C&L's Late Nite Music Club - Introducing Friday Night Ripoffs(?)
By MaxMarginal Friday Jul 10, 2009 7:00pmThis is the first post in a series called Friday Night Ripoffs(?). Here's the deal: every Friday, two songs, where one of them might very well be a gigantic ripoff of the other.
When I was 9 years old watching The Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" on MTV, my stepfather explained that the song was nothing more than a total lift of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and then took me out to Tower Records (RIP) to buy the cassette and drive the point home.
What do you think? Ripoff, or just musical cadences that exist in the ether?
What are some other suspicious musical borrowings you've encountered? We'll go through the comments and post a prime suspect next week!
Login or Register to post comments.
By Elvis Costello
It's a straight rip off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpprOGsLWUo
Elvis Costello released that in 1978, ten years before escape club.
Without even listening (yet), a whole lot of Korean pop music!!!
(If anyone wants me to post any... )
As a songwriter, this is a big issue for me.
The rythms are different but very similar. There are hundreds of lifted rythms.
I thought I was going to like Dylan's song better, but decided I don't rally like either. If you are going to steal something, at least steal somthing good.
Play nice, everyone :)
How about this then?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg
Dylan's new album sounds like blues standards throughout.
the banana splits song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6I5DzMYqcU
buffalo soldier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQXvsQJVnY
... to say one of these steals from the other.
YES!
I loved the Banana Splits as a kid, and that's what I thought the first time I heard Buffalo Soldier.
But, um, I would listen to Marley 1000-to-1 over the Banana Splits theme.
I thought I was the only one who thought this...thanks for the post.
http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2008/swipes/...
includes:
My Sweet Lord/He’s So Fine
time for congress to rewrite these laws
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" was the first popular "rap" tune.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard it.
He had lots of Rap songs. "Consider Minnie the Moocher."
rap is spoken word.
Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher
this was pretty sweet replayed in "Blues Brothers" too....
in the 90's there was a time when i kept getting stuck on the song "surrey with the fringe on top" from oklahoma. had no idea why. then i realized it was the macarena...
Great catch, Cassandra!
Tom Petty - Last Dance With Mary Jane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdTYcnUBADw
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Gd4tEXLao
It just shows the enormous inflence Bob Dylan has on contemporary music. If you think this is a rip-off than Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" is also a rip-off.
...or "It's the End of the World as We Know It."
JC, I swear I first heard "End of the World" in the mid/late 60's but haven't been able to find the original artist. Do you (or anyone else out there) know who that is/was?
Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire?
http://artists.letssingit.com/barry-mcguire-l...
Fleetwood Mac, back when they were a blues band with Peter Green at the helm did a song called "Rattlesnake Shake." About six or even year later Bob Seger released a direct ripoff called "Come to Papa."
This has always bugged me. Besides that I'm not a big fan of Seger.
The song is an old Stax number IIRC by Earl Randle and Willie Mitchell so maybe Fleetwood Mac is doing the ripping off here?
avril lavigne....girlfriend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT5Ez_qxpc0
rubinoos...i wanna be your boyfriend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg5r0o66p0M
toni basil...hey mickey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4CyNvEfWoE
The Chiffons - He's So Fine
George Harrison - My Sweet Lord
And of course, it was the Chiffons, for the win. Really. after he sings "My sweet Lord" pop a do-lang do-lang do-lang in there, or an "Halleluah" after the gals sing "He's so fine." Perfect fit
Ya know, I love both of those songs, miss_kitty!
and hate the other...:) Unless it's the lyric...
I'm late to the LNMC tonight (had some out-of-towners visiting today) .... I just love listening to these songs.
:)
That's ALL about jackin stuff...
Ice Cube - Jackin' For Beats
If we look hard enough we may see that nothing is new. For example.
was later copied by INXS for "Mediate" which was the second half of "Need You Tonight"... I think.
Is there a line between merely copying a song or paying a tribute to the person that originally performed a song?
It's like that guy who sings about United breaking guitars. It has a very strong Marty Robbins feel to the song.
Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE
Paul Oakenfold - Starry Eyed Surprise (Dance All Night To This DJ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ucd0Zi27lU
It's a mash-up. It's intended to be that way.
