Surfin’ With Sweet Little 16
Greetings, fellow web surfers! And my apologies – it’s been over two weeks since I last posted. Life’s been getting in the way. (And that’s getting annoying…)
But let’s get on with the fun, and revisit the “Stolen Songs” theme that I was doing a couple months ago. For some reason, this one came wandering through my head the other day like some sort of melodic vagrant, mooching for spare change. First, the original moldy oldie – from 1958, Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen:
Chuck Berry is, without doubt, one of the biggest influences ever on rock & roll. Everybody learned to play his songs, covered them in bars and clubs, and his records were in every jukebox. That probably explains why The Beach Boys song, Surfin’ USA, sounds so much like it.
I’m kind of surprised that I never really noticed before. Chuck Berry sure did -in 1963, he apparently accused Brian Wilson of stealing the melody, and Murry Wilson – Brian’s father – seems to have agreed. He signed the rights to Surfin’ USA over to Chuck Berry… including the royalties for the lyrics!
And before I get slammed for ripping off someone else’s blog, I will insist right now that my connection between these two songs was not prompted by the October 15th entry on SoundsJustLike.com. But here’s the link, nevertheless.
Back soon with more goodies, everyone!
Parody – Not A Low Art Form At All
Earlier this week, I spotted a lovely little parody of Pixar’s Luxo Lamp intro – the one you see at the beginning of all the Disney / Pixar movies.
Here’s the original, to refresh your memory:
And here’s the parody. Wonderfully twisted, and perfectly in the spirit of the Hallowe’en season…
Now, here’s a really fun parody with a different approach. Certainly a little more lighthearted:
A bit of looking on YouTube indicates that the Pixar Luxo Lamp intro is a very popular subject of parody and imitation. There are many, many videos done by aspiring CGI animators out there.
Let’s wrap up with a quick “outtake”:
Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll be back soon with a more serious subject to discuss.
Blue Eyed Soul
Apropos of nothing, as they say… this band just sort of popped back up in my memory the other day, and it occurred to me to share their music as a classic example of blue-eyed-soul from the 1970s…
Ladies and gentlemen – the Average White Band!
Not at all bad for a bunch of lads from Scotland! I recall they caused quite the stir at the time, as a few purists considered them to be too Caucasian to properly bring the funk. I disagree. Here, have a slice of cake, and decide for yourself:
Now that I think about it, I probably got to thinking about AWB because my co-worker, Spence, is a member of a Portland funk band called Excellent Gentlemen.
But because I am old, and socially lame, and my car’s broken (again) I have yet to go and see them perform. Yes, I know. I should be horribly shamed. But whatcha gonna do, eh?
Spence, I promise I’ll get out and see the Excellent Gentlemen play. It looks like it will be an amazingly good time. As long as there’s some Guinness for me to drink.
Who You Gonna Rip Off?
Holy Toledo, fellow music fans. Another week has passed, and here I am again with one of my last “borrowed music” blog entries. (I suspect some of you are getting well and truly tired of these…)
Be that as it may, here’s one that was so obvious, I missed it entirely until my housemate reminded me. This case of kleptomelodica was front page news in the ’80s, but nowadays, few people really remember it except when playing “Trivial Pursuit“. On to the setup:
We open with a brisk and zippy little tune by Huey Lewis and The News, entitled I Want A New Drug:
Much controversy at the time over those lyrics. This was, after all, Nancy Reagan’s America, where we were all supposed to “just say no to drugs“. Of course, the whole point was that the song was all about being in love, and that’s the “drug” in question. Good old reactionaries… gotta love ‘em.
Fast forward a few years, and a movie called Ghostbusters is in post production, and the producers call in one Ray Parker Jr. to help score the film. They have put in Huey’s I Want A New Drug as a sort of placeholder for the title theme, and they tell Ray that they want a song that kind of sounds like this.
Oh, boy. Talk about walking into a spinning propeller. Ray Parker did it straight on that time. I almost feel sorry for him, but not really. He’s worth way more than I am.
As for Huey Lewis, he did okay out of it, too. The lawsuit led to developing contacts in the film industry, and our Mr. Lewis made a brief appearance in Back To The Future.
“Hold it, fellas. I’m afraid you’re just too darn loud.“
See you in a few days to a week – it’s been really busy.
21 Guns On The Telephone Line
Hey, kids! Dlock’s back again with another Magical Musical Juxtaposition.
Green Day’s newest album, 21st Century Breakdown, features a little tune called 21 Guns. Something about the chorus seemed a little familiar. Let’s have a listen…
It took me a few weeks here for my wobbly old brains to make the connection. Let’s listen now to a band from my youth (which feels like only yesterday, but for some reason is now decades gone)…
Oh, telephone line, give me some time – I’m living in twilight. Those few bars sound – to my grizzled ears – a lot like the Green Day chorus.
Good old Electric Light Orchestra. They were quite the supergroup, back in the days of leisure suits and disco dancing. I first saw ELO on NBC’s late night Midnight Special concert program, which was a sort of cross between MTV and American Bandstand, and announced by Wolfman Jack. They performed Roll Over Beethoven which, at the time, I thought was the coolest thing ever.
