- By Brandon Drenon
- BBC Information
Picture supply, Getty Pictures
Handwritten pages inscribed with the primary identified iterations of legendary rock tune Resort California will take centre stage at a felony trial on Wednesday.
Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski have been charged with conspiring to promote pages from the yellow lined pad, together with different Eagles lyrics, with out the rights.
The notepad was allegedly stolen earlier than they purchased it, prosecutors stated.
The three males have pleaded not responsible.
The Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace is anticipated to name former Eagles member Don Henley as its star witness.
When the manuscripts in query had been put up on the market in 2012, Henley claimed that they had been stolen, prompting Manhattan prosecutors to analyze.
The non-jury trial will embody greater than 80 pages of draft lyrics from the 1976 Resort California album, together with well-known traces from the eponymous hit like: “You may try any time you want, however you possibly can by no means go away.”
Mr Horowitz, Mr Inciardi and Mr Kosinki are going through expenses with conspiracy to own stolen property and different offences, not with stealing the paperwork themselves.
Prosecutors nonetheless must show the paperwork had been stolen, for the costs to stay. Nonetheless, defence laywers have stated the paperwork weren’t stolen.
The dispute dates again to the late Nineteen Seventies, when author Ed Sanders was engaged on a biography for the Eagles.
The band had reportedly allowed Mr Sanders to entry their archives, which included they lyrics-filled notepads.
He bought them to Mr Horowitz, a rare-books supplier, for $50,000 in 2005, in line with Vulture.
Mr Horowitz then bought the lyrics to Mr Inciardi and Mr Kosinski, a memorabilia firm proprietor.
Mr Henley informed a grand jury he by no means gave Mr Sanders the lyrics, in line with courtroom filings obtained by the Related Press.
Mr Sanders was not charged within the case.
Defence attorneys have prompt in any other case, casting doubt on Henley’s reminiscence.
“We consider that Mr Henley voluntarily offered the lyrics to Mr Sanders,” legal professional Scott Edelman stated in courtroom final week.
Different manuscript pages within the lawsuit embody lyrics from songs like Life within the Quick Lane and New Child in City.
The Grammy-winning tune Resort California was streamed over 220 million occasions within the US alone final yr and received 136,000 performs on the radio, in line with the leisure knowledge firm Luminate.
The album with the identical identify has bought 26 million copies nationwide.
