"Girl Don't Tell Me"

[Ed Roach]

How the heck did you tell what it was they were playing?
Sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I know, and I meant to mention I found it unlistenable when I originally posted; heck, I couldn't even make it too far through the recorded version!  However, I'm not the guilty party who found The Vivian Girls;  I'm just a guy with a weakness for tattooed R&R girls - that's the only reason I added the live version.

[bgas]

How the heck did you tell what it was they were playing?
Sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I know, and I meant to mention I found it unlistenable when I originally posted; heck, I couldn't even make it too far through the recorded version!  However, I'm not the guilty party who found The Vivian Girls;  I'm just a guy with a weakness for tattooed R&R girls - that's the only reason I added the live version.

Oh, in that case, heck yeah! Let's turn off the volume and watch them move

[runnersdialzero]

On listening to Girl Don't Tell Me, my initial impression is that the rhythm and general melody is remarkably similar to Heroes and Villians. Has anybody else noticed this?

It's basically its own melody but parts are based off of Ticket to Ride. The main parts of the instrumental track (mostly guitar licks and certain key drumming sections) are based off it Ticket also. I read somewhere that Brian said he wanted to try his hand at a track similar to how the Beatles were writing at the time and he wrote Girl Don't Tell Me.

It's pretty easy to tell: "Girl don't tell me you'll ri-i-ight" and "She's got a ticket to ri-i-ide" are the same multiple times through each song.

I'll never believe this is as blatant as people say it is. A passing resemblance, at best.

[GLarson432]

I seem to recall, correctly I think/hope, a thread of this same topic about four years ago.  Probably on this board but that's not certain.

At the time session sheets on file showed the two song to have been recorded almost simultaneously over a ten (or so) day period in April, 1964.  I think "Ticket To Ride" was a few days earlier then 'GDTM'.  With the connections Brian had through the record company it's very possible he got a listen, and was inspired by, 'TTR'.  However it seems to me that it's possible  they were written independent of each other, albeit close together in time, and they just had a lot of similiarties.

I really think BW heard an early take of "TTR" and in a short period of time came up with "GDTM".  Too similar and what not.  But I just don't necessarily believe that there's no chance of individual writes of this song.

My guess: heard and copied "TTR", 75%.  Independenat writing at the same time, 25% for GDTM.

Will we ever know for sure?  I don't care anymore because it was 45 years ago!

[Jay]

I like the Vivian Girls cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNaIJzDel1o

Hmmm...  Interesting; here they are playing it live, (even though YouTube sez it's Surf's Up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGL4oEIk9Ds&feature=related

Reminds me of a Shonen Knife BB cover I once heard that literally had me running from the room with my hands over my ears.

I just searched through 13 YouTube pages looking for a beach boys song covered by Shonen Knife. I thought I had heard bad music before. I was wrong. They take the phrase "this is a giant piece of sh*t" to a new level. I have you to thank. So... um, thank you? 

[Andrew G. Doe]

43 days apart:

"Ticket To Ride" - 2/15/65, released as UK singe A side 4/9/65, US single A side 4/19/65

"Girl Don't Tell Me" - 4/30/65

The notion that someone was getting early takes shipped from Abbey Road (where remember, the tape cabinet was locked between sessions) to Western (or the tower) is somewhat... fanciful. Brian could have written it after hearing the American single, which he doubtless would have heard before release.

[LetHimRun]

On listening to Girl Don't Tell Me, my initial impression is that the rhythm and general melody is remarkably similar to Heroes and Villians. Has anybody else noticed this?

It's basically its own melody but parts are based off of Ticket to Ride. The main parts of the instrumental track (mostly guitar licks and certain key drumming sections) are based off it Ticket also. I read somewhere that Brian said he wanted to try his hand at a track similar to how the Beatles were writing at the time and he wrote Girl Don't Tell Me.

It's pretty easy to tell: "Girl don't tell me you'll ri-i-ight" and "She's got a ticket to ri-i-ide" are the same multiple times through each song.

I'll never believe this is as blatant as people say it is. A passing resemblance, at best.

As I said, only parts of it are based off of Ticket to Ride. If you've listened to both songs seriously, you can tell the similarities at certain spots notably with the guitar and drums. There's nothing wrong with it. I think it really came out great. Andrew G. also gives a good scenario and didn't deny influence.