What, no Nickelback? That guy wrote one song and just keeps words around.

Well there's only so much you can do with 3 chords. 5 chords, if you're auteurs.

I like how the Kinks sound like the Kinks.

John Fogerty was sued once because his solo material sounded too much like CCR songs that he lost the rights to.

"Glory" by Television and "Disturbance at the Heron House" by R.E.M. really don't sound anything alike. It's no secret that Television was a huge influence on REM, which you can hear in a lot of their early stuff....but nowhere near identical.

OH!! I CAN PLAY, TOO!

Joy Division "No Love Lost" and Blur's "Advert"

What I wish-wish-wish I could do is form a band, start playing Blur's "advert", and then mid-way through bust out into "No Love Lost"

It would be awesome for the 4 people that would get it!

/high school band did something almost similar; started out playing Anthrax's cover of "Got The Time" and then after the bass solo, busted out into The Smiths "Rusholme Ruffians" It went over surprisingly well.

There's an instrumental they play a lot on NPR's All Things Considered that sounds like The Beatles' I Will.

They forgot Ray Parker Jr. ripping off "I Want a New Drug" for "Ghostbusters." And "Raise Your Hands to Rock" by Motley Crue is basically an acoustic version of Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock".

"Money City Maniacs" by Sloan vs. "Gone Shootin" by AC/DC.

I never figured out why no one made the connection when that song was popular a few years ago. Maybe because "Gone Shootin" never really got any airplay. It even sorta rips off some of "Gone Shootin"'s lyrics ("It's the heart of a travelin' band"..."fought so hard in a travelin' band").

I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a straight-up ripoff or just an homage.

/Both great songs

Beatle_Matt: "Glory" by Television and "Disturbance at the Heron House" by R.E.M. really don't sound anything alike. It's no secret that Television was a huge influence on REM, which you can hear in a lot of their early stuff....but nowhere near identical.

they're just variations of harmonizing the g and d strings together in a mixolydian mode. a lot of songs do that.

FlashHarry: they're just variations of harmonizing the g and d strings together in a mixolydian mode.



Mixo-what?

I was expecting the full AC/DC catalog. Not that I have a problem with that.

Wow, the Cat Stevens and Flaming Lips songs are very VERY similar.

There's a Pretenders song that sounds like it was ripped off the Monks.

Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight" is a rip of "Sweet Jane".

PC LOAD LETTER: Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight"

That reminds me! I think there's a Rheostat's song that is the same chord progression as either "Living after Midnight" or "You Got Another Thing Coming"...

What, no comparison to "I Wanna New Drug" by Huey Lewis and "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.?

Well, the most recent ones I recall are Interpol's ripping their entire sound from Joy Division--"Turn on Your Bright Lights" might as well have been a tribute album. Then there's the guitar riff on The Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps" that ended up on some Kelly Clarkson song. And there's currently a song out that has a nearly carbon copy intro to Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out." (just looked it up--Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer"--what a bunch of no talent ass-clowns)

Don't even get me started on Lenny "Don't Need My Own Sound" Kravitz; case in point: the chorus of that "Wonder if I'll Ever See You Again" song is the same chord progression as Prince's Purple Rain. And could "Go My Way" sound more like a Hendrix tune? (well, it could, I suppose, and maybe it wouldn't suck so bad)

Something I'd never heard of before fark:

Pachelbel's canon in D Major (youtube it for 100's of versions)

Pachelbel Rant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

It's worth the cut and paste. (I can click all the buttons on comment submissions that I want, the html isn't working for me)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - City of Angels
sounds to me, a lot like..
Tom Petty - Free Fallin

I can't put my finger on it.. but it does.

Beethoven and Walter Murphy sound a lot alike.

Robin Thicke for that matter.

awfulperson: Well, the most recent ones I recall are Interpol's ripping their entire sound from Joy Division--"Turn on Your Bright Lights" might as well have been a tribute album.

It's true. It really is kind of blatant, too. I don't what this says about me, but I actually prefer Interpol. Not sure why. Ian Curtis is a hell of a singer, but Unknown Pleasures just never really did it for me.

Sunshine of Your Love by Cream (new window)

Eric Clapton-Cocaine (new window)

Both Clapton, both classic!

Last Dance with Mary Jane vs. Dani California. They're the same farking song.

I can't believe nobody has brought up Weird Al Yankovic yet. The guy's been making a carreer ripping off popular songs.

Who was the comedian who did the joke where he starts playing "La Bamba", then switches to playing "Twist and shout" by the beatles, only he uses the exact same guitar riff?

Dr.Knockboots: Red Hot Chili Peppers - City of Angels
sounds to me, a lot like..
Tom Petty - Free Fallin

I can't put my finger on it.. but it does.

Yeah. I guess RHCP have a long history of ripping off Tom Petty.

Agent Orange called and said you should look in to Offspring.

Dick Dale is unavailable for comment though.

Locomotive by Guns N' Roses, (end of) Lord of The Thighs by Aerosmith.

That one about the pixies and nirvana is stupid.

Not only did they come out the same year, but they don't even sound the same, aside from both being grungy in style.

This is why it's good to listen to bands like Lost Horizon and Symphony X, for example. When you can play your instruments and write great material, nobody is capable of stealing your shiat.

