Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

That pie keeps getting more and more forks, reducing anyone’s chance of even a Perot.

No Justins, No Peace

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Let there be snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You are here: Home / Music / Too close together

Too close together

by | 210 Comments

This post is in: ,

What are your favorite examples of songs that just sound a little bit too much alike? I’ll go with “What I Got”/”Lady Madonna”, “Vertigo”/”You Just Keep Me Hanging On”, and most Kinks songs/most other Kinks songs.

Update. Was trolling you Kinks fans but they do have three songs that sound identical, you have to admit. How about we expand this to include people whose entire ouevre is stolen from someone else? I’ll start with the obvious one, Lady Gaga from Madonna, and add in Luna from middle period Velvet Underground (not meant as an insult, it’s a good style to copy).

Reader Interactions

210Comments

  11. 11.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @DougJ:

    When “My Sweet Lord” was released I found the words to “He’s So Fine” going through my head as I listened to the former. I was surprised that George Harrison didn’t see it right away.

  14. 14.

    flukebucket

    @Just Some Fuckhead: LOL!!!! Man that is the damn truth. I have never heard anything by them that didn’t sound just like the last thing I heard from them. I actually asked a friend of mine once if they had only recorded one song.

  15. 15.

    Turgidson

    What’s that swipe at the Kinks for? Their early mod stuff sounds nothing like their middle period stuff (which is almost all brilliant), which sounds nothing like their weird glam/concept album stuff in the 70s, etc.

    The Kinks are actually one of the last bands I’d think of in an “all their songs sound the same” competition.

  18. 18.

    dedc79

    Father and Son – Cat Stevens
    Fight Test – Flaming Lips

    They sounded so similar that I think the Flaming Lips ended up handing over some of their royalties.

  20. 20.

    gbear

    The Temptations “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch” followed by “The Same Old Song” which uses the exact same instrumental track.

    Also: any song by LCD Sound System and any random 80’s song (especially if it’s by Talking Heads or Eurythmics).

  26. 26.

    MikeJ

    Apparently one of those interchangeable live action kids shows on Nick has somebody singing a song that sounds exactly like Blur’s Song 2. I know this because they’re going to play here sometime soon and there are TV commercials for it. Ironic, since Song 2 has got to be the most overused song of the past few decades. A song that sounds just like it is just ignored instantly as just another attempt at injecting phoney excitement into a commercial.

  28. 28.

    ...now I try to be amused

    This may not be exactly relevant to the question, but I can’t sing “We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing” without slipping into the tune of “The Streets of Laredo”.

  30. 30.

    cckids

    “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves of London”. The piano riffs are too close.

  32. 32.

    gbear

    @Turgidson: I totally agree with you about The Kinks, except for that “All Day And All Of The Night” was pretty much “You Really Got Me” revisited. I love the Kinks without reservation up through Muswell Hillbillies. Their records have a world of variety.

  34. 34.

    wuzzat

    Alejandro/Don’t Turn Around, Tiny Dancer/Levon, and, on a non-pop note, Somewhere That’s Green/Part of Your World.

  35. 35.

    gene108

    “Walls of heartache…bang bang…I am the warrior”…

    Heard this in a store yesterday evening and It’s been in my head since.

    Just what little of the lyrics I heard, when I was in the store.

    Can’t remember the name of the song or who sung it, but it’s in my head now.

  36. 36.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    This and this.

    Okay I didn’t say it wasn’t obscure. Also I love both of them, and know them like the back of my hand for reasons I can’t even get into.

  37. 37.

    Cervantes

    Yackety Sax and the Powdermilk Biscuit song (Prairie Home Companion) are identical.

    Also, the old Burger King jingle is the Pachelbel Canon (Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way . . . )

  39. 39.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @DougJ: Thanks, but I can’t take credit for the observation. If you pick up whichever volume of “Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80s” has “Der Kommisar” on it, the similarity is pointed out in the liner notes…

  42. 42.

    Citizen_X

    Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and Green Day, Give Me Novocaine. Such that when I hear the latter begin, I can’t help singing, Her name is Yoshimi/She’s a black belt in karate/Ai! Ai!

  43. 43.

    Nom de Plume

    I am somewhat shocked that as of 30 or so comments in, there is only one response from an outraged Kinks fan. Normally I would expect countless intricate dissections of their entire catalog in an attempt to prove that they did in fact use a different chord once.

