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).
Higgs Boson's Mate
My Sweet Lord,” “He’s So Fine.”
Ridnik Chrome
“Hello I Love You” and “All Day and All of the Night”
DougJ
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I almost specifically excluded that one for being the subject of a lawsuit.
Just Some Fuckhead
Anything by Mumford & Sons.
nastybrutishntall
Contemporary hiphop / country / pop, themselves
Bizono
The drum beats from…
Battles – “Atlas”
Marilyn Manson – “Beautiful People”
Always bothers me, cuz the Battles song is one of my faves.
Amir Khalid
The Rolling Stones’ Soul Survivor, Michael Jackson’s Black or White.
Ridnik Chrome
“Super Freak” and “Der Kommisar”
Just Some Fuckhead
Stairway to Heaven and Taurus by Spirit
DougJ
@Ridnik Chrome:
Win.
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.
MomSense
Pokemon cave theme/clocks
Cris (without an H)
John Prine’s entire first album.
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.
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.
Hunter Gathers
Every Green Day song past, present and future.
Cris (without an H)
@Ridnik Chrome: I hate you. My wife has been telling me for years that she can’t tell the Doors from the Kinks, and I’ve been telling her she’s nuts. Now you give me an example that bolsters her case.
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.
Just Some Fuckhead
@flukebucket: It’s one really long song, to be released in its entirety over the next decade.
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).
MomSense
Twinkle twinkle/ABCs
Higgs Boson's Mate
Any early Bob Dylan and Dave van Ronk.
DougJ
@Ridnik Chrome:
And Paranoia Big Destroyer.
pixelpusher
La Bamba and Twist and Shout.
Thoughtcrime
“The Old Man Down the Road” – John Fogerty
“Run Through the Jungle” – John Fogerty (w/CCR)
Fogerty was sued for plagerizing himself by Saul Zaentz:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/27501/time-john-fogerty-was-sued-ripping-john-fogerty
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.
Ridnik Chrome
@Bizono: Manson copped that beat from Gary Glitter…
...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”.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Or Def Leppard. Or as we called them back in their heyday Tone Def Leppard.
cckids
“Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves of London”. The piano riffs are too close.
MomSense
Ok the ultimate is Pachelbel’s Canon in D and every other song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
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.
ranchandsyrup
Summer Babe by Pavement and Brimful of Asha by Cornershop have same riff.
wuzzat
Alejandro/Don’t Turn Around, Tiny Dancer/Levon, and, on a non-pop note, Somewhere That’s Green/Part of Your World.
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.
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.
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 . . . )
ranchandsyrup
@gene108: Patty Smyth’s The Warrior.
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…
Just Some Fuckhead
Here’s why a lot of R&B love songs sound the same.
Cris (without an H)
@cckids: so says Kid Rock
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!
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.
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.
Figs
“Mmmmbop” and “Semi-Charmed Life”.
Gratefulcub
Smoke On The Water and Cat Scratch Fever, yet SOTW is far superior.
It’s in chapter 5 of the HFBook.
Timmy Mac
Adele Rolling in the Deep vs. Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter
Just Some Fuckhead
@Nom de Plume:
About three years ago, there was a riot on one of the music threads and all the Kinks fans got booted off the site.
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.
Cris (without an H)
@Ridnik Chrome: “similarity?” I always assumed that Falco was openly sampling the Rick James riff.
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.
Dolly Llama
The Pretenders ripped themselves off with “Never Do That.” It sounds just like “Back On the Chain Gang” to me.
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.
Just Some Fuckhead
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and The Alphabet Song
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.
Cris (without an H)
@Gratefulcub: Cat Scratch Fever sucks my balls.
Dolly Llama
@Lev: Speaking of ripping off oneself, REM’s “Disturbance at the Heron House” is a slowed-down version of “Gardening At Night.”
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.
pacem appellant
“Summer of 69” / “Jesus of Suburbia” though I don’t think Green Day would deny the riff is borrowed.
Dolly Llama
Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “What’s Going On” are damn similar, but I think that’s intentional.
YellowJournalism
AC/DC’s entire catalog to itself.
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.)
MomSense
@Forked Tongue:
But It’s a Sin and Wild World are both great songs at least!
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.
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.
Tractarian
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Both blatantly ripped off from Baa Baa Black Sheep
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
matt
Pixies ‘Broken Face’, ‘The Girl from Ipanema’
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.
matt
Bob Marley ‘Buffalo Soldier’ chorus, the Banana Splits theme song
? Martin
@Just Some Fuckhead: So, can we include America the Beautiful/God Save the Queen?