So they invent a term, and it makes it legal? Wow ...this world is FUBAR
So, I guess if someone re-paints the Mona Lisa and changes her eye color, it should be legal to do so. w/e
sampling is different than writing a song that is similar to another.
If you have about 20 minutes this video 'Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop' and it explains some of the conundrums posed by using existing composition as compositional material in a new piece.
Sure hate to be a creator of music these days; all these different terms, I don't care how you look at it, theft is theft. I'll tell you, if I owned the rights to a song, piece of music, whatever; and someone took my melody, lyrics, etc and was makin money off of it, I'd sue them to the ends of the earth.
other artists are looser about it. But that song I posted 'Jackin' For Beats' upthread under 'plunderphonics' was almost all beats and pieces from songs he didn't write. And it's all about lifting other peoples' material for a new piece.
In a sense, they construct a new composition and I think the pieces are viewed the same way I look at my paints -- I have red blue and yellow. Only the guy doing the mash up or the sample is using NWA and Nillson and some Amen Break.
The Clash was sued by 2000 Flushes for using the audio of their ad on Inoculated City. Part of the settlement involved the song not containing that bit in future releases. It was restored in 2000.
To use one example.
And Weird Al will pay for the use of the music when its used in his parody version.
If the original song owner was really upset, they could use legal means to block the parody from public performance, but almost nobody does as they like what Weird Al adds.
I believe he had one song owner refuse permission.
to do his thing to songs. The most memorable he spoke about getting the ok from was Springsteen, he said he wore out his knees begging, but got permission.
...as a collage, botany. The pictures used in the collage were created by others, but the collage itself is an original piece of work. Unless, of course, it's unoriginal & stupid, in which case it's just a lame ripoff.
by the way.
I have to watch it every so often just to reassociate my ears to that beat.
I watched it yesterday. I love the guy's voice, too
I listened to the entire recording, it was fascinating, but it sure seems a nasty thing to do to others, and it should be regulated to some extent; because if it isn't, then what's the point of copyrighting anything at all, if some cheap bastard years later is just gonna take it and call it his own. Talk about plagiarism, and they're suing people for downloading music off the net ...unbelievable.
was the asshole who took the Amen Break and copyrighted as part of a jungle music construction package. And that when you buy from them, you aren't buying the beat; you are buying a license for the use of the beat.
And the Winstons aren't bothered by it, at least weren't up to the time of the recording.
As an artist, I do use a lot of different materials. It's no stretch for me to excuse a use of fragments of tunes and sounds to make something new, however. In a mixed media setting it's called 'collage.'
;)
Writers, filmmakers, artists, all tend to borrow components from others and put their own spin on it.
They give credit to the author of the original song in the liner notes. They don't take credit for the music but they do to the lyrics, which are obviously different in a mash-up.
The song was god-awful whether Dylan did it first or not.
John Lennon - Stand By Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_ghOG9JQM
Loso - Som sarn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNJoH9ysD5c
How about Rick James Superfreak and Falco's Der Komissar or Joe Jackson's Is She Really Going Out With Him? and The Raconteurs' Steady, As She Goes. I could go on but must go to sleep so I can work tomorrow.
or the other, actually. nice catches.
And I love Subterranean Homesick Blues -- to me it's all about the lyrics. The tag line of TalkLeft since 2002 has been: "The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles."
There are so many great lines in the song:
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
****
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters
****
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
****
And of course,
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows
Cool idea for a new music theme though.
Offspring - Why Don't You Get a Job
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqHkuHy39eA&fe...
Beatles - Oh-Bla-Di, Oh-Bla-Da
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJhcGepfG04
especially the chorus!
is a rip off of Jimi Hendrix.
I recall there was a legal fight over Huey Lewis I Want a New Drug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSFX1Vb3xQ and the later recording of
Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4uxIo4t7xM&fe.... I remember hearing a Westwood One radio show talking about the similar bass lines...
I remember all the hoopla on all that; not even sure if anyone ever came out ahead on that issue.
First came James Brown with "Hot" (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)
'buttons stolen' by David Bowie with "Fame"
The artist with the biggest record label and highest paid lawyers.