  44. 44.

    Lev

    Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
    Why Don’t We Give It Away – R.E.M.

    Maybe not in terms of the vocals, but the intros to both are incredibly similar. I suspect the first influenced the second, which was written at around that time but held back for half a decade.

  46. 46.

    Gratefulcub

    Smoke On The Water and Cat Scratch Fever, yet SOTW is far superior.

    It’s in chapter 5 of the HFBook.

  48. 48.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Nom de Plume:

    I am somewhat shocked that as of 30 or so comments in, there is only one response from an outraged Kinks fan.

    About three years ago, there was a riot on one of the music threads and all the Kinks fans got booted off the site.

  49. 49.

    Lev

    Also, I guess you could go with Bang a Gong by T.Rex and Shakermaker by Oasis, but if you go down that road with Oasis you’ll never get back.

  51. 51.

    Turgidson

    @gbear:

    True about All Day and All of the Night/You Really Got Me. Good songs both, but same formula. And tragically, that’s where a lot of people’s Kinks knowledge begins and ends (not saying that’s true of DougJ, who obviously knows his music), because the mid-late 60s stuff was banned from the US for a long time, if I remember correctly. They also made a deliberate move away from stuff that was likely to be huge on the radio, with some exceptions. The fact that Waterloo Sunset wasn’t a huge classic rock hit is a tragedy.

    anyway… I’ll point out that Eric Clapton semi-ripped off his own former band’s work with Cocaine, which takes Sunshine of Your Love’s riff and makes it non-awesome.

  52. 52.

    Dolly Llama

    The Pretenders ripped themselves off with “Never Do That.” It sounds just like “Back On the Chain Gang” to me.

  53. 53.

    gbear

    Any Smithereens Record before Green World and any Smithereens record after 11.

    Every song by Dawes and any song by Jackson Browne with Dave Lindley playing guitar.

    Dawes made an in-store appearance at a hip record store in Minneapolis a few months ago. I missed the performance (yay) but people were standing in line to have their records autographed. I was going to grab a used copy of Late For The Sky and join the line, but it was too long.

  55. 55.

    kindness

    How many Kinks albums (yes I’m older than most of you) do you have Doug? I have 6. While I can see a common strain in the writing or words, the music is not the same from song to song.

  57. 57.

    Dolly Llama

    @Lev: Speaking of ripping off oneself, REM’s “Disturbance at the Heron House” is a slowed-down version of “Gardening At Night.”

  58. 58.

    Forked Tongue

    @MomSense:

    Two songs that guy missed: “Blue Moon” by Big Star and “Go West” by Village People/Pet Shop Boys.

    Speaking of Pet Shop Boys, whom I love, I’d really like to like their song “It’s a Sin” except the tune is way too close to Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” which makes it stink.

  59. 59.

    pacem appellant

    “Summer of 69” / “Jesus of Suburbia” though I don’t think Green Day would deny the riff is borrowed.

  60. 60.

    Dolly Llama

    Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “What’s Going On” are damn similar, but I think that’s intentional.

  62. 62.

    Anna Granfors

    Dude. Total respect for the obvious Costello love in your post titles, but “most Kinks songs/most other Kinks songs”?!

    Remedial listening of Kinks LPs/non-LP tracks between “Face To Face” and “Arthur” (and “Kinks Kronikles” for the non-LP tracks) is in order, I fear. *Easily* in the rarified company of the Beatles and the Stones.

    (I agree with you if you mean “You Really Got Me”/”All Day And All Of The Night”, I guess. And most anything after “Muswell Hillbillies” ain’t worth the bovver.)

  64. 64.

    pacem appellant

    Also, this one you’re only going to get if you were into French rock in the 80s, but Jean-Jacques Goldman’s “Je marche seule” and Green Day’s “I walk alone” are very similar, not just in their titles.

  65. 65.

    belieber

    omfg…2 posts from Doug of the BJ Dougs without mentioning a single gop propaganda talking point. Quick…the smelling salt and fainting couch.

  67. 67.

    Eric U.

    if we are going to talk about self-similarity, Nickleback has like 2 songs that don’t sound identical

    Not really the same question, but the intro to “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt is the same as a Blue Oyster Cult song. I was never a big BOC fan, so it just bothers me that I can’t figure out which song

  69. 69.

