Let’s hear it for the KLF!

The KLF became heroes of mine last year when I used one of their songs as the basis of a fictional lawsuit that itself became the inspiration for my blog What is Fair Use?  The song was “K Cera Cera,” a medley, performed by the Red Army Choir, of “Que Sera Sera and Happy Xmas (the War is Over). The blog contains not only all the relevant documents to the law school assignment (briefs pertaining to the fictional lawsuit), but also several months worth of posts regarding issues pertaining to copyright, fair use, and the particular artists involved in the case. I became a big fan of Jimmy Cauty and William Drummond; their insights into the intersecting worlds of art and commerce are as sharp as any I’ve seen. I’ve often, in fact, referred back to them in this blog, but you can begin to get a taste of their sensibilities here. Their insights into the banking industry, published back in 1988, are as on the money a critique of the financial mess we’ve found ourselves in as any I’d read prior t0 2008.

But they started their careers as pop music sensations in the U.K., and I don’t know mamy people my age or younger who don’t remember Doctorin’ the Tardis:

“Doctorin’ the Tardis” is predominantly a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll (Part Two)”, with sparse vocals inspired by The Daleks and Harry Enfield’s “Loadsamoney” character. Also credited on the record was “Ford Timelord”, Cauty’s 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car (claimed to have been used in the film Superman IV filmed in the UK). Drummond and Cauty declared that the car had spoken to them, giving its name as Ford Timelord, and advising the duo to become “The Timelords”.