Wolfgang's Vault, Who's at fault?

If you’re a big fan of live music, I mean really raw and loud concert music from legendary bands and performers of the psychedelic era such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Eagles,Pink Floyd, America etc. to the metal and grunge years like Metallica, Van Halen, April Wine, Nirvana, Guns n' Roses and surprise even Madonna!--

Then all you need to do is go to Wolfgang’s Vault, register for free and you can listen to lots of rare live performances by these legends of the music world from the collections of the late Concert Promoter Bill Graham whose real name is Wolfgang Grajonca who was born in Germany but escaped the Nazis in the 1930's and migrated to America and made the Bronx his home in the Big Apple wherein he Anglicized his name to you bet, Bill Graham; then moved to the Bay Area in the West Coast and there at the Fillmore Auditorium (Fillmore West) and Winterland in San Francisco ( then later in Fillmore East in New York City) revolutionized the concert scene in the United States from the 1960s onwards and lived the American Dream.


His untimely death in a helicopter crash in 1991 cut short his legendary love of promoting concerts and left thousands of taped live performances from the more than 35,000 shows that his company Bill Graham Presents (BGP) produced which is now made available to us, music lover through the website. The site also added the archives of thousands of performances and interviews of the nationally-syndicated radio shows like the King Biscuit Music Hour and Silver Eagle Cross Country.

The site is a music enthusiast’s haven where you can appreciate the “live“ and raw music of the artists and performers; you can say it’s a real manna from heaven courtesy of the departed promoter and the website owner William Sagan who acquired the assets of Mr. Graham for a “cheap” $5 million three years ago and took a gamble in its potential and is now reaping the fruits of his venture.



Although some groups like Led Zeppelin, Santana and the surviving members of The Doors and Grateful Dead are not quite happy anout it and are now suing him not for the music though where the website claims they’re paying royalties to the artists through companies/organizations like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC but for something else; that the website is allegedly offering free music to illegally benefit from the sales of other stuffs like T- Shirts, vintage concert posters and tickets who obviously does not belong to them but to the late concert promoter.



Just read between the lines…

“Sagan simply doesn't have the legal rights to exploit and profit from the extraordinary success of these musicians," Jeff Reeves, who represents the artists, said in a statement.

If you ask me Mr. Sagan is nothing but an enterprising man like everyone else in this capitalist world of ours (Hello, Uncle Sam?) and got lucky but obviously the dirty hands of some unscrupulous lawyers of the plaintiffs (who I don't think they really need this kind of gimmickry and green envy for they are literally and figuratively rolling in bales and bales of green monies for the rest of their lives unlike you and me) can be seen in this law suit and they will run the show to the ground for their own gain by finding loopholes that they could exploit to have a share of the ever growing potpie.

I wonder if they will have the nerve to sue Mr. Sagan if his venture was a flop and his cool $5 million went down the drain?

So what do you think?


If you love Rock & Roll visit:

Wolfgang's Vault

[All pics nicked from Wolfgang's Vault]