Now, don’t get me wrong—I
understand that in rock, everything old is new again. Just
listen to Panic! At the Disco bite The Beatles circa ’66 or ’67
on their latest release, or Seether rehash lost Nirvana tracks
that, um… Nirvana never played. (Why, even our very own
webmaster, Robert Berry, has been plagiarized by a British
tabloid!) It’s all part of the great melting pot of creativity,
right? Well, yes and no. Loving homages aside, there are those
instances where artists go a little too far in, ahem, paying
tribute to their influences. Often it’s an ironic case of a
song becoming too successful, to the point where it draws undue
attention, and questions, to itself. And that’s where we come
in! Here, then, are some of the more famous cases of rock ‘n’
roll rip-offs from the past 50 years…
1.) The Beach Boys—“Surfin’ U.S.A.”
(1963)
This is a sweet one if you’re like me and could never stomach
these guys much. Yeah, yeah, I know, Brian Wilson’s a genius
(if you say so…), but he’s also been estranged from his own
band for most of its career. Plus, his major contribution seems
to have been those cloying castrati harmonies—It sure as hell
wasn’t the musical backing, as evidenced by several of their
early hits such as this one. One of the most extreme examples
on our list, “Surfin’ U.S.A.” lifted its guitar riffs and chord
progressions practically note for note from Chuck Berry, his
“Sweet Little Sixteen” to be exact. It even nicked his famous,
should-be-trademarked “Johnny B. Goode” intro. In a touching
display of fatherly devotion, Brian Wilson’s dad, the band’s
manager at the time, handed the copyright over to Berry, who is
now listed as co-composer on this track…a dubious distinction
in his career akin to his classic “My Ding-a-Ling”.
2.) Led Zeppelin—“Whole Lotta Love”,
etc. (1970)
This one, on the other hand, hurts. As high as the mighty Zep
soars, even it’s not above accusations of cultural
appropriation. Like many of their late ‘60s British brethren,
Jimmy Page and company were avowed blues freaks—unlike
contemporaries such as Cream and the Jeff Beck Group, however,
Led Zep did not always properly acknowledge the bluesmen whose
lyrics and song structures they used as jumping-off points for
their jams. Led Zeppelin II contained no less than three such
disputed items: Mega-hit “Whole Lotta Love” bore a striking
resemblance to Willie Dixon’s “You Need Love”; “The Lemon Song”
was based on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor”; and on the album’s
closer, “Bring It on Home”, the acoustic intro is basically an
uncredited cover of the Sonny Boy Williamson song of the same
name. Dixon, er, “Wolf” (a.k.a. Chester Burnett”), and
Williamson’s music publisher all brought action against Zep,
resulting in out-of-court settlements and co-author credits for
the blues icons…a fact you’d think would please an aficionado
like Page. But he still insists no wrongdoing, maintaining in
an interview with Guitar World: “Most of the comparisons rest
on the lyrics. Robert was supposed to change the lyrics, and he
didn't always do that—which is what brought on most of the
grief. They couldn't get us on the guitar parts of the music,
but they nailed us on the lyrics.” Sorry, Jimmy, but these
particular blues you’re singing just don’t sound too
convincing.
3.) George Harrison—“My Sweet Lord”
(1971)
Poor George. He always seemed like the nicest, mellowest
Beatle, yet he had to endure so many hardships: His Concert for
Bangladesh was criticized for mismanaging much of the funds it
raised; his later solo work was often critically savaged; he
was even knifed by a crazed stalker! And as if that weren’t
enough, he had to endure a plagiarism suit over his biggest
hit, “My Sweet Lord”. True, the chords, melody, even the vocal
line, are all nearly identical to the Chiffon’s “He’s So Fine”,
a girl-group classic from 1963. But George was such a damned
nice guy that no one could find evidence he ripped off the
original song’s composers intentionally—instead, he was found
guilty of subconscious plagiarism! The theory was that since
“He’s So Fine” was a hit when George was still a teenager, he’d
subconsciously soaked it up at a formative age, remembering it
(without, like, remembering it) when he went to compose “My
Sweet Lord”. Subconscious or not, he still had to pay the
original song’s copyright holders over half a million bucks, as
well as all future royalties on the disputed tune. Krishna and
Rama may be great, but I guess karma’s still a bitch. Oh,
well…George’s sublime slide guitar intro to “My Sweet
Lord”—which is all his, thank you—is still one of my favorite
moments in any ‘70s song, and no one can take that away from
him, damnit.