(Jeff Lynne looked totally freaky! Hey, it was 1973, and everyone had as much hair as they could possibly grow.)
Have a fine weekend, everyone. Got to get back to work. Be looking for more examinations of music and pop culture in a few days.
Billy Joel Didn’t Start The Fire
(Yeah, another audio comparo blog post. I’ve got a few of these left. See what happens when I don’t blog for 6 flippin’ months?)
Okay. Here we go. In 1989, Billy Joel released a fast-moving, pop-culture-reference-loaded, rock-rapper titled We Didn’t Start The Fire:
Turned out to be hugely popular, with lots of air play at the time. The “classic” FM stations still play it, almost everywhere you go in the Western World.
However, three years earlier, a much less well-known band called Big Audio Dynamite had recorded a remarkably similar tune called E = MC2:
Hate doing that to you, Billy. Love ya, man. Have lots of your albums, even on vinyl. Big fan, back in the day. Saw Billy Joel in Portland on The Stranger tour. People were dancing in the aisles. I’ve even heard Cold Spring Harbor. But – this sounds like at least an influence, if not a lift.
And the hits just keep on coming. Back in a few days with more cool sounds from Dave’s stacks of wax. If you’ve got some ideas (or complaints), well… there’s that space below, you know.
And Now For Something Completely Macabre
In my last post, I discussed a classic case of a new song borrowing from an old song – My Sweet Lord and He’s So Fine. This time, we’re looking at a different kind of “classic”: Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde vs. Wednesday 13’s Elect Death For President.
Content warning! These two songs are loud, vile, rude, lewd, and will piss off your parents. Play them at your own risk, or just skip this entry if you are not up for bouncing around in a virtual mosh pit. Without further ado, the “original”, from 1990 – Bloodletting:
Mmmm. Vampires. Very timely for all you Twilight fans out there. Now, with a nod to Rod Serling, for your consideration: one Wednesday 13…
(Sorry. Couldn’t find a video on YouTube. Or anywhere! In order to hear this one, you’ll have to click the link above, opening a new window or tab, which takes you to Rhapsody.com, where you can play this uplifting little ditty. Don’t be afraid. It won’t hurt. Much.)
Oh, yeah. Didn’t that feel good? Did you bang your head and throw rock / devil horns with one or both hands? Good for you. You’re in the spirit of things now.
OK, what do you think? Perhaps Mr. 13 was listening to an old Concrete Blonde CD, and twisted it round a bit? Add another chord at the end of that 3-chord progression, and I think you’re there. In fact, you’ll hear it alternating in the bass line of Bloodletting.
Let’s hear your thoughts or suggestions. Bring it. And head back here in a few days for more. I’ve got several songs left, and then we’ll pick up on some other topics of great social and political import once again, after I’ve got this thing out of my system.
A Classic “Borrowed” Melody
This time, let’s take a look at the most well-known case of musical plagiarism, the George Harrison My Sweet Lord debacle. In late 1969, George, noodling around on his guitar, came up with a little tune that was released on his 1970 album, All Things Must Pass:
Turned out that George appears to have – either consciously or unconsciously – taken the melody for My Sweet Lord from a song recorded by The Chiffons in 1962, He’s So Fine:
Do lang, indeed… And so, George was well and truly raked over the coals, and eventually a (rather complex) settlement was reached.
What a mess. George later recorded a song about the experience, called, simply enough, This Song:
(Sorry about that failure to embed the video. The YouTube page opens in a new window. The copyright holders are being sticky about it. Poopheads.)
Self-parody never sounded so good. Monty Python alumnus Eric Idle even makes a brief voice appearance about halfway through, offering the opinion that it “sounds like Sugar Pie Honey Bunch!”
Or perhaps, as Eric also said, it sounds more like Rescue Me. Funny, though. The ladies of the jury look like George.
Please join me here again in a few days to examine another pair of songs, and compare their similarities. If you’ve got any ideas, or wish to dispute my conclusions, feel free to offer your opinion below. I’m looking forward to it!
Sowing The Seeds Of The Walrus
Greetings, fellow music nerds. Allow me to humbly present part two of my side-by-side music comparisons. This time, one of my favorite ’80s bands alongside the most important band of the ’60s.
Tears For Fears released a song called Sowing The Seeds of Love in 1989, and I recently noticed just how much it sounded like The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus…
Now contrast that little melody with the tune by the Fab Four:
Quite a lot of commonality in the whole concept of Sowing the Seeds… the intro, the vocal style, the expression and tempo of the lyrics… For me, the similarities are fairly obvious, but what about you? Feel free to comment below. Take me to task, but be ready to defend your assertions!
Next time, more “dueling ditties” for your entertainment and edification. See you back here in a few days, kids! In the meantime, if you’re not already sick of listening to I Am The Walrus, check out this version, too. I’d never seen this, and I’m old enough to have seen it first time around – had I been paying attention:
I was wondering how they were going to handle the lyrics at 2:32 (you know the one – “been a naughty girl”). Tell me what you see.
(I… bury… Paul…)
