Famous, "stolen" songs???

  • Thread starter Thread starter smirky
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To bring you point home...
Look at Hip Hop (yuk), and rap. They don't bother to come up with any original ideas. Just sample something that was already a hit, use it as a chorus with some short rap verses, and you have a guaranteed hit with very little creative input needed from the new "artist".

Anyway, with there only being 7 major notes (not counting sharps and flats), the possibilities are not exactly endless. I have written a couple songs that I later learned sound kinda like another song. I didn't do it on purpose. Your mind doesn't always let you know that you have subconsciously registered a melody you heard in the background somewhere. I'm pretty sure it happens to everyone from time to time.
 
The guitar riff in Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden is a direct ripoff of "Heaven on Their Minds" from the musical Jesus Chris Superstar.

Both songs are awesome though.
 
after some effort you can learn to use all 12 notes! i like some oldy moldy bossa nova that uses odd notes and they can be useful.

you have to know where they go.

then you got intervals. you can go up or down a half step or a whole third or fifth or whatever in your melodic progression.

then you got note durations that make the rhythm of the melody. eighth notes whole notes rests etc.

once you mix all that up theres plenty of possibilities. you can program computers to make all the different variations.

the problem is they are not all catchy or pleasant sounding or useful.

most of the best ones have already been taken i think if youre talking about a series of 5 or 6 notes.

if theyre programming computers to match archived melodies with new songs then youre going to get people modifying existing melodies to pass the computer test.

it wont be long before it gets tough to make up new stuff. it will all be already taken except for weirder and weirder sounding note progressions.
 
How 'bout David Bowie/Queen vs. Rob Van Winkle (a.k.a. Vanilla Ice), for the bass line for "Ice, Ice Baby" being the same as "Under Pressure?" The later wasn't even in my bass playin' repretoire, until news of that lawsuit hit. Of course they had to go and play soundbites of both songs, and I thought..."Ya know, I think I can play that." So I picked up my bass, turned on the amp, and "surprise, surprise," I could.

And since I didn't know of/remember this thread, till it just came up to the top again, I hope MadAudio's still a member here. As to MadAudio's mention of "Wild Thing" sounding like "Louis, Louis," there's actually one note difference between the two songs. I think "Louis, Louis" has one more note than "Wild Thing." I learned this at the IUPUI campus, while jamming on my bass with some fellow students, one day (the Fender AmpCan is a bit heavy, for situations like this, however). While playing "Louis, Louis," one guy asks if I can play "Wild Thing." I thought about it, and admitted to never having tried to pick that one out. He says "just lose one note," but didn't tell me which one. So I noodle with it, for about 1 bar, found the note to drop, and I'm playing "Wild Thing," just like that.

As I've progressed, I've found that "Wild Thing" is like "Louis, Louis," is like "Time Has Come Today" is like Angel of the Morning" is like "Summer Days"...etc, and so forth. I've told plenty of people, when discussing this "same notes in the bass line" bit...it's not that the songs have the same notes, it's HOW you play those same notes that makes the difference.

I wonder how many songs have the basic (simple?) 12-bar blues bass line in 'em?
 
...speaking of Flaming Lips...

glynb said:
I'm sure it happens. I'm convinced that sections of songs i write are parts of other people's songs, half remembered, but not consciously ripping off someone else's work - that i wouldn't do.

I'm sure when George harrison wrote My Sweet Lord he wasn't consciously copying Spector's 'He's So Fine', but copy it he did, I'm sure Harrison must have heard the song before.

Similarly a track by The Flaming Lips was a copy of a cat Stevens song recently. These are not deliberate acts in my view, the artists concerned wouldn't be so foolish as to deliberately copy, it's a subconscious process where people think they've come up with something original when in fact they're remebering something they heard before.
Click to expand...



Flaming Lips "She Don't Use Jelly" and Wings "Let 'em In" the verse of one is the chorus of the other, it would make a cool mashup I think...


Flaming Lips:
"I know a girl who thinks of ghosts
Shell make ya breakfast
Shell make ya toast
She dont use butter
She dont use cheese
She dont use jelly
Or any of these"

same tune as

Wings:
"Sister Suzie, Brother John,
Martin Luther, Phil And Don,
Brother Michael, Auntie Gin,
Open The Door And Let 'Em In."
 
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Some digital footprints deserve to be washed away by the tide - go back a month - even 3 - but 2005?

It died back then for a reason. I'm not the 'forum police', more the 'forum peleeeeease . . .' give us a break.

I am all for finding stuff that resonates for you- but what is this about? Still I will give you rep for first comment finding the oldest post ever.
 
dani california = last dance with mary jane.

exactly the same. similar melody to.
 
