George Clinton sued the band Public Announcement for their use of the phrase "Bow wow wow, yippie yo yippie yay" along with frequent usage of "dog" in thier song "D.O.G. In Me." I'm not a lawsuits fan, but come on, Public Announcement, are you gonna pretend you didn't rip that off from George? George Clinton's finances are so mired in bad contracts, someone from the music industry tried to explain it to me once, and I have to admit, I didn't follow most of it.
Anyway, George won $89,000 in damages, according to The Tennessean. "Atomic Dog" is probably George's best solo track, I'm sure it is his biggest solo hit. It is from the 1982 album Computer Games. The artwork, at the right, was done by Pedro Bell, who also did the art for a ton of other Clinton albums, including albums by Parliment and Funkadelic. His artwork is as synonomous with the band as Roger Dean's is to Yes. And sadly, Mr. Bell is nearly broke, along with being nearly blind and diabetic. He also has a bunch of other problems too. You can read about it at The Chicago Sun-Times. I'm not a lawyer, and I would have no idea how to write a contract that would ensure that someone who is an important part of a work of art gets paid as long as that art keeps selling.
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