    Slim Shady

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Word on the street (actually from my ex-wife) is that the Coen Brothers are doing a movie where the lead character is based on DVR. Since the Coen’s use the same actors for everything I’m wondering if Dave will be played by Goodman or Bridges. Could go either way.

    I’d actually compare early Dylan to Woody Guthrie more than to Dave.

  72. 72.

    Ridnik Chrome

    Ladytron, “He Took Her to a Movie” and Kraftwerk, “The Model”

    @Gratefulcub: As much as it’s been parodied (probably because the riff is so memorable, and also because for a whole generation of guitarists it was the first song that they learned how to play), “Smoke on the Water” is a pretty awesome song…

  73. 73.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    I’ve always wanted to do a mashup of “I Want A New Drug”, “Ghostbusters”, and “Soul Finger”, just because the main riffs are so similar.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    KD Lang’s Constant Craving and The Stones’ Anybody Seen My Baby? Keith had the latter playing in his house one day, before the Bridges To Babylon album came out. His daughter and her friend came in and started to sing Constant Craving over the tune. The Stones had only just enough time to give Lang a songwriting credit and avoid getting sued.

  77. 77.

    grape_crush

    The Offspring’s Why don’t you get a job and The Beatles’ Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.

  78. 78.

    ? Martin

    Oh, anything by The Smiths or Morrissey with anything else by The Smiths or Morrissey.

  79. 79.

    Turgidson

    @Dolly Llama:

    I love REM, but they ripped themselves off right and left in their early years. Peter Buck had a handful of go-to chord progressions and riffs that he went to early and often. Songs were still great, but no doubt repetitive.

  80. 80.

    Mark Lass

    Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango
    Wanna Be Startin’ Something by Michael Jackson

  84. 84.

    MikeJ

    It seems there’s a fine line between having an identifiable sound and having everything you do sound the same.

  86. 86.

    ranchandsyrup

    Can’t find the video, but Vanilla Ice trying to explain how Ice Ice Baby’s riff is “completely different” from Bowie’s Under Pressure is just classic.

  88. 88.

    ? Martin

    @Tractarian: Which is blatantly ripped off from a french melody.

    Not unusual to reuse melodies in pre-copyright law music. Church hymns and slave songs did this all the time. Nobody considered it to be a rip-off at the time. Not even that uncommon today to put new words to well known melodies in folk or choral music, though credit is always given to the originating composer (if known).

  89. 89.

    Cacti

    Staying with the Beach Boys and Chuck Berry, the intro to Fun, Fun, Fun was lifted straight out of Johnny B. Goode.

    But, if you’re going to steal, might as well do it from one of the greats.

  90. 90.

    wuzzat

    @MikeJ: For me that line is, “Can you start singing one song in the middle of another without changing the melody or meter of either song appreciably?”

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    @gbear:
    Per his memoir, Keith is of the “distract’em with the shiny blade and then kick’em in the nuts” school of knife-fighting. I suspect this technique doesn’t work so well against female opponents.

    Also, she did save Dad and his band from a lawsuit.

  92. 92.

    grape_crush

    Oh, and wasn’t there something about The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony ripping off the Rolling Stone’s The Last Time where The Stones filed a lawsuit to have their samples in The Verve’s song removed?

  93. 93.

    Cacti

    Alejandro (Lady Gaga)/Don’t Turn Around (Ace of Base)

    At first I thought the former was sampling the latter. Nope, just straight up jacking it.

  95. 95.

    Tractarian

    Oh, and wasn’t there something about The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony ripping off the Rolling Stone’s The Last Time where The Stones filed a lawsuit to have their samples in The Verve’s song removed?

    Ya, the string hook is virtually identical. Guess they didn’t think the Stones (or their legal team) would notice.

  97. 97.

    Ridnik Chrome

    The opening bars of the Sex Pistols’ “Holidays in the Sun” are a straight-up steal of “In the City” by the Jam.

  99. 99.

    Tractarian

    @? Martin:

    Which is blatantly ripped off from a french melody.

    Righto, I was kidding. There are certain “traditional” tunes for which the concept of “ripping off” is inapplicable.

    Oh, anything by The Smiths or Morrissey with anything else by The Smiths or Morrissey.

    Name two of their songs that sound similar.

