Incidentally, I steadfastly believe that Lenny Kravitz is the greatest rip-off artist in the history or modern music, and that he ripped off DEVO's "Worried Man" for "Mr. Cab Driver." But you be the judge.
Hmmm.... definitely similar in groove, but I'm not thinking rip-off. Besides, when Let Love Grow came out, Kravitz was too busy ripping off John Lennon to listen to Devo.
I see what you mean, Jay. But a question for you musician types, where do you draw the line between being influenced and ripping off? The delta blues have been looted by rock guitarists like a Baghdad museum, but we call that "influence." What do you think (when you do)?
Great question Lurker, and I am probably the only person on this blog who can address it. (See related link, "Bassists are not musicians").
Influence and larceny ride a very thin line indeed. Of course musicians are inspired by things they hear. I would say that 70% of the songs I have written were an attempty by me to write a Leonard Cohen song or a Pixies song or an REM song. Sometimes the influence shows, sometimes it doesn't. Kurt Cobain famously attributed 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to his attempt to rip-off the Pixies.
All music in a sense, especially blues and folk, is a living thing that is changing by the constant adaptations and re-imaginings it goes through at the hands of artists. After all, there are only 13 notes! (5 for bassists!).
Bob Dylan's last couple of albums are a prime example, especially Modern Times. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/feature.html?id=178703 On 'When the Deal Goes Down', not only has he been 'inspired' in his lyrics, the musical structure, intro lick, and chord changes are an exact note for note replica of an old Bing Crosby standard, albeit with the melody changed fairly substantially. And that's just one example on that album. Still, the argument can be made that he created a new piece out of the old; kinda like creating a collage cut from pre-existing photos or paintings.
I have less patience with the Zeppelins and folks like that who took songs wholesale- music and lyrics- and then credited themselves as writers. True, there was some adaptation done on some songs, but many were just exact replicas played louder and with tighter trousers.
Finally, when you're writing, certain chords just suggest what the next chord should be. You follow that sound that is embedded in your brain and next thing you know you've rewirtten a Tom Petty song (which I did once and had to scrap the whole thing) or a Chiffons song (as George Harrison did and had to pay a lot of money).
Great explication, Dave! This makes me think of a related question, but I'll create a new post to ask it, since we're getting buried beneath the Devo here.
Yeah, what Dave said. On some of the best songs I ever wrote, I was trying to rip-off somebody, but it came out the other end sounding totally unlike my inspiration.
(It helps when you don't tell your songwriting partner who you're ripping.)
5 comments:
Hmmm.... definitely similar in groove, but I'm not thinking rip-off. Besides, when Let Love Grow came out, Kravitz was too busy ripping off John Lennon to listen to Devo.
I see what you mean, Jay. But a question for you musician types, where do you draw the line between being influenced and ripping off? The delta blues have been looted by rock guitarists like a Baghdad museum, but we call that "influence." What do you think (when you do)?
Great question Lurker, and I am probably the only person on this blog who can address it. (See related link, "Bassists are not musicians").
Influence and larceny ride a very thin line indeed. Of course musicians are inspired by things they hear. I would say that 70% of the songs I have written were an attempty by me to write a Leonard Cohen song or a Pixies song or an REM song. Sometimes the influence shows, sometimes it doesn't. Kurt Cobain famously attributed 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to his attempt to rip-off the Pixies.
All music in a sense, especially blues and folk, is a living thing that is changing by the constant adaptations and re-imaginings it goes through at the hands of artists. After all, there are only 13 notes! (5 for bassists!).
Bob Dylan's last couple of albums are a prime example, especially Modern Times. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/feature.html?id=178703
On 'When the Deal Goes Down', not only has he been 'inspired' in his lyrics, the musical structure, intro lick, and chord changes are an exact note for note replica of an old Bing Crosby standard, albeit with the melody changed fairly substantially. And that's just one example on that album. Still, the argument can be made that he created a new piece out of the old; kinda like creating a collage cut from pre-existing photos or paintings.
I have less patience with the Zeppelins and folks like that who took songs wholesale- music and lyrics- and then credited themselves as writers. True, there was some adaptation done on some songs, but many were just exact replicas played louder and with tighter trousers.
Finally, when you're writing, certain chords just suggest what the next chord should be. You follow that sound that is embedded in your brain and next thing you know you've rewirtten a Tom Petty song (which I did once and had to scrap the whole thing) or a Chiffons song (as George Harrison did and had to pay a lot of money).
Great explication, Dave! This makes me think of a related question, but I'll create a new post to ask it, since we're getting buried beneath the Devo here.
Yeah, what Dave said. On some of the best songs I ever wrote, I was trying to rip-off somebody, but it came out the other end sounding totally unlike my inspiration.
(It helps when you don't tell your songwriting partner who you're ripping.)
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