Class dismissed.

How about the chords and tempo of "chrome plated suicide" by Flaming Lips sounding like "only women bleed" by Alice Cooper?
i always thought those sounded very similar, chord wise.

/ oh and that song from "yoshimi"... "fight test"? that sounds like "father and son" by Cat Stevens... tho that's already known...

The second and third Boston albums?

Third_Uncle_Eno: How about the chords and tempo of "chrome plated suicide" by Flaming Lips sounding like "only women bleed" by Alice Cooper?
i always thought those sounded very similar, chord wise.

/ oh and that song from "yoshimi"... "fight test"? that sounds like "father and son" by Cat Stevens... tho that's already known...

I have trouble accusing the Flaming Lips of stealing, though, considering how just... bizarre they are.

adamgreeney: What, no Nickelback? That guy wrote one song and just keeps words around.

Anyone have that side-by-side comparison? I forgot how it sounded.

lajimi: Sunshine of Your Love by Cream (new window)
Eric Clapton-Cocaine (new window)
Both Clapton, both classic!

you do know that Clapton didn't write cocaine right?

Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life"?

Snarfangel: The second and third Boston albums?

doesn't count if you rip yourself off

My old band used to do a combo of Green Day's "When I Come Around" and Better Than Ezra's "Good". I later added a Semisonic "Closing Time" outro. (There are several hundred songs that use the same general chord progression.)

awfulperson: Well, the most recent ones I recall are Interpol's ripping their entire sound from Joy Division--"Turn on Your Bright Lights" might as well have been a tribute album.

2002 called! They want their critique back!

/If only they had other albums out... oh wait!

sigdiamond2000: "Money City Maniacs" by Sloan vs. "Gone Shootin" by AC/DC.

I never figured out why no one made the connection when that song was popular a few years ago. Maybe because "Gone Shootin" never really got any airplay. It even sorta rips off some of "Gone Shootin"'s lyrics ("It's the heart of a travelin' band"..."fought so hard in a travelin' band").

I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a straight-up ripoff or just an homage.

/Both great songs

Probably a homage. The same album (Navy Blues) has a song called "Iggy and Angus," so it's not as if the band wasn't aware. A lot of reviewers called that album the "name that riff" album...they lifted a lot from other bands on that one.

uglyredhonda: There are several hundred songs that use the same general chord progression.

Yeah, you can't copyright chord progressions for a good reason.

Oh, one other one, mentioned here a while back: "Eighties" by Killing Joke and "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. There's no way that was an accident, either.

song --> ripped of from

Buff Spingfield Mr. Soul --> Stones Satisfaction

Michael Jackson Billie Jean --> Hall & Oates I Can't go for that (no can do)

and the greatest rip-off of all time:

Santana/Rob Thomas Smooth --> Dio's Rainbow in the Dark

/like a rainbow *raises fist*

Don't even get me started on Lenny "Don't Need My Own Sound" Kravitz; case in point: the chorus of that "Wonder if I'll Ever See You Again" song is the same chord progression as Prince's Purple Rain. And could "Go My Way" sound more like a Hendrix tune? (well, it could, I suppose, and maybe it wouldn't suck so bad)

When I was a teenager I thought Lenny Kravitz was a genius. Turns out his genius is that he steals from a diverse library of tunes so you have to have a pretty deep knowledge of music to realize exactly HOW MUCH he rips off. The most obvious example I can think of at the moment is that the rhythm guitar part from "It Ain't Over Til It's Over" is identical to that of one of Earth, Wind, and Fire's big hits. Also, I was listening to Tower of Power last night and thinking, this sounds like Lenny Kravitz.

The Strokes' "Someday" has the exact same verse chord progression as 4 Non-Blondes "What's up" (A Bm D).

Fun fact:

The choruses of Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name and Belinda Carlisle's Heaven is a Place on Earth are superimposable/interchangable.

Try it!

BNL copied themselves
"If i had a million dollars" = "the old apartment"

never put the two together until the guitarist in a band i was in showed it to me.

oh and "the man i used to be" by K-OS rips off the guitar riff from "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd, which ripped off the tempoa and exact drum beat [or is it just a normal disco beat?] off of "Stayin' Alive" by The BeeGees

oh and one of the riffs in "Echoes" by PF sounds a lot like the main famous riff from "phantom of the opera"..... oh wait... or is it the other way around?

I immediately thought of Meat Puppets' "Lake of Fire" when my girlfriend blasted Rilo Kiley's "Close Call". Sure enough when I went back and listened to it they were nearly identical.

wow that chorus from the pixies song, and the main riff of "smells like teen spirit" are really similar!

nice article, thanks subby!
bonus points for no single window slideshow, and clickable audio samples!

My old band used to do a combo of Green Day's "When I Come Around" and Better Than Ezra's "Good". I later added a Semisonic "Closing Time" outro. (There are several hundred songs that use the same general chord progression.)

"Glycerine" by Bush, except it's two frets down (starts on F instead of G).

I'm Not Your Man by Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers

and

I Love It When You Call Me Names by Joan Armatrading

Virtually every rap song with whatever they sampled to make the loop?