    Merely having a distinct voice (Morrissey) or guitar sound (Marr) does not merit inclusion on this list.

  100. 100.

    scav

    Personally, I could never distinguish any REO Speedwagon song from another, but then I’ve never particularly made the effort or paid enough attention.

  104. 104.

    Tractarian

    Personally, I could never distinguish any REO Speedwagon song from another, but then I’ve never particularly made the effort or paid enough attention.

    Thank you for acknowledging that. Seems that some people are confusing “I can’t be bothered to pay attention to the songs” with “The songs all sound exactly the same”

  105. 105.

    Sublime33

    Gangmam Style and Santana’s “Jingo”. Also the Escape Club’s “Wild Wild West” and Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”.

  106. 106.

    James Gary

    @Eric U.: ….the intro to “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt is the same as a Blue Oyster Cult song. I was never a big BOC fan, so it just bothers me that I can’t figure out which song

    ARRRRRGH. I just now listened to “Spiderwebs” for the first time and I can say with confidence it’s not Blue Öyster Cult they’re appropriating–I was a huge fan of BÖC back in the day–but it IS some other power-pop band (Greg Kihn, Tommy Tutone, Night Ranger, Loverboy et al.) that had hits around the same time as BÖC did “Burnin’ For You.” And it’s driving me nuts, because now I’ve got the entire song in my head and I can’t remember a single word of the lyrics, much less the title.

  109. 109.

    Pete

    Yeah, the Kinks swipe makes me think DougJ doesn’t know the first thing about music. At least he’s not a Deadhead like our host….

    That one horrible song by Jet (I know, which one?) swipes from the Beatles and AC/DC in the same damn song.

  110. 110.

    MikeJ

    I would guess that some huge percentage of songs ever recorded are I-IV-V.

    Most pop[1] music is pretty much all alike.

    [1] In the broader meaning of pop that includes all of rock and country,

  112. 112.

    Pete

    Also, that one Elastica song is a total rip of 3 Chord Rhumba by Wire. For which they got sued and lost, if memory serves.

  113. 113.

    Pete

    @Amir Khalid: That sounds right. I know part of it sounds exactly like “I Saw Her Standing There”. I think AC/DC was the other band thefted in there, but can’t remember exactly. Memory blinded by hatred…

  114. 114.

    Sublime33

    The Specials “Tears In My Beer” from Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart”

  115. 115.

    Pete

    “Lonely No More” by Rob Thomas is partly stolen from a song called “Dudu” by Turkish pop superstar Tarkan. Also, too.

  116. 116.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @? Martin:

    So, can we include America the Beautiful/God Save the Queen?

    I think you mean “My Country ’tis of Thee” in the first slot, no?

  117. 117.

    Ripley

    The Stooges, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” / The Fall, “Elves” – same riff, really noticeable. Both good songs.

  118. 118.

    Anna in PDX

    I love this post. I have argued with my SO about What I’ve Got sounding like Lady Madonna! He does not hear it. It is so weird!

    31: I love the Pachelbel rant, though really the only song that he mentions that REALLY follows Pachelbel for any length of time is Green Day’s “Basket Case”. The rest of them pretty much started out with it (and it is a very basic chord progression, after all) but then go off slightly differently.

    Lots of songs quote classical themes – like the Lieutenant Kije theme popping up in Sting’s Russians. Quoting classical themes is actually fine (except for Pachelbel because it is too predictable).

    I so agree that Mumford and Sons only has one song. They have a pleasing formula – I love the banjo – but all their songs follow it slavishly. Just having a build and then the banjo kicking in is fine, but they have no song that does not follow that. They are not a very creative band.

  119. 119.

    zirgar

    One of the more obvious ones for me was Nirvana’s, Come as You Are, was stolen from Eighties, by Killing Joke. Also, The Flaming Lips, Fight Test, was a little too similar to Yusuf Islam’s (Cat Stevens), Father and Son.

  121. 121.

    Blinky Madison

    @Sublime33: “Wild Wild West” and “Pump It Up”. I’ve been saying this for years. My family just nods and goes about their business.

  125. 125.

    Chyron HR

    Although some people think that “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild Thing” sound similar, this is untrue. The reality is that Tone Loc only ever recorded one song, and the other is an elaborate prank played on people by MTV.

  127. 127.

    Low Country Boil

    “Let it Rain” by Eric Clapton / “It Don’t Come Easy” by Ringo Starr are almost identical in their verses.

