I’m really enjoying the Rose City Band’s latest album “Summertime” – after Junior posted it on here a week or so ago (Thanks Junior).
However, there is one track “Floating On” where I am immediately taken back to Pink Floyd’s Meddle ant the track “Fearless”. Its not a direct steal, but just sounds (to me anyway) to have the same sound / feel. Not saying its a bad thing – I enjoy both this track and the original “Fearless”.
Any other examples ?
Jaygee says
Famously John Fogerty plagiarised his former Creedence self on Old Man Down the Road from 1985’s Centrefield
Then there’s Borrowed Tune (Neil Y’s Tonight’s The Night) In Neil’s defence, he fesses up to cribbing from the Rolling Stones in the song’s lyric.
Any Dream Will Do (Jesus Christ Superstar) – Suspiciously similar to The Grateful Dead’s Ripple (American Beauty)
It All Sounded the Same (Dexy’s Don’t Stand Me Down) – Kevin R got caught red-handed swiping the melody from Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London and had to add Mr Z and – I think – Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon to the songwriting credits in later reissues
Hasn’t Ed Sheeran had to share songwriting credits with quite a few people over the years
Lando Cakes says
Astonished re the Dexy’s one – the similarity had never occurred to me.
Jaygee says
The contentious bit is the whistling part in All Sounded…Kevin R goes into it in some depth on the sleeve notes for the mid-2000s reissue
Kid Dynamite says
Doves have form for nicking from Werewolves Of London as well. Another one where the songwriting credits had to be, shall we say, updated? after release
Junior Wells says
Glad you are enjoying it @Chrisf.
I spotted that too and find myself singing along to the Floyd song when playing Rose City.
Lou Reed’s Street Hassle – ie heard a classical piece on the radio and it was the exact strings riff. Based on some sort of European folk song I vaguely recall. Have never heard it again and bugged me ever since.
TrypF says
Elastica have form with this one. Two of their hits, Connection and Waking Up. Both settled out of court with Wire and The Stranglers.
If Bryan ‘Run to You’ Adams didn’t settle out of court with Tom ‘Refugee’ Petty, I’d be astonished.
Mrbellows says
I’m not getting the similarity. Please respond with YouTube clips.
TrypF says
Which came out in 1979. And this, from 1986:
The melody isn’t the same, but chords are pretty much the same, in the same key, too.
Hamlet says
Yep, I’ve always thought they were pretty similar. See also One Way by the Levellers, which seems to lean on Refugee quite a bit.
Mrbellows says
I hear it now.
Rigid Digit says
Lana Del Rey’s Get Free nicked Radiohead’s Creep. which in turn nicked Hollies The Air That I Breathe
Mrbellows says
Huh?
Rigid Digit says
Jeff Lynne should get a writing credit for Paul Weller’s The Changingman (ie nicking the riff from 10538 Overture).
They both nicked it from Dear Prudence, so John and Paul should get a credit too.
dai says
Most famously of all (probably) My Sweet Lord and He’s So Fine.
Rigid Digit says
Allen Klein bought the Publishing for The Chiffons catalogue, so George was effectively being sued by his own manager.
Guiri says
The Eno brothers channelling the Wind of Change hit makers…
https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/roger-eno-brian-eno/videos/blonde-493997
Uncle Mick says
Apparently nothing to do with Billy Currie, Chris Payne and Midge Ure. Nope. Not a jot.
Freddy Steady says
Fade to grey?
Uncle Wheaty says
Sounds like an Ultravox b side from 1983!
retropath2 says
Back to the original example: insult is added to irony when they splice in recorded crowd signing from the LA Dodgers!
Max the Dog says
Maybe already discussed but to these ears the verses of Jason Isbells ‘Running With Our Eyes Closed’ is channeling Jackson Browne, specifically ‘Lives In The Balance’. Both good songs in their own right.
duco01 says
That’s exactly what I thought!
Malc says
Whoever wrote the theme to “Same Smile” on Cbeebies had certainly never heard of “Crash” by the Primitives.
