Bill Murray and Doobie Brothers are currently fighting a legal battle over golf apparel. The drama started when the Doobie Brothers’ lawyers stated that Murray’s company, William Murray Golf, has been using the band’s classic song “Listen to the Music” without compensation. Paterno claimed, without specifying, that Murray’s company was using other songs by his clients without paying. “It seems like the only person who uses our clients’ music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump,” he wrote.
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He was just getting warmed up with the zingers, bringing up Murray’s “Garfield” animated cat movies, a source of profound professional regret with the movie icon.
Bill Murray receives a legal demand from the Doobie Brothers. And it’s everything you’d want it to be… pic.twitter.com/R1L99yZSBj
— Eriq Gardner (@eriqgardner) September 24, 2020
“This is the part where I’m supposed to cite the United States Copyright Act, excoriate you for not complying with some subparagraph that I’m too lazy to look up and threaten you with eternal damnation for doing so. But you already learned that with those Garfield movies. And you already know you can’t use music in ads without paying for it,” Paterno wrote, setting up his killer punch.
“We’d almost be OK with it if the shirts weren’t so damn ugly. But it is what it is,” he wrote.
Then he adopted Murray’s line from Carl in “Caddyshack” against Murray: “So in the immortal words of Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Au revoir Golfer. Et payez!’ “
Murray’s legal team didn’t let the “ugly” shirt comments go unchallenged.
In the immortal words of the @TheDoobieBros—"What the people need is a way to make them smile."
William Murray Golf's attorney @AlexYoffe's response to Doobie Brothers' attorney Peter Paterno, re: "Listen To The Music".#BillMurray #WilliamMurray #DoobieBrothers pic.twitter.com/rIxmM8wzDV
— William Murray Golf (@WMurrayGolf) September 25, 2020
“In the immortal words of Mr. Murray – the more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything … so let’s pour one up and unwind with a listen of the recently-released ‘Quadio’ box set and plan to cross paths at a Doobie Brothers’ 50th-anniversary show in 2021 when some level of normalcy resumes,” Yoffe wrote.
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“As your client so aptly stated in this classic song in question, ‘What the people need is a way to make them smile’ — which both Bill and the Doobies have been doing for decades, as world-class entertainers.”