  128. 128.

    Bishop Bag

    Oh, and wasn’t there something about The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony ripping off the Rolling Stone’s The Last Time where The Stones filed a lawsuit to have their samples in The Verve’s song removed?

    Ya, the string hook is virtually identical. Guess they didn’t think the Stones (or their legal team) would notice.

    Richard Ashcroft got permission from the Stones to use the sample from the Andrew Loog Oldham orchestration of “The last Time”, but when the song became a smash, Allen Klein from ABKOM decided that the Verve had used too much of the sample. He sued and got all song and lyrics royalties paid to ABKOM. Complete Dick. Ashcroft said that it was the best song the Stones had written in 20 years.

  129. 129.

    kindness

    Oy vey! Doug trolled me good. My snark/troll/nowyoutalkincrazy meter is busted.

  130. 130.

    Bill

    @Lev:

    And “I Want A New Drug” was itself rippped off by Ray Parker Jr in “Ghostbusters.”

  131. 131.

    Sublime33

    “Basket Case” from Green Day stole from the Sex Pistols “No Feelings”.

  132. 132.

    different-church-lady

    Honest to god, no trolling, I had never realized “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All Through the Night” were different songs until about a year ago.

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    @dedc79:

    Father and Son – Cat Stevens
    Fight Test – Flaming Lips

    I think the Bangles must have had Father and Son running through their heads when they came up with Eternal Flame.

  138. 138.

    Ridnik Chrome

    Steely Dan “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and Horace Silver “Song for My Father”

    ETA: I’ve always thought that one was a delberate hommage rather than theft…

  139. 139.

    smintheus

    I’m pretty sure that a core of the Rolling Stones’ Time Waits for No One was lifted from a song of the same name recorded earlier by the Toronto band Lords of London.

  141. 141.

    Ridnik Chrome

    Luna from middle period Velvet Underground (not meant as an insult, it’s a good style to copy).

    Half the indie rock bands of the 80s-90s are guilty of that one. Yo La Tengo and the Violent Femmes (both bands I love) are two more examples that immediately spring to mind…

  142. 142.

    Wally Ballou

    “Nowhere to Run”
    “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
    “Mr. Soul”

  143. 143.

    Wallis Lane

    The breaks in “Start!” by The Jam, almost completely duplicate the Beatles’ “Taxman” to the point where sometimes you’re not sure which is which.

  144. 144.

    Wally Ballou

    Drifters – “I Count the Tears”
    Grass Roots – “Let’s Live for Today”

  148. 148.

    jc

    I think of them as mutant earworms, because you start out humming one song and suddenly you’re humming a different song —

    She’s a Femme Fatale / White Flower Days at Macys

    Pictures of Matchstick Men / Crimson & Clover

  149. 149.

    moderateindy

    I think it’s kind of silly to complain about 2 songs from the same artist sounding alike. As far as playing it on the guitar is concerned, Werewolves of London, and CS&N’s Southern Cross are pretty much identical until you hit Southern Cross’ chorus. Also, Neil Young’s Motorcycle Mama, and the Blues song She caught the Katy.

  155. 155.

    Bob In Portland

    Back in the 60s, when if you had a hit record you followed up with something that sounded very much like the hit. For ex, Martha and the Vandellas followed up “(Love is like a) Heatwave” with “(Love is like an) Earthquake”. She may have had another one or two natural disaster songs before she moved on.

  156. 156.

    Bobby Thomson

    @gbear: It took me months to learn that Dawes wasn’t Jackson Browne. Or that Coldplay wasn’t Dave Matthews.

  161. 161.

    Steve M.

    I like the Four Tops’ soundalike trilogy (“Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” “Bernadette”).

    Also Billy Stewart’s “Sitting in the Park” and “I Do Love You.”

    Also T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong” and the Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll.”

  162. 162.

    Bob In Portland

    I’ve had a weird song loop where Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” morphs into Cream’s “Tales Of Brave Ulysses”.

    And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China
    and Jesus was a sailor and he spent a long time talking
    and you thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
    But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

    Then all of a sudden Leonard Cohen is leaning into a wah wah pedal.

  163. 163.

    dedc79

    @Bob In Portland: took a college course on pop music (seriously) and in one class the professor turned down the lead vocals/instruments for 4-5 famous motown songs so that all you heard was the background/rhythm section. All the songs had identical chord progressions.

