In 1963, American weekly news publication Newsweek published an article featuring the story of a young high-school student named Lorre Wyatt, who claimed that he had written ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, Bob Dylan’s soon-to-be legendary folk tune from his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Several of Wyatt’s peers and members of his community even claimed to have heard Wyatt singing the song and claiming to have authored it a year before Dylan made it famous. Wyatt claimed that he’d sold the song for $1,000 and donated the money to charity, a claim soon proved to be false.
In fact, Wyatt’s central claim, that he was the composer of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, was soon debunked. The story of Lorre Wyatt now stands as perhaps the most famous (but certainly not the last) case of an unknown songwriter claiming authorship of a famous tune. Or, in the case of Katie Farrah Sopher, three or four.
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However, whether or not Sopher’s claims stand up remains to be seen. As the Daily Mail reports, the songwriter is seeking £200,000 in damages over claims that she wrote three of the biggest hits from one of 2013’s biggest albums, Settle by UK electronic duo Disclosure.
According to legal documents seen by the Daily Mail, Sopher claims that she is in fact the author of ‘Latch’, Disclosure’s collaboration with Grammy nominee Sam Smith, and ‘You and Me, the duo’s single with singer Eliza Doolittle, which peaked at Number 10 on the UK singles chart.
Sopher is also reportedly seeking damages from another popular UK electronic duo, AlunaGeorge, claiming that she wrote the lyrics to their song ‘Attracting Flies’, as well as ‘White Noise, AlunaGeorge singer Aluna Francis’ collaboration with Disclosure, which was a UK Number 2 hit.
Most interestingly, however, Sopher claims the lyrics to the offending tracks were taken directly from her notebook in which she kept her lyrics, which was subsequently stolen by her abusive ex-boyfriend and sold to contacts in the music industry, who turned them into hits.
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Sopher claims all four of the songs were written about the suffering she endured during the troubled five-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Sean Sawyers, including references to domestic violence, such as being left “black and blue” in 2013’s ‘White Noise’.
The statement alleges Sawyers “attempted to control [Sopher], was jealous and possessive and… believed she was cheating on him, which made him violent and reluctant to allow [her] to speak to other men”. Meanwhile, Sawyer is denying all the allegations made against him, including that of stealing her notebook.
“I am denying all the allegations,” reads Sawyers’ defence, filed with the High Court. “There is zero truth to the claims made against me. I never saw the book the claimant mentions… [so] I could not have committed the alleged damages, theft, (and) copyright infringement.”
