The Smiley Smile Message Board

Kinda difficult to describe but by example. we're not talking production as such, but rather riffs, melodies, chord sequences....Plagiarism isn't quite right, although there's an element. Maybe more on the subconscious side of the spectrum?

But like,

My Sweet Lord sounds like He's So Fine, which also bears a resemblance to 'Sweet Talkin' Guy' now I think of it.

The Roller by Beady Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV7cHK_5WsQ&feature=relmfu sounds like Instant Karma by John Lennon

A Little Soul, by Pulp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XMDfMaKDa0&ob=av2e sounds like The Tracks of my Tears by Smokey Robinson

Crazy Lowdown Ways by Ocean Colour Scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NXgDiGYfhQ sounds like rips off All You Need is Love

(As you may have guessed, Britpop alumni are really good for this sort of genre bending originality  ;D)

All Tomorrow's Parties by The Velvet Underground sounds like The Bells of Rhymney by The Byrds

Breathless by Todd Rundgren sounds like Treat Street by Vince Guaraldi

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man by Prince sounds like I Know I'm Not Wrong by Fleetwood Mac

Speaking of the Mac and Tusk, Not That Funny also shares lines/melodies with I Know I'm Not Wrong....

Sad Song by Lou Reed sounds like Nobody Loves You When You're Down & Out by John Lennon (Both of which nick the D-E7-G from Eight Days A Week)

White Riot by The Clash sounds like Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard by Paul Simon

There must be millions of these!

I can only think of one right now:

"Tap Turns On The Water" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqjITYuzdus), a great song by the UK outfit CCS, was released the year after "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 and definitely bears similarities to it, to my mind at least. Am I alone in hearing this?

Prince - 1999 and Phil Collins - Sussudio

Yeah, rock and roll is a borrower's medium. It's about a fair and collective exchange, not about "this is mine, now keep to yours". And indeed, "originality" is such a new concept in the world of art, anyway. But this is a cool idea and here's some that I came up with off the top of my head:

Neil Young, "Borrowed Tune" - Rolling Stones, "Lady Jane" (acknowledged)
Neil Young, "Harvest Moon" - Buffalo Springfield, "Flying On The Ground is Wrong"
Neil Young, "Days That Used to Be" - Bob Dylan (more the Byrds), "My Back Pages"
Neil Young, "Flags of Freedom" - Bob Dylan, "Chimes of Freedom" (acknowledged)
Sam Cooke, "Ain't That Good News" - Ray Charles, "I Got a Woman"
The Kinks, "Mr. Songbird" - Simon & Garfunkel, "The 59th Bridge Street Song"
The Flaming Lips, "Fight Test" - Cat Stevens, "Father and Son"
The Beatles, "Revolution" - Pee Wee Crayton, "Do Unto Others"

Just found a Spotify playlist full of these!

http://bit.ly/gbiKVD

Also, Bumper by Cults http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrRfDUVcayM sounds like Give Him A Great Big Kiss by The Shangri La's.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfieVfAwU0w

Boot Scootin` Boogie by Brooks and Dunn (a god-awful C&W song from the 90s) sounds like it was lifted note for note from The Wanderer.

One of my favorite sound alikes is

Stealers Wheel  "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU"  1974?

With Sheryl Crows    "Santa Monica Blvd"

It was so blatant, I cant believe they got away with it and
people said what a great writer she was,.. She nicked Stealers Wheel
soup to nuts

The music business is so dammed dirty.

The demos of Sun King and Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles sound a lot alike. In fact, Dear Prudence, Julia, Sun King(especially the "demo"), Don't Let Me Down(ditto), and I've Got A Feeling(John's part) all seem to have the same chord structure. There is a song John Lennon did as a solo artist that has pretty much the same guitar riff as I've Got A Feeling. I think it's called "Frida People".

Those early recordings of "Sun King" & "Don't Let Me Down" are basically the same song (Twickenham 1969/01/02). "Julia" and "Dear Prudence" have more in common with "Everybody Had A Hard Year/Time" and "Look At Me" (not to mention "Out The Blue") as they feature his own self-taught style of finger picking but have different chord sequences from each other.

Most of "Freeda People" is I V IV V VI (or actually it ALL is). But "Sun King" & that other first one are basically ii iii Imaj7. Well DLMD goes ii IV Imaj7. I think it's the tempo and feel that make all of these songs sound the same.

I turn on the radio today and every song had the same chord progression as Coldplay's 'The Scientist' or Sum 41's 'Pieces' (granted they weren't the first bands to use this progression) - but since I first heard those two songs i've noticed that every song on the radio uses the same boring progression. 2 minutes of this and I realize why I stopped listening to modern radio pop.