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…
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.
Just One More Canuck
@Nom de Plume: Never mind their chords. How can you speak ill of a band who gave us such songs as this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=454tudm_zsQ
They were a lot of fun in concert
.
Just Some Fuckhead
@? Martin: Can we, Martin??? Can we?
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.
grape_crush
The Offspring’s Why don’t you get a job and The Beatles’ Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.
? Martin
Oh, anything by The Smiths or Morrissey with anything else by The Smiths or Morrissey.
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.
Mark Lass
Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango
Wanna Be Startin’ Something by Michael Jackson
gbear
@Amir Khalid: Keith didn’t slice his daughter and friends to bits for singing the KD Lang song? It seems unpossible.
Forked Tongue
@MomSense:
Well, you’re half right.
matt
Pavement ‘silence kit’, buddy holly ‘everyday’
MikeJ
It seems there’s a fine line between having an identifiable sound and having everything you do sound the same.
Cacti
Sweet Little 16/Surfin’ USA
The court agreed with Chuck Berry in this case.
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.
Delurking
Brain Stew by Green Day and 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago. One of the weirdest ripoffs I think I’ve ever heard, and a personal favorite.
? 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).
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.
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?”
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.
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?
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.
ul
Free – Allright Now/Steve Miller – Rock’n Me
Tractarian
Ya, the string hook is virtually identical. Guess they didn’t think the Stones (or their legal team) would notice.
Maude
Every Barry White song.
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.
Lev
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Huey Lewis used the same hook for what, like a half-dozen songs. You know, duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh. Like, “Hip to BE square” or “I wanna NEW drug” and so on.
Tractarian
@? Martin:
Righto, I was kidding. There are certain “traditional” tunes for which the concept of “ripping off” is inapplicable.
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.
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.
Mike E
@Turgidson:
He’s a hater, apparently.
@Anna Granfors: I’m with you there, 100%
MikeJ
@Ridnik Chrome: The Jam, as much as I love ’em, didn’t invent the descending scale.
jl
Oh Boy! I think I got one of these BJ post titles.
Sonny Boy Williamson (edit: II, lest we forget I)
Too Close Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey2dPbUUzek
Tractarian
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”
Sublime33
Gangmam Style and Santana’s “Jingo”. Also the Escape Club’s “Wild Wild West” and Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”.
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.
Mike E
@scav: REO StixJourney
DougJ
@jl:
Yup! I know it from the Peter Wolf cover.
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.
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,
Amir Khalid
@Pete:
Thinkest thou of Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
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.
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…
Sublime33
The Specials “Tears In My Beer” from Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart”
Pete
“Lonely No More” by Rob Thomas is partly stolen from a song called “Dudu” by Turkish pop superstar Tarkan. Also, too.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@? Martin:
I think you mean “My Country ’tis of Thee” in the first slot, no?
Ripley
The Stooges, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” / The Fall, “Elves” – same riff, really noticeable. Both good songs.
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.
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.
FlipYrWhig
Husker Du, Too Much Spice.
Husker Du, Don’t Want to Know If You’re Lonely.
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.
ul
Classics IV – Spooky/Classics IV – Soul Train
ul
Classics IV – Spooky/Classics IV – Soul Train
ul
Classics IV – Spooky/Classics IV – Soul Train
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.
dedc79
The Gaslight Anthem is updated Bruce Springsteen. I say that as someone who likes them both.
Low Country Boil
“Let it Rain” by Eric Clapton / “It Don’t Come Easy” by Ringo Starr are almost identical in their verses.
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.
kindness
Oy vey! Doug trolled me good. My snark/troll/nowyoutalkincrazy meter is busted.
Bill
@Lev:
And “I Want A New Drug” was itself rippped off by Ray Parker Jr in “Ghostbusters.”
Sublime33
“Basket Case” from Green Day stole from the Sex Pistols “No Feelings”.
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.
smintheus
Chiffons, He’s So Fine
George Harrison, my sweet lord
Outright theft.
MattR
How about something intentional? Here is the Blind Boys of Alabama doing Amazing Grace over the music for House of the Rising Sun.
different-church-lady
@dedc79:
I think the Bangles must have had Father and Son running through their heads when they came up with Eternal Flame.
smintheus
@different-church-lady: I can listen to Kinks songs over and over, so I don’t mind the riffs sounding the same.