I always liked this one by The Cult, but I feel like I'm listening the Stones' "Start Me Up" whenever I hear it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vneFS48Z4Ws
Janet Jackson's feeble song "Black Cat" stole from two songs: "Addicted To Love" by Robert Palmer and "I Hate Myself For Loving You" by Joan Jett.
Black Shat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4QW_rnN4u8
Addicted To Love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE1-kBAw6Dg
I Hate Myself For Loving You:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJeB0iEXMBI
How could anyone miss something so blatant? And I'm tone deaf, to boot.
The Stone Roses, Tears (the live version works, I guess) @4:30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXbxPVqZ2Q
And Led Zeppelin (@ 6:14):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kNEo8OxrT8
Its riff is a direct ripoff of Zep's "Moby Dick"
I love "Love Spreads" and just played it a couple of days ago.
But creds where creds is due. On the other hand, Zeppelin ripped off the great bluesmen, as well as The Yardbirds and Jeff Beck, on "Dazed and Confused," "Whole Lotta Love," and other songs.
The phrasing is similar. Another example of songs with similar phrasing are Chuck Berry's "You can't Catch Me" and the Beatles' "Come together" You have to listen to both songs very closely, but you can hear the similarities.
I love Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues thanks for posting the video!
Van Halen - Panama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xBO6GikZlM
Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYIUhi-Ybi4
Same four bars in the chorus. I can't believe Frey didn't get sued over this.
Those are two really fucking TERRIBLE songs.
Let them copy eachother if they want.
Rolling Stones - The Last Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SevqHN1UM
Elvis Costello - You Belong to Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7AiFggQPjY
"Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." -- Picasso
For "Subterranean Homesick Blues" Dylan borrowed a lot from the Chuck Berry song "Too Much Monkey Business", written in 1956). I'm pretty sure he wouldn't deny it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME_fIvlZMiY
Elvis Costello's "Pump it Up" is a later variation of Chuck Berry's original rapid-fire tongue twisting gripe-song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opIL3Yt0Un8&fe...
This in turn was more recently totally ripped off by (the incredibly overrated) U2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7zKeYhU_8&fe...
and phrasing. Listen to "Bite the Bullet," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Southern Man" by Young, to name a few, and I think you'll see where Petty got the sound for his song.
(was supposed to be a reply to the Tom Petty/RHCP comment)
I always thought that the beginning of "Last Nite" by the Strokes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tuvX_X7Rlw
Sounded a lot like the beginning of American Girl by Tom Petty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgt7U9QrFQ
Once the intro passes though, not so much.
is a copy of "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie. One extra note in the bass line does not a different song make.
There are so many examples of this it would be impossible to go through them all. And I agree with the other posters that have said that "Wild Wild West" sounds more like "Pump It Up" than the Dylan tune.
Here are a couple:
Led Zeppelin: Achilles' Last Stand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McHkvOOXtNI
Heart: Barracuda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4nWy8pmIM4
was stolen from somewhere. Stairway to heaven was a ripoff of a Spirit song, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You was a straight up, record someone else's song and put your name on it. You could go for days talking about what those thieving pricks have ripped off.
From Wikipedia: "Whole Lotta Love" – Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was appropriated, without credit, from Dixon's "You Need Love". Although the main guitar riff was composed by Jimmy Page himself, Robert Plant based the lyrics on Dixon's song. Dixon and his music publisher received credit and royalties, after a 1985 lawsuit was settled out of court.
"You Need Loving" recorded by The Small Faces in 1965, is another uncredited loose version of the song
IF the band records someone else's song with the same title and lyrics, gets permission, pays royalties, and lists the original artist on the album (big ifs, I know, and I'm not sure whether Zeppelin did that in this case), then that's perfectly ok, and should not be confused with ripoffs by Zeppelin and others that do not credit the original artist in any way.
I always thought U2's new one, Get on Your Boots, had a similiar sound to Wild Wild West...
Is that song writers write songs for different artists, esp if they are working for the same record company.
Plus how many song writers rehash their older songs when they are on a deadline and stuck for inspirational.
When the Beatles' "Free as a Bird" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s332Tt0zxYs) came out, I was amazed at how Paul's bridge came directly from the Shangri-La's "Walkin' in the Sand," right down to using the words "Whatever happened to..." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7_Qz1y3EpQ) But no lawsuits. I'm sure George "My Sweet He's So Fine" Harrison had a bitterly ironic laugh.