4.) Bob Marley—“Buffalo Soldier”
Okay, so this particular controversy is a bit of a non-starter:
No lawsuits or settlements have yet resulted from it…But it’s
just so damned weird that I had to throw it in here. It seems
musos with too much time on their hands have, almost from the
first appearance of Marley’s instant classic, noticed a bizarre
resemblance between its bridge and the main theme of—wait for
it—The Banana Splits’ theme song! Now, before all you dreads
blow this off like secondhand smoke, just sing along with I and
I: “Wo-yo-yo, yo-yo-yo-yo, Wo-yo-yo, yo-yo-yo-yo!” Pretty
mystical, huh? Yeah, well now try this one, suckers:
“Tra-la-la, la-la-la-la, tra-la-la, la-la-la-la!” Hmm…Kinda
makes you wonder, doesn’t it? The Marley estate can rest easy,
though; The Splits have apparently decided not to pursue legal
action, although rumor has it that Fleegle has retained an
attorney.
5.) Ray Parker, Jr.—“Ghostbusters
Theme” (1984)
This is an interesting one—the overall arrangement of Parker’s
annoyingly ubiquitous hit is clearly, uh, inspired by Huey
Lewis’ “I Want a New Drug”, but the main riffs of both tracks
are only similar. Parker had two strikes against him, though:
First, the song he was borrowing from was a recent one, on the
charts not even a year prior; second, in an interesting twist,
the Ghostbusters producers had actually approached Lewis first
about writing and performing the movie’s theme. Okay, everyone,
repeat after me: Uh…huh. That was pretty much Huey Lewis’
reaction, too, although at least he and Parker, Jr. were able
to settle out of court for an undisclosed sum, allowing both of
them to get back to the pressing business of headlining Indian
casinos and peddling records on late night TV. The only loser,
in fact, was anyone unfortunate enough to actually hear either
song.
6.) Vanilla Ice—“Ice Ice Baby” (1990)
Yeah, yeah, I know—This one’s almost too easy. But it can’t be
ignored, not only because the rip-off from “Under Pressure” is
so obvious, but also because Ice was stupid enough to try to
deny it. Remember his infamous “Theirs goes, ‘Ding ding ding
dingy ding-ding'; ours goes, 'DING ding ding ding dingy
ding-ding’ ” defense? Extra note aside, ‘Nilla had to settle
out of court with Bowie and Queen, who thereafter got
songwriting credit…probably the only way the poor guy could get
mentioned in the same breath with such musical giants. Back to
collaborating with the Ninja Turtles, I guess…Go ninja, go
ninja, go!
7.) Michael Bolton—“Love Is a
Wonderful Thing” (1991)
Contrary to first impressions, this case isn’t quite the
“gotcha” we’d all like it to be. Soon after the rock ‘n’ roll
Fabio’s “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” made the charts in ’91, The
Isley Brothers sued him, claiming he’d stolen elements of their
own song of the same name from 1966. But while the irony of
black R ‘n’ B icons getting back at everyone’s favorite
“no-talent ass clown” after years of him butchering their back
catalogues is undeniable, the legal ruling itself is quite
complex. The overall structure and vocal lines of both tracks
are similar but hardly exact; plus, The Isley Bros’ song is
actually pretty obscure, making it less likely that white
suburban boy Bolton would have heard it growing up. But Bolton
is also an avowed Isley fan, and was caught on tape—while
recording his song’s demo, no less—wondering aloud whether the
track sounded like an old R ‘n’ B standard, and if so, which
one. (Note to Michael: Follow up on those gut instincts!)
Similar to George Harrison, Bolton was finally found guilty of
“subconscious plagiarism” and had to give a third of the
single’s royalties, as well as those of its accompanying album,
to the Isleys…a total of approximately five million dollars.
Since then he’s appealed, fired his lawyer, and even tried to
purchase The Isley Brothers’ back catalogue, but all to no
avail. It’s hard to feel too much sympathy for the guy,
however, as he had the gall to claim there was “a bit of racial
inference” in the original ruling. That’s right, folks: The
jerk-off who made a career out of white-ifying soul and R ‘n’ B
classics had the nerve to cry reverse racism when it suited
him. Jeez, maybe he should get O.J.’s lawyer for his next
appeal.
8.) Negativland—“U2” (1991)
My personal favorite on this list, not only because I used to
love these guys back in the day (They were one of the few ‘90s
American alt-rock acts not in thrall to Kurt or Eddie.), but
also because they’re the only artists on here
intentionally—That’s right, their material was all about
elaborate public pranks to take the piss out of pompous media
figures and challenge established notions of intellectual
property and the whole concept of “truth” in the Information
Age. For this, their most celebrated sonic collage, they
incorporated snippets of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m
Looking For”, as well as several hilarious “America’s Top 40”
outtakes, featuring profane Casey Kasem rants, that the group
lifted from well-circulated bootlegs. During one memorable
moment, Kasem flubs a U2 introduction (“That’s right—the letter
‘U’…and the numeral ‘2’.”) and explodes, “This is bulls***!