Mike E
@smintheus: Reparations were paid, yo. He altered the track as well, too. Also.
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…
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.
smintheus
@Mike E: Only because he was sued, and his denial that he’d stolen it wasn’t accepted.
Ridnik Chrome
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…
Wally Ballou
“Nowhere to Run”
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
“Mr. Soul”
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.
Wally Ballou
Drifters – “I Count the Tears”
Grass Roots – “Let’s Live for Today”
Wally Ballou
“Bali H’ai”
the “Get Smart ” theme
“Immigrant Song”
Blue Galangal
Everything by the Ramones. Not that that’s a bad thing.
NobodySpecial
“Badge” lifts a bit from “Here Comes The Sun”.
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
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.
Barney
‘Lady Madonna’ borrowed from ‘Bad Penny Blues’: http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1208.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1O8YYjY2A
ET
Anything from Dire Straits.
punkdavid
Satisfaction/Mr.Soul
Bobby Thomson
@Cris (without an H): You’re aware the Doors were covering the Kinks, right?
kroveechernila
OT Doug, but I think this is right in your wheelhouse:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.html
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.
Bobby Thomson
@gbear: It took me months to learn that Dawes wasn’t Jackson Browne. Or that Coldplay wasn’t Dave Matthews.
Bob In Portland
@NobodySpecial: And George Harrison played that part on “Badge” too.
Bobby Thomson
@Wally Ballou: Nice.
Sublime33
@kroveechernila: Maybe George Will and Charles Krauthammer can bench press over 300 pounds?
SatanicPanic
@different-church-lady: How about the Bangles “Eternal Flame” and Cheap Trick’s “I will be the flame”?
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.”
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.
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.
MattW
Every Interpol song after their first album.
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.”
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.”
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.
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….
gbear
@SatanicPanic: Ooh. How about not. ;)
Cris (without an H)
@Bobby Thomson: I was not aware of that.
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.
DougJ
@kroveechernila:
I like that they bring up Ahnold, as if he were in any way right-wing by American standards.
Turgidson
@NobodySpecial:
Pretty sure Badge came first, if only by a few months.
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.”
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.
MikeJ
@Turgidson:
There’s a button there, it just says “quote” instead of “blockquote”.
Turgidson
@MikeJ:
I don’t see one. Maybe it’s my browser. Work computer, old version of IE.
MikeJ
@Warren:
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”.
nastybrutishntall
@gbear: Daft Punk will not be playing at your house, your house.
Plantsmantx
…just about every record Willie Mitchell ever produced, but that’s alright.
Waldo
The riff from Smells Like Teen Spirit is identical to the one in Boston’s More Than a Feeling.
GxB
Aw common guys, howdaya miss: “Must be some Misunderstanding” – Phil Collins / “Hot fun in the Summertime” – Sly & Family Stone
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].”
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.
Steve in the ATL
Cheap Trick “She’s Tight” ripped of by Poison “Talk Dirty to Me”
The prophet Nostradumbass
One half of he Doobie Brothers’ catalog, and the other half.
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
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)…
Mr. Skin
@Just Some Fuckhead: Bonzo also copped playing part of his drum solo with his hands from Ed while they were on tour together early in Zep’s career.
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
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.
Mr. Skin
@gene108: “The Warrior” sung by that sexy little thing with the huge voice, Patty Smyth. Oh my!
Steeplejack
@Bob In Portland:
I can get that greenlighted tomorrow. Get me Leonard Cohen line 2!
burnspbesq
The main theme of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” is a note-for-note lift from the Bach St. Mathew Passion.
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.
Wally Ballou
@Bob In Portland: “Quicksand” was another one.
Nicole
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. “Young Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon.”
JWL
“All music is rehash”….. John Lennon
Nicole
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
You weren’t the only one. The Shirelles sued and Harrison was convicted of unintentional plagiarism.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1172
Bob In Portland
Sometimes Guided By Voices sound like John Lennon on acid.
nastybrutishntall
@Timmy Mac: Was gonna say that. Totally bugs me. But I then, Adele bores me to tears.
Anne Briggs
Led Zeppelin’s Black Mountainside was a direct lift of the beautiful folk song Bert Jansch song had recorded called Black waterside.
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.
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!
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Lex
@Waldo: And both are derived from “Louie Louie.” In fact, Dave Marsh wrote an entire book about the influence of that one song, “Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World’s Most Famous Rock Song,” and not a word in it is wasted.