No modern mainstream bands try to find new chords and progressions and melodies - i envy those of you who, back in the 60s, could turn the radio on and hear a brand new fresh Beach Boys song full of insane chord changes and beautiful harmonies.

Exactly why I am listening to Bambu with headphones this very moment. And looking at pictures of ghosts. Believe me, I did accomplish some other much more worthwhile things today, but it hasn't been a completely boring day.

More on topic: how about the Pink Floyd sounding like Beach Boys? (And it's always Rick Wright guilty it seems)

Think about it:

Play "It Would Be So Nice" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" back to back. How about "Summer '68" or "See Saw"?

Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” = The Beatles – “Don’t Let Me Down”

Harvest Moon takes its main riff directly from Neil's own Little Thing Called Love.

We could do an entire thread on Kinks songs that resemble each other, or Creedence/Fogerty tunes. Fogerty's "Swamp River Days" sure sounds like "Green River", and of course there's the infamous "Old Man Down the Road"/"Run Through the Jungle".

Not to defend Sheryl Crow of all people, but her song (actually called "All I Wanna Do", it should be noted) has a sonic resemblance to "Stuck In The Middle With You", but I don't think it's any sort of criminal ripoff of any sort. I don't hear much a melodic similarity, for one, but then that's just me. If it were indeed a ripoff, I'd put her song waaaaay down on the list of popular songs that copped riffs, melodies, etc. from older popular songs.

Oasis's whole first record sounds exactly like The Stone Roses debut  :lol

But seriously,
"Clover over Dover" by blur borrows a tiny guitar riff from "Some Girls are Bigger than Others" by the Smiths
"Its the End of the World as We Know it" by REM kinda uses the "rap" kinda vocal in the verse, the same way Bob Dylan did in "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Green Day's "Warning" bass line is the same as "Picture Book" by the Kinks
"Surfin USA" by the Beach Boys sounds like Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" (hate to bring that up  :p)
fun's "We are Young" has a little bit that sounds like Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
The guitar in the verse of Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home" sounds like the main riff to "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin

Also, agree with this 100%

To be fair, the progression from the Sum 41 song has been used since the 60's.

I-V-VI-IV or I-VI-IV-V

The only thing tho is that is literally all anyone uses anymore. It is very rare to see a song with anything but that progression. It becomes very boring to play along with that on guitar. That's why I hated Nickelback so much in middle school, and ended up listening to the Beach Boys. Can't really say I regret it at all ahah

The Doors "Hello, I Love You" sounds like the Kinks "All Day & All of the Night." 

I've come to the conclusion that George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" wasn't inspired so much by the Chiffon's "He's So Fine," which he was sued for and lost, but the Modern Folk Quartet's (Nilsson/Spector-penned) "This Could Be the Night," especially the chorus.

Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice" and the Beach Boys' newest song, "That's Why God Made the Radio."  :lol

Just one part, really. The main "Asian-inspired" theme from the Sinatra song, and the first part of the choruses on TWGMTR. For example, listen to the intro on "You Only Live Twice," then immediately listen to 0:36-0:41 of TWGMTR.


You Only Live Twice (0:07 (heh) - 0:13 for a good example of the theme)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDitUVMMzE0


TWGMTR (0:36-0:41)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGke6pnT1d0

Who wants to start listing the Led Zeppelin examples?

"Forever" also borrows from "Our Sweet Love"

"If I Didn't Care" (Ink Spots)/"Only You" (Platters/Richard B. Starkey)
"Stewball"/"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

The Kinks did a song named "Rings the Bells" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrFoWZ311zE
that seemed extremely similar to The Rolling Stones "Ruby Tuesday" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a00_tPLcE_g

Can you guys hear the similarities between the two?

The Private Life Of Bill & Sue kind of reminds me of the theme song from Angry Beavers for some reason.

It's the other way round -- the Stones song came out nearly a year after the Kinks one.

wow :O which song do you like more?

Not a big fan of either. The Stones track is better thought-out as a record, but I could happily never hear either again.

are you a fan of the stones?

I think listing songs that nick the Be My Baby beat be it's own thread.

Yeah, I'm not being mean or nothing! I might start it...

Who wants to start an entirely new thread, as it would need it for such a discussion?

That's an understatement! :o I had never heard Treat Street before. Todd simply lifts a big chunk of it (I still LOVE Breathless, though.)

Muse's "Map of the Problematique" and Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence". The intro is clearly a ripoff. but the rest of the song is only eerily familiar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibRMmLlLz64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMfV0sVQ_VU