Nobody cares! These guys are from England, and who gives a
s***?!” At another point, Kasem rails at his engineer about
having to come out of a “f***ing uptempo record” and into a
dedication for a dead dog named…Snuggles. Wow, truth really is
stranger than fiction. U2’s record company sued Negativland’s
label, SST, for unauthorized sampling, causing SST to drop the
band from its roster. The band members responded by ambushing
an obviously embarrassed The Edge in an interview for cyberpunk
mag Mondo 2000 (whose publisher just happened to be friends
with Negativland), and by writing a book detailing their legal
travails, entitled…The Letter U and the Numeral 2. Though the
original single was pulled due to the legal controversy,
“bootlegs” are still widely available—Hell, you can buy ‘em on
Amazon! Which just goes to show that not only did The Edge and
company turn out to be pretty cool, after all, but also that
Negativland are still out there somewhere, fighting the good
fight. Now, if only we could do something about Casey Kasem…
9.) The Verve—“Bittersweet Symphony”
(1997)
Out of everyone on this list, I think Richard Ashcroft and his
band The Verve got screwed the most. Unlike any of our other
defendants, Ashcroft actually got permission from the Stones’
music publisher to use a sample from an old, out-of-print
orchestral rendition of the Stones’ “The Last Time”. Ashcroft
and company built a whole song out of the sampled snippet, and
the result ended up an international hit. Enter Jagger and
Richards, who now claimed that The Verve had overstepped the
bounds of the original agreement by looping the sample and
using it as their entire backing track. Ashcroft countered that
the Glimmer Twins were only reneging on the deal now that
“Bittersweet Symphony” was such a massive—and lucrative—hit.
Unfortunately, the courts sided with Goliath on this one,
awarding Jagger and Richards composer credit and 100% of the
song’s royalties. I’m surprised the duo wasn’t waiting in the
wings at Live 8 to shake down Ashcroft as he came offstage from
performing the song with Coldplay. The beleagured Ashcroft did,
however, score points with one of the better verbal bitch-slaps
of recent years when he described “Bittersweet Symphony” as
“the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years."
Keith Richards may have the last word on this one, though, as
it’s hard to argue with his rather pragmatic statement, "If The
Verve can write a better song, they can keep the money.” Ah,
Keef—Have another fix, mate.
10.) Red Hot Chili Peppers—“Dani
California” (2006)
Those of us who think the Chili Peppers are one of the most
overrated bands of the past 20 years were heartened by this
one—Radio station WGMD in Delaware compared the recent Peppers
hit to Tom Petty’s perennial crowd-pleaser “Mary Jane’s Last
Dance” and found, in the words of the station’s producer Jared
Morris, “The chord progression, the melody, the tempo, the key,
the lyrical theme…They’re identical.” Well, the chords and
melody aren’t exactly identical, but damned close—and the rest?
On the money. The bad news for Peppers haters is that judging
from recent interviews, Tom Petty apparently won’t sue. While
he has taken swipes at former next-big-things The Strokes for
pinching from “American Girl” for “Last Nite”, Petty has also
stated, quite graciously, that “I don't believe in lawsuits
much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this
country without people fighting over pop songs." And in today’s
litigation-crazed society, maybe that’s just the right note on
which to end this list.
ADDENDUM: It doesn’t really fall
under the category of “rock”, but still, this may be the
ultimate example of plagiarism litigation. A contemporary
classical composer named Mike Batt included a conceptual piece
called "A One Minute Silence" on a recent album. The track
consists of…you guessed it, a minute of silence. He was then
threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of the famed avant
garde composer John Cage, whose groundbreaking 1952 work “4’
33” ” consisted of…that’s right, four-and-a-half minutes of
silence. Batt settled out of court, paying a six-figure sum to
Cage’s estate for borrowing his…well, lack of music. That’s
right he paid for the idea of…nothing. Talk about intellectual
property! Batty Mr. Batts’ priceless comment on the whole
controversy: "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been
able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four
minutes and 33 seconds." ‘Nuff said.
NOTE: Lest I be accused of
plagiarism, I gathered research material for this list from the
following sources: AOL Music, Blender Magazine, CNN.com, Gelf
Magazine, Guitar World Magazine, SamplingLaw.com, and the UCLA
Law School Copyright Infringement Project. (*Whew!*)