Sewer Robot says
Did the Prims really get no credit for this? I remember the theme for the show 8:15 From Manchester was just the Inspiral Carpets’ Find Out Why with different words (actually, was that the Carpets playing on EFFM? Would explain it..)
JQW says
Ralf & Florian surely must have heard this, Hindermith’s Flute Sonata from 1936.
Mrbellows says
Your ploy almost worked. I got halfway through and thought, bugger this for a kling klang!
Ain’t hearing it bro.
Sewer Robot says
Have another go
Mrbellows says
Not tonight Josephine but I will later.
Mrbellows says
No denying it.
Black Celebration says
Yes – at about 2:20 onwards.
Paul Wad says
Here Comes A Soul Saver is another Fearless rip off, by one of my favourite bands, The Charlatans. They have form for nicking bits of songs, using bits of John Lennon’s excellent Bring On the Lucie (Freda People) for two songs – Just When You’re Thinking Things Over and Just Lookin’
Paul Wad says
Bring On The Lucie
Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over
And Just Lookin’ (jump to 1:25 over Bring On The Lucie and 1:10 of Just Lookin’)
All three are great songs, mind!
slotbadger says
Was just flipping through Spotify this evening and found Many Rivers To Cross, from Harry Nilsson’s ‘Pussycats’. The intro is totally nicked off ‘Mind Games’. I blame Dr Winston O’Boogie.
Lando Cakes says
Here’s an interesting example from The Mighty Tull.
Have a listen and see if you can guess which band supported them on a US tour a couple of years later…
Jaygee says
Led Zeppelin?
Tiggerlion says
Isn’t their entire catalogue plagiarised?
*innocent face*
Mike_H says
Plagiarism with regard to old blues songs is a thorny one, inasmuch that those old blues singers plagiarised each other and anyone else all the time and continued doing it right into the ’60s.
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) nicked the riff for “Help Me” from Booker T. & The MGs “Green Onions”.
Jaygee says
First thought was Led Zeppelin (who have form in the “You’ve got eyes|” stakes) – it wasn’t.
When I looked it up I was very surprised at the answer – classic chalk and cheese -style 1970s headliner and support double header – now there’s an idea for a thread
duco01 says
July 1973 – the Wailers supporting Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, live at Max’s Kansas City, New York.
Sounds like a decent double-header…
Steerpike says
It was Eagles and Hotel California was the song
TrypF says
Your Devil’s Advocate correspondent writes: The two bands toured together in 1972. Don Felder, who wrote all the music for the song Hotel California, didn’t join the Eagles until 1974 and, according to him, didn’t write it until about 1976. Don Henley might have something to answer for re. the vocal line, but still not much.
I don’t really see it myself.
Twang says
Ian A has said many times it’s a pretty standard chord progression and Hotel California is a much better song so good luck to them.
Lando Cakes says
I’ve heard him be a *shade* more ambiguous. To amusing effect, of course – too good not to.
Lando Cakes says
I often hear it said that “Don Felder wrote all the music”. I’m not sure that he did though. That very long Eagles documentary implies that he wrote the the opening riff and the rest came from the 2 sociopaths (whose names I can’t recall at this moment).
I think it’s laughably similar. Which isn’t to say that it is conscious plagiarism – I would be astonished if that was the case.
Steerpike says
Keith Jarrett V Steely Dan
Mousey says
I think Uncle Donald ‘fessed up to this and gave Keith a credit. Quite rightly so.
duco01 says
Full marks to the Dan for using the word “bodacious” in the lyrics of “Gaucho”, anyway.
Steerpike says
Speaking of the Dan – Peg from Aja was sampled by De La Soul, of course on their wonderful 3 Feet High and Rising, an album that still does not appear on streaming services due to the number of samples employed throughout the album. Samples are a different kettle of fish – generally acknowledged by the samplers but potentially facing similar copywrite issues.
Kid Dynamite says
The evil that is Steely Dan also nicked a bit of Horace Silver
Mike_H says
They continue to deny it, because the great Horace Silver never invented that two-note four-beat riff in the first place. Just an old Latin riff from the mists of antiquity.
