A felony trial involving allegedly ill-gotten handwritten lyrics to the traditional rock track Hotel California, in addition to different favourites by the Eagles, has begun in New York.
The uncommon case considerations about 100 pages of drafts that includes the phrases to songs from the Hotel California album, which was launched in 1976 and is the third-biggest promoting album ever within the US.
Rare books supplier Glenn Horowitz, former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, and memorabilia vendor Edward Kosinski are accused of scheming to thwart Eagles co-founder Don Henley’s efforts to reclaim the paperwork, and face costs together with conspiracy to own stolen property.
They all deny the costs and have pleaded not responsible.
The trial acquired underneath manner in Manhattan on Wednesday, with district lawyer Nicholas Penfold telling the courtroom in his opening assertion: “The defendants were not businessmen acting in good faith, but criminal actors.”
He stated they “deceived and manipulated to try to frustrate” Henley’s efforts to recuperate manuscripts that have been rightfully his.
Lawyers for the boys have stated the case “alleges criminality where none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of well-respected professionals”.
Henley is predicted to testify between Eagles tour dates, with the subsequent reveals deliberate for Florida in March.
The paperwork embrace lyrics-in-development for songs together with Life In The Fast Lane, New Kid In Town, and the Grammy-winning titular track, Hotel California – which final yr racked up greater than 220 million streams and 136,000 radio performs within the US alone, in keeping with leisure knowledge firm Luminate, virtually 50 years after its launch.
Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff has referred to as the manuscripts “irreplaceable pieces of musical history”.
‘No theft occurred’
The case was introduced in 2022, a decade after a few of the pages began showing at public sale. Henley purchased again a few of the materials for $8,500 (about £6,740), but additionally reported the paperwork stolen, in keeping with courtroom filings.
At the time, the lyrics sheets have been within the arms of Kosinski and Inciardi, who had purchased them from Horowitz. He had bought them in 2005 from Ed Sanders, a author and Sixties counterculture determine who labored with the Eagles on a biography of the band that was shelved within the early Nineteen Eighties.
Sanders, who additionally co-founded the avant-garde rock group The Fugs, just isn’t charged within the case.
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The three males who’re going through costs aren’t charged with stealing the paperwork. Nor is anybody else – however prosecutors will nonetheless have to ascertain that the paperwork have been stolen.
“The evidence will show that no theft occurred,” Horowitz’s lawyer, Jonathan Bach, stated in his opening assertion.
The defence legal professionals have indicated they plan to query how clearly Henley remembers his involving the lyric sheets.
“His attitudes today, as a mature, successful, older businessman, regarding materials he helped compose and create nearly 50 years ago are very different from the attitudes that he held in his youth – way back when he was far more carefree,” Bach stated.
The defendants determined final week to forgo a jury, so Judge Curtis Farber will resolve the decision. The trial continues.
Source: information.sky.com”