The chorus in Fleetwood Mac's "Peacekeeper" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ucHN0TT10) bears more than a passing resemblance to Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujhdf9_IO4w).
and I don't think that one rips off another. But I did notice in this video background dancers, and Barry sure looks funny in those white pants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8SfiCnwF28
Loving Spoonful's Jub Band Music and Lynryd Skynryd's Gimme Three Steps. Almost identical songs.
The Romantics - What I Like About You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvHKjDKY_O8
and Johnny Cougar Mellencamp - Rock In The USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzYkjvq-iLE
Even the solo sounds the same, although it's harmonica vs keyboards.
Tenna Marie, who performed "Lovergirl" also performed a song 14K on "The Goonies" soundtrack. Both songs are strangely similar. It was like she was at lost for a medley and just imported one for the other.
John Fogerty got taken to court because "The Old Man Down the Road" sounded so much like "Run Through the Jungle." (He was acquitted.)
Only song I ever liked that was a "sampler" was Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage" that turns out was an Earth Wind and Fire tune I never heard. I dug the video because it was friendly to all shapes and colors and it had a great message. Haven't heard one since that made up for the theft. I was unaware at the time as well, so I was influenced by the package as a whole. The younger trees probably don't know that the hop hip is a near total ripoff of writing talent gone before. It's like the guy that comes in the studio and wants to add all kinds of crap to a masterpiece. I will not include the cowbell from "Don't fear the reaper" That was brilliant.
Sorry, it's not and I could care less about Escape Club. Now Lenny Kravitz, when I hear some of his older stuff it can be a case of name that riff.
And yes, songwriters have been known to rip off from a past song.
and Neil Young "Hey hey my my" (is that what it's called?).
won't we run out of original music?
What I mean is there are only a finite number of musical notes. Doesn't that mean eventually we'll come to a point when every possible combination of notes has been exhausted?
I'm no math whiz so if I'm wrong please feel free to let me know. It just seems logical to me that someday we'll run out of original music based on the finite number of notes.
I have always been amazed at the similarity of these 2 songs. You can sing the hollies lyrics right on top of Creep!
Radiohead - Creep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpblnsJEWM
versus The Hollies - Air that I Breathe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7S8-Iewi0
Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OJ7QQqaYKA&an... ) with her "All I Want to Do (Is Have Some Fun)" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3piWXq_y20 )
Forgive me for getting the history of "Rattlesnake Shake" wrong. I think my point still remains about the similarity between the two songs. If i had the time and inclination to lay the two songs over one another it would be difficult to tell the two apart.
Heck, even Toby Keith sounds like a Spice Girl. (I suspect he IS a secret Spice Girl)
only when he's alone in his room.
I used to like Weezer, but I absolutely can't stand the Steve Miller Band. That being said, Weezer totally rips off Joker with Beverly Hills
Ravel's "Bolero" ;
"Memory" from Cats
The mid-1990s country hit "Walking In Memphis" is pretty much the same song as Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland." I've mistaken one for the other more than once in a room with a lot of background noise.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/334/...
"Be a Clown" from The Pirate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiIhrAVVVvY
"Make 'em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0
Jet "Look What You've Done"
The Beatles "Sexy Sadie"
I guess this is a fitting tribute, since Jet reportedly admits to having chosen its band name from Paul McCartney's song (which I believe was named for McCartney's dog).
you are thinking of Martha my dear
The Jam "Start"
The Beatles "Taxman"
"Get Rhythm" Johnny Cash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roug4qG7qCY
"Maybelline" Chuck Berry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RAfxiyMKAk
I'm not sure of the similarity between "Wild Wild West" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues." I remember when the former went to #1 on the charts. They seem distinct. In terms of other ripoffs, Zard's "Makenaide" borrows a riff from Daryl Hall's "Dreamtime," and Sir Humphrey Littleton's "Bad Penny Blues" got incorporated into the Beatles' "Lady Madonna."
Frank borrowed from some of the best...you just gotta listen
NEIL YOUNGS 'BORROWED TUNE' STONES' "LADY JANE"
"mouldy old "lieutenant pidgeon
advent children "they're coming to take me away haha"
Login or Register to post comments.