DUSTY CARR CLAIMS AUTHORSHIP OF 'THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA'

"Another case of Brazilian composers ripping off white North American songwriters"

Sharbot Lake, Ontario, April 15, 2003 (APP) - Talking to reporters during the annual 'Sharbot Lake Hillbilly Hunt', cult singer Dusty Carr said he is pursuing a songwriting credit for the 1960's hit song 'The Girl from Ipanema'.

Carr said the annual 5-day hunt, during which local hillbillies are tracked, slaughtered and often skinned, had awakened his "bloodlust", making him more eager "to correct the mistakes of the past."

"I scratched some old grandpa hillbilly yesterday morning, just blew him out of a tree with a .303 deer rifle," said Carr. "And it got me to thinking about life and death, about Christianity, about avenging myself on those who have screwed me so royally."

Although 'The Girl from Ipanema' is widely accepted as being written in 1962 by Brazilian composers Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, Carr claims he wrote all the lyrics and "most" of the melody in 1960 while "lost in a PCP fog in the Mojave desert."

Carr confesses the original title of the song was 'Jack Parr just gives me heebie-jeebies' (inspired by Carr's reign of terror during a taping of 'The Tonight Show'), but says the overall feeling of the song was "directly lifted by that thieving bastard Tom Jobim."

Representatives of the estate of Tom Jobim admit that Carr and Jobim passed a week together in Rio de Janeiro in late 1960, but that Carr's claim for authorship was absurd.

"Let me say this," said Carr. "If either of those so-called composers were alive today, and I threatened them enough, they'd spill their guts like disemboweled kittens."

Ironically, the original version of the song, recorded in 1964 with Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz, featured Dusty Carr and Gilberto on vocals. However, the version that won the 1964 Grammy for best song of the year stripped out Carr's vocals and replaced them with Portuguese lyrics sung by Jobim. Carr said he has an acetate copy of the original, which he plans to release this summer.

"If I am not successful in my suit," said Carr, "then this will be just another case of Brazilian composers ripping off white North American songwriters. O Lord will it never end!"

The case is set to proceed in a Rio de Janeiro court in September.

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