Who is Stephen Homner?
There is a bit of a controversy, has been for decades, over the true authorship of "Brandy," the syrupy woman-waits-for-her-sailor ballad from Looking Glass in the early '1970s.
There is a commonly expressed view that Looking Glass' Elliott Lurie didn't write the song -- he bought it from Stephen Homner. The specific figure sometimes used is $10,000.
Lurie denies this.
Is there even a real Homner? So far as I know he has no existence outside of this claim.
The more heated accusation is made, too, that Lurie "stole" the song. Obviously both claims can't be true. If Homner (whoever he is exactly) willingly sold it and cashed the check then it wasn't stolen from him.
A seller of those rights for $10,000 would plausibly have had buyer's remorse when the song seemed to be coming out of every radio in the world but ... that's the way it goes.
And yes, he should have been given song credit IF this Homner person is real AND the story is true AND if there was nothing in the agreement that specified that he was not to get named credit.
All of which just slightly piques my interest in the question: which one of those ugly farts on the album cover is Lurie?
Wow, I can’t believe I came across this upon searching for some information. If anyone is still interested 4 years later, Steve Homner was in fact a real person, and told the story his whole life of the song him and his band created, “Brandy”. It was sold, to my recollection, for FAR LESS than $10,000 at the time. I was able to head the original version, which sounded a bit different than Looking Glass’s production, but the story is true. Looking Glass DID NOT write the song, they DID buy it, or they’d producer did, for a STEAL.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, either it was stolen or it was bought. If it was "bought for a steal," I.e. the buyers made a good decision and a huge profit -- the fact is nothing for which they can or should be blamed. Lying about it, of course, is another matter.
DeleteI knew Steve Homner personally, he lived in Chesterton Indiana but frequently visited Laporte area to perform, and then later before death, sing Karaoke with his buddies who referred to themselves as “old man radio” where he he would perform the song Brandy using the original lyrics when he co-wrote (though not much different) before he sold it for about $800 in the late 60’s, which then later sold again for $10,000 to the manager of “The looking glass” he held on to the original original copyright of the song lyrics until his death in 2017.
DeleteAdam, You have introduced a new element here. There is some intermediary. Homner sold it to Person X. for $800. Person X then sold it to Looking Glass for $10,000. Who was the intermediary?
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