  165. 165.

    Warren

    My wife and I were walking through Brookline Village on a recent Sunday afternoon when the carillon at one of the local churches started up. She recognized the tune as an Old English hymn — I forget the name — and pointed out that a repeated four-note descent in the tune was “Hallelujah” in its text. I responded that that exact same four-note tune was also the hook in Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend.”

  166. 166.

    Reasonable 4ce

    Speaking of George Harrison, he also may have borrowed from his former band too. “Wah Wah” (which ironically appears right after “My Sweet Lord” on All Things Must Pass) is built around practically the same riff as the Beatles’ “I’ve Got a Feeling.”

  167. 167.

    Missouri Buckeye

    @gbear: LCD Soundsystem sounds most like Heaven 17. I had just listened to Heaven 17’s “Penthouse and Pavement” and then LCD Soundsystem’s “Sound of Silver” popped up. The similarity is uncanny, and according to James Murphy, intentional.

  168. 168.

    Bob In Portland

    And you want to follow with her
    and you want to follow blind.
    And you want to take her with you
    to the hard land of the winter.

    WAH WAH WAHWAHWAH….

  171. 171.

    gbear

    @Steve M.: The Four Tops will always be one of my favorite bands because of those three songs. I liked their cover versions of ‘Walk Away Renee’ and ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ too.

  174. 174.

    Warren

    Many of the bands on the Flying Nun label out of NZ in the ’80s and early ’90s were basically spinning variations on The Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On.”

  175. 175.

    Turgidson

    Luna from middle period Velvet Underground (not meant as an insult, it’s a good style to copy).

    I’m too lazy to properly blockquote without a convenient little button. Partially agree with this. Wareham is definitely fond of Lou Reed and the gang. But I don’t think Luna was straight-up mimicking the VU that much. There’s some shoegaze in their sound, and a little more of a focus on guitar melody over atmosphere as compared to VU.

    The Apples in Stereo (and others from that E6 gang) ripped off either the Beatles or Beach Boys in pretty much every song, sometimes both at once. And yet, I still kinda like them.

  176. 176.

    MikeJ

    @Turgidson:

    I’m too lazy to properly blockquote without a convenient little button.

    There’s a button there, it just says “quote” instead of “blockquote”.

  178. 178.

    MikeJ

    @Warren:

    Flying Nun label out of NZ

    Forbidden Planet was on TV yesterday. Every time I see it I spend the next week singing Male Monster From the Id by The Chills.

    @Turgidson: Do you have the other buttons (b/i//link)? If the whole toolbar is missing I’d suggest clearing the cache, waving a chicken foot, and repeating “Awah tejur khayyam”.

  180. 180.

    Plantsmantx

    …just about every record Willie Mitchell ever produced, but that’s alright.

  181. 181.

    Waldo

    The riff from Smells Like Teen Spirit is identical to the one in Boston’s More Than a Feeling.

  182. 182.

    GxB

    Aw common guys, howdaya miss: “Must be some Misunderstanding” – Phil Collins / “Hot fun in the Summertime” – Sly & Family Stone

  183. 183.

    Heliopause

    The band Jet must hold a special place in the Homage Hall of Fame.

    I seem to remember John Lennon saying that the Stones “Miss You” was a ripoff of his chord progression in “Scared” but that he was fairly sanguine about it because “there are only a few notes [in pop music].”

  184. 184.

    Rich (In Name Only) in Reno

    “On the Road Again” by Canned Heat (1968) and “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum (1969.) The latter managed to rip off not just Canned Heat, but Hendrix during one solo as well. Not sure if this one made Dr. Demento’s “Copycat Corner” or not.

  185. 185.

    Steve in the ATL

    Cheap Trick “She’s Tight” ripped of by Poison “Talk Dirty to Me”

  186. 186.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    One half of he Doobie Brothers’ catalog, and the other half.

  187. 187.

    skippy

    hello peggy sue by ricky nelson vs. looking out my back door by ccr

    brighter than the sun by colbie callait vs. let the river run (working girl theme song) by carly simon

  188. 188.