Hamlet says
That Bob Dylan song, Make you Feel my Love, is melodically very similar to a classical piece, although I can’t bloody remember which one! It’s a pretty neat trick, as they can’t sue – a tactic Lord Admiral Andy Lloydy-Webber realised. You only have to listen to Classic FM for 20 minutes, and you can discern where he got his most of his ‘inspiration’ from.
There are some occasions where a rip-off is so blatant, you simply can’t believe the artist wasn’t aware. I’m thinking Sam Smith and Tom Petty. The first time I heard Stay With Me, I started singing I won’t Back Down.
The chorus of 21 Guns by Green Day simply is Telephone Line by ELO. I can’t find any info saying they have ever credited Jeff Lynn, but it’s so utterly blatant.
Mike_H says
Otis Redding’s “Pain In My Heart”, claimed as written by Naomi Neville, was nicked wholesale from Irma Thomas’s “Ruler Of My Heart”, written by Allen Toussaint.
The entire tune, the basics of the arrangement and a lot of the lyrics too.
(Otis)
(Irma)
Iainiain says
In case you’re not being sly, I’ll take that at face value and point you to this link. I can’t remember who I first found this out, it’ll clear up your puzzlement. At least he wasn’t sued for self-plagiarism, unlike Fogerty, as mentioned earlier in thread:-
https://www.discogs.com/artist/633082-Naomi-Neville
Iainiain says
Mike_H says
I wasn’t aware of that interesting snippet of knowledge. One finds out new things.
I had heard someone years ago demonstrate on a radio show that they were virtually the same song. I looked up the authorship of both today, because I could have sworn that on my long-lost Stax single of Pain In My Heart (pale blue label, distributed by Atlantic) the writing credit was Redding, but I wanted to check that. I was surprised (but not very) when I turned up another name. Didn’t check deeply enough though.
Mrbellows says
This. This is a total rip off.
Rigid Digit says
As is this.
Mrbellows says
Ha! That’s brilliant. I didn’t know about that one. What a talent.
TrypF says
Just the chorus (especially the bassline) of these two.
Black Celebration says
Not a direct lift but Roxette’s hit song “The Look” borrows heavily from Prince’s “U Got the Look”.
I’m sure both singers are bickering about it in rock n roll heaven.
Kid Dynamite says
‘Inspire’ by American alt rock / post hardcore act Cave In has an excellent guitar riff. It’s crunchy, catchy, and generally lifts the song. Unfortunately, it’s also the riff from Radiohead’s Paranoid Android, but you can’t have everything.
Arch Stanton says
Once upon a time there was a landfill indie band called the Enemy. They made a big thing of being a proper band with proper tunes. For their second album they managed to make a record where you can sing someone else song over every tune. Perhaps the most blatant was this what if The Jam had recorded common people… https://youtu.be/Fu3cz_4IWlM
Arch Stanton says
They then move on to paying homage to London calling.
Steve Walsh says
Since no-one seems to have mentioned it, I’ll point out that Noel Gallagher nicked Whatever from Neil Innes.
The original is, of course, much better.
Neil Innes was always quick to point out that Mr Gallagher was not at all difficult about it and settled quickly once the issue was brought to his attention. And Innes quoted from Whatever on The Rutles’ second album.
hubert rawlinson says
In my review of How Sweet to be an Idiot I made a reference to this.
“Of course the title track gained additional fame when Oasis borrowed the opening for ‘Whatever’ Neil received a writing credit, in 96 Oasis were due to appear in the Rutles video for ‘Shangri-La’ (which references ‘Whatever’). Unfortunately an in-band disagreement by Oasis (unsurprisingly) put paid to that idea.”
Rigid Digit says
How Sweet To An Idiot borrows from Pachelnels Canon.
Old Johann has still not filed the claim
Moose the Mooche says
These two songs are exactly the same. No, they ARE.
salwarpe says
Roger Waters and Ronnie Hazelhurst – both busy writing popular tunes in 1972, but were either inspired by the other?
https://rave.dj/hwfLJbh8DQV9_Q