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Similar Songs - rip offs or inspiration

  • 06-02-2011 3:07pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 841 ✭✭✭JBnaglfar


    I am sure many of you are well aware of accusations of plagiarism, inspiration and plain ripping off of one song by another. The Joe Satriani v Colplay case is a fairly recent example, but not all are high profile, or go to the courts. Do you think that taking riffs from other bands can be a fitting tribute, a nod to acts that inspire, or just plain wrong? Of course, there may be a middle ground where outright copying is wrong, but a little reference to another song is fair game.

    The reason I started this thread is my housemate came across this video and suggested that I check it out.


    Now that song was released in 1976. My immediate thoughts were 'holy sh1t, that riff sounds familiar' :pac: A classic Iron Maiden riff, 2 minutes to midnight in a song released 8 years earlier. Well, the two are fairly close anyway.

    Here's another that I came across a few weeks ago whose main riff is in a very well known song:


    Recognise it?
    Kansas - Carry on my Wayward Son

    So where do you stand on a band using riffs from other bands' works? Thinking about it now, Led Zeppelin did a fair bit of this too. Anyone got any other interesting examples?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,013 ✭✭✭SirLemonhead


    It's all just coincidence. That two minutes to midnight riff is everywhere.

    Power and the glory always sounded a little like it to me

    And people always say this sounds like the wickerman


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 955 ✭✭✭Wooden Jesus


    Theres a rainbow song that sounds a lot like little wing. Cant think of the name of it though. I always think its a cover of little wing anytime i here it then get confused because of the different lyrics
    Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFKw3BhveI


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 841 ✭✭✭JBnaglfar


    It's all just coincidence. That two minutes to midnight riff is everywhere.

    I take your point, there is going to be plenty of coincidentally similar sounding riffs. But there is more to it than that in some cases. Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant in particular have pretty much made a career out of this (slight exaggeration). That kind of annoys me.

    Then there are other cases where a band takes something from another song that is much more complex than a simple riff. Examples of this include the ending section Dream Theater's Goodnight Kiss which is extremely similar to the ending of The Wall by Kansas, or the intro to Benighted by Opeth which, as Mikael Akerfeldt jokes on Lamentations, is 'totally ripped off from a Camel song'. They could not be coincidence. It just seems more like these bands are letting listeners know who their influences are, and I enjoy finding that within their music.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 904 ✭✭✭MetalDog




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,065 ✭✭✭✭Malice


    One that always springs to mind is Zombie by The Cranberries and Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins. Both feature the same Em - C - G - F# chords in the main riff.





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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,853 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    I love when you're at a concert and in the middle of a song the band throws in a little lick from a really well known song, that always gets me smiling, nothing wrong with a tribute :)

    But when you get guys claiming someone else's music is their own and making loads of money off it, that sickens me. Just acknowledge it and give the credit where its due.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,382 ✭✭✭Motley Crue


    A personal favourite of mine is the whole Metallica vs. Excel argument

    Kirk Hammett told MTV in 1991 that he came up with the lick for 'Enter Sandman' one night in his house and called Lars Ulrich. He, or rather the band, maintain it's one of the oldest songs from those sessions. Judging by that logic (and the fact they released an album in 1988) it's safe to assume it would have to be 1989 or later that work began on Enter Sandman.

    If this is the case, it's interesting that a Metallica manager was known to have visited a concert by Thrash band Excel, who in 1989 premièred their song 'Tapping into the Emotional Void' live in San Francisco (released that year on their album 'The Joke's On You' although the album did relatively poorly mainstream wise)



    Dave Mustaine made reference to the fact that the song sounded relatively similar - alongside some other Thrash metal fans. I personally believe you'd have to be deaf not to hear a connection.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,706 ✭✭✭120_Minutes


    well we all know this one:



    and hanger 18 is just ktulu sped up....both riffs by mustaine, and mechanix/four horsemen being the same song, different lyrics.

    and speaking of tom petty, foo fighters last one "wheels" is very like learning to fly....and foos have a song called learn to fly!! eeeep!!

    but you can also argue the same 4 chords are used in many songs..



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 277 ✭✭Whiskeyjack


    Sometimes I like to start playing and singing star star by the frames and switch in the vocals for Today by the smashing pumpkins to troll Frames fans.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71 ✭✭Takemyscars72


    Anyone else think the best of both worlds and living after midnight sound similair?(in the drum intro)


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 841 ✭✭✭JBnaglfar


    nah, the drums in Living after Midnight have an extra bass drum stroke per bar :p


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,556 ✭✭✭Nolanger




  • Closed Accounts Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Metallitroll


    whether its intentional or not as there's only so many musical avenues, some more common than others, and we all better get used to it now as nearly all possible avenues have been ventured down without meandering into meaninglessness, unless some sort of unbridled 'progressive' free jazz is your thing lol .. depends on the scope of exposure an individual has had, a vast musical vista will yield more similarities noticed

    but i hear no greater examples than in adverts as the companies are faceless and as its not their profession are seemingly immune to such accusations, whether slight alterations to a melody but every sound replicated, or sometimes they just rework say a well known rock song as country or bluegrass or something or whatever, else you just get the feeling those artists have no morals. i try to avoid anything that could even potentially end up on TV, to save me the accusational stress


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,327 ✭✭✭AhSureTisGrand


    Two here from Radiohead... Don't care if this belongs in the Alt/Indie forum :pac:

    The Air That I Breathe - The Hollies : Creep (the Hollies were credited as co-writers though)

    Sexy Sadie - The Beatles : Karma Police



    On a side note: The I-V-vi-IV progression (look up Four Chord Song on teh YouTubz) is ridiculously overused. It's in everything from Canon in D to Kids


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,556 ✭✭✭Nolanger




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,434 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    I heard this song (white punks on dope - the tubes)


    the verse really sounded familiar, and wrecked my head for a while!

    it's damn similar to...





  • Here's the Doors, Kiss, Pearl Jam and Entombed all with basically the same solo beginning.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,568 ✭✭✭Blue850




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,258 ✭✭✭Numina


    I always found this kind of curious and funny

    Listen to the rhythm of the lyrics at 1:50



    And now listen to 4:26 in this



    What makes this funny is the association that Manson and Reznor have with each other (for those who don't know, Reznor produced Mansons first album, which this song is from, and Antichrist Superstar). Reznor must have known when he was making Vessel that it sounded similar.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,672 ✭✭✭deman


    I love when you're at a concert and in the middle of a song the band throws in a little lick from a really well known song, that always gets me smiling, nothing wrong with a tribute

    Dunno if it's always a tribute. Just a bit of fun. FNM do this quite a bit...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho6pZqUNtko&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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