You Better Take Cover (2015)

• 85%
• 2015
• Documentary
• Music
• Harry Hayes
• Lee Simeone
• Martin Armiger
• Brian Edmond
• Alec Gilbert

Did men at work really rip off Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree? You Better Take Cover is a 30 Minute documentary that explores and celebrates the creation of Men At Work's hit single Down Under. Using interviews from band members, artists, and academics, the film explores how it was created, how it became a culturally important song, how it became Australian's de facto national anthem. 25 Years after its release, in 2007, the music quiz show Spicks And Specks asks the question: What Australian nursery rhyme is the flute line from Down Under based on? The contestants think about it, hear it again, and eventually a resemblance with Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree. It turned out that Kookaburra, the 1932 ditty was still in copyright, by a company called Larrikin Music Publishing, (owned by the company Music Sales). They acquired the copyright of Kookaburra after the original composer Marion Sinclair's death, and pursued Men At Work in a copyright infringement case that shocked the nation. You Better Take Cover is an examination of the case, exploring the relationship between influence and copyright.