive even ventured Manzanera would probably earn more from the track than Jay-Z or West.
As the musician also wrote the part as well as playing it he contacted Universal, who handles that side of his work. They also knew about the sampling weeks before the guitarist, but had negotiated a one-third share from the publishing revenue for him too.
The Watch The Throne album was released on 8 August 2011 and ended up going platinum in the US and Denmark, Gold in the UK and was used in two car advertisements.
I played the track to David Gilmour, but neither he nor I could figure it out
"Who knew that I would earn more money from a short guitar riff that I wrote one evening on a sofa in front of the telly in 1978 than I ever earned in the entire 50 years as a member of Roxy Music?" wrote Manzanera. "Thank you, Kanye West, thank you Jay-Z, thank you Virgin and Universal, and thank you to the capricious mistress that is rock’n’roll."
The twist in the tale was that the changed pitch of the sample proved a challenge for guitarists to physically play – including Manzanera and his famous friend.
"I played the track to David Gilmour, but neither he nor I could figure it out," wrote Manazena. "Then finally my wife Claire’s nephew Toby worked out the fingering and talked me through it. The original sequence is in E flat which is damn near impossible to play. It’s just a bit easier in the key of A, but even then, it’s a stretch."
Read the full extract at inews and order Revolución To Roxy by Phil Manzanera at Amazon.