    Joe Bleau

    @Waldo: Identical? Nah, although the chords substitute nicely. OTOH, listen to SLTS and B.O.C.’s Godzilla back-to-back if you wanna see some creative cribbing…

    My contribution to the mix – What I Like About You (Romantics) and R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. (Mellencamp)…

  190. 190.

    john fremont

    Kid Rock All Summer Long
    Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama
    Warren Zevon Werewolves Of London
    Simular chord progression

    Best of Both Worlds Van Halen
    Celebrate Kool and the Gang
    Similar chord progression

  191. 191.

    burnspbesq

    @gbear:

    Dick. Dawes are the real deal.

    Back on topic.

    “Down by the Water” by the Decemberists and “The One I Love” by R.E.M. The Decemberists have an excuse, however: Peter Buck plays guitar on the track.

  194. 194.

    burnspbesq

    The main theme of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” is a note-for-note lift from the Bach St. Mathew Passion.

  195. 195.

    Steeplejack

    @Turgidson:

    “Badge” (cowritten by Harrison) was released as a single in April 1969. Abbey Road didn’t come out until September of that year.

    I have always read that Harrison did the guitar solo on “Badge” (as a sort of trade for Clapton doing the solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), but Wikipedia says Harrison played rhythm guitar.

  202. 202.

    Anne Briggs

    Led Zeppelin’s Black Mountainside was a direct lift of the beautiful folk song Bert Jansch song had recorded called Black waterside.

  203. 203.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Joe Bleau: And Godzilla evolved out of Go Go Gorilla. I suspect lots of great weed was involved.

    @James Gary: Agreed, I can’t find a BOC riff in there.

    One that annoys me only because I have family who insist they can’t hear it is the intro to Leechwife vs the intro to Crazy Train.

  204. 204.

    Sean

    I can go straight down this thread and pick out every single one of you who’ve never written a song in your lives.

    So much failure to understand the process of writing music, especially that which is made for popular consumption.

    Talk to some actual professional musicians, people. Damn.

    Example: “Summer of ’69” has only slightly cosmetic similarities to “Jesus of Suburbia,” mainly to do with where a couple of accents coincide with big, obvious chord changes. However, the actual chord progressions, verses, choruses, codas – they’re completely different. Plus, the fucking Green Day tune has several different musical ideas running through it, and thr piece lasts for, what, 10 minutes? The Bryan Adams tune is a classic 3 minute radio track. ¡Ay yi yi!

  205. 205.

    AnotherBruce

    “The Seeker” by the Who and “Lawyers Guns and Money” by Warren Zevon. Not only do they have a similar chord structure, but both songs are about desperate men.

  206. 206.

    Jacel

    There’s huge variety in Kinks songs. But I’m instead reminded by a story (in Ian Hunter’s “Diary Of A Rock And Roll Star”) about his band Mott The Hoople in its early days playing at a festival, and discovering they were opening for the Kinks. The problem is, Mott’s planned finale was a cover of “You Really Got Me”, and they didn’t have a good substitute closer on short notice. After they finished their set, the Kinks came out, and Ray Davies said, “We’re going to teach Mott The Hoople a few more songs.”

  207. 207.

    Alex Milstein

    Yes, maybe You Really Got Me/All Day and All of the Night have a very similar pre-punk garage thrashy sound, but how do they sound like Tired of Waiting, or Sunny Afternoon, or
    Til The End of the Day, or Dead End Street…and how do those songs sound like Well Respected Man, and how does that one sound like Celluloid Heroes, and how does that one sound like Come Dancing, and how does that one sound like Waterloo Sunset, and how does that one sound like See My Friends, and how does that sound like Lola – which I will admit is similar to Apeman. The breadth of Ray Davies’ songwriting is utterly amazing. The growth of his style is incredible. And to snarkily add to the list “most Kinks songs/most other Kinks songs” tells me that you don’t really know the Kinks.

  208. 208.

    Lex

    @cckids: Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long” intentionally quoted both “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves of London.” That said, we’re talking about chord progressions here, not note-for-note imitations.

    There was some study recently that found less variation and more sameness in current popular music than in pop music of a generation ago. I believe it; the I-V-VI-IV chord progression is everywhere.

  209. 209.

    Lex

    @Turgidson: Clapton didn’t write “Cocaine.” J.J. Cale did. I’m not sure of the timeline, but it’s likely he ripped it off from Cream. Of course, Cream covered Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” which was recorded in, like, 1928. So did Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Comments are closed.