How about U2's "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and John Mayers, "Waiting On The World To Change."

Yes, I know that the 1-6m-4-1 - 5-6m-4-1 chord progression is pretty common in bluesy Rock music and in the case of John Mayer's song in D Major, But the similarities are too profound IMO.

Also, IMO, Bono's attempt to posthumously slap some sense into Michael Hutchence is a better effort than Mayers’ monotonous whining.
 
As a child, did anybody ever notice that "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the "Alphabet Song (Now I Know My ABC's)" are the same melody? I'm pretty sure it's a Mozart melody.
 
LimoWreck said:
The guitar riff in Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden is a direct ripoff of "Heaven on Their Minds" from the musical Jesus Chris Superstar.

Both songs are awesome though.
Click to expand...

That might have been intentional.
 
Whatmysay said:
Some digital footprints deserve to be washed away by the tide - go back a month - even 3 - but 2005?

It died back then for a reason. I'm not the 'forum police', more the 'forum peleeeeease . . .' give us a break.

I am all for finding stuff that resonates for you- but what is this about? Still I will give you rep for first comment finding the oldest post ever.
Click to expand...

haha, there was the same reaction when some CPRd this thread in 2004 from 2000. 4 year cycle?

Anyway

Big one no one has posted yet:

Led Zepplin "who lotta love" and "Bring it on home" both borrowed heavily from Willie Dixon tracks (he sued and has credits on "who lotta love" in later pressings)
 
sonicpsyops said:
As a child, did anybody ever notice that "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the "Alphabet Song (Now I Know My ABC's)" are the same melody? I'm pretty sure it's a Mozart melody.
Click to expand...

I didnt no that for so long then I played out twinkle twinkle by ear and started singing now I no my abcs and was shocked they were the same and I never knew it.
 
sooo many song are so close, in harmony chord progression melody


thanks for listening and caring
 
Figured it was time to bring this back from the dead (every 3-4 years,LOL)

But after reading all 4 pages can't believe no one mentioned this "note for note" melody for melody.

This "Refugee" thought it would be "Petty" to sue but wanted everyone to know he was not too happy about being completely ripped of.

The song, "Refugee" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The Thief, none other than Bryan Adams and his song or shall I say Tom's song was redone to the words of "Run to you".

You Can't Live like a Refugee
I'm gonna Run to you,

check it out the same time and the same chord progressions. He could have taken several million out of Adams bank account fer sure,LOL
 
About 23 years ago,I was in Holland and picked up this album by some obscure band called the L&C band. I think they were Dutch or Belgian. The title track "Optimistic man" is such a rip of "Hotel California" ! So much so that I actually thought it was their take on it (a clever cover) until the song got to the chorus, where it then departs any similarity. It's a shameless rip. Or maybe that should be shameful.
The irony is that the Eagles' "Hotel California" is itself heavilly lifted from Jethro Tull's "We used to know".
I've noticed lots of similar lifts in songs. Larry Norman's "I've got to learn to live without you" starts exactly like "Let it be" by the Beatles. Just when you think he'll sing 'When I find myself in times of trouble......" he sings something else. To his credit the song is nothing like "Let it be", just the intro.
The first time I heard Led Zeppelin's "Communication breakdown", I thought that Kiss had ripped some of "Makin' love" from it. And an absolute pair of honkers ~ Deep Purples' classic "Child in time" is a merciless rip of It's a beautiful day's "Bombay calling". Every time I hear "Bombay", I have to laugh. Purple themselves got hugely ripped by Black Sabbath in the song "Under the sun". The middle section is basically their "Flight of the rat". Even Sabbath disguising it with a key change leap halfway through doesn't alter the fact ! It's ironic, given that Tony Iommi was, in my opinion, the Grandmeister general of riffology.....
Bob Dylan goes one stage further by writing moreorless the same song three times, "Subterranean homesick blues", "Maggie's farm" and "Tombstone blues". Why not deflect accusations of stealing the blues by stealing from yourself ?! ? and all on the same album !
Not to be outdone, Larry Norman's "Reader's digest" is set to the "Subterranean" pattern. The lyrics are just as good too, with lines like
"The Rolling Stones are millionaires
The flower children, pallbearers
Beatles said 'all you need is love' and then they broke up !" and "I've been listening to Paul's records/I think he really is dead !"
And the Salvation army band Good News on the song "Long lost cause" do the most outrageous swipe of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" riff. It's actually quite a good song and quite rocking for christian rock circa 1972, but the rip is merciless. Mercilessly funny !
Oh there are so many......someone could write a book about it.....or start a thread !
Or resurrect one....
 
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