Songs that rip off riffs/rythyms from older, obscure bands

[Bobtherocker]

It's gonna happen, there are only a finite number of musical notes.
I certainly hear the Boston Nirvana similarities but the songs are still completely different in almost every way. That's not plagiarism in my view.
There are some musicians that have made a pretty tidy sum from blatant plagiarism.
Andrew Lloyd Webber would be nought but a humble music teacher if he hadnt ripped off almost every great composer to 'write' his musicals.
There are however some bands that manage to cover other artists and still manage to make that cover so unique as to be their own.
I give you...

YouTube - ‪Devo-Satisfaction‬‏

the original

YouTube - ‪The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction‬‏

 

[Solo4114]

Jimi's cover of All Along the Watchtower is leagues better than the original. However, Dylan indirectly was avenged by Stevie Ray Vaughn's cover of Voodoo Chile (Slight Refrain). Also, I personally prefer Stevie's instrumental version of Little Wing over Jimi's original.

 

[chewbaccadoll]

One dump
One Turd
Two tiits
John Deacon

One Heart
One Soul
One Sex Position

YouTube - ‪Queen in Studios One Vision playing around‬‏

I used to have that Queen VHS tape... It's A Kind Of Magic... loved whatching them in the studio.

I love that they left "fried chicken" in the final cut!


On another note, there have been songs thatwere covers that I had no idea were... so MY exposure to them were the covers not the originals. Not that THAT dictates whether I'll like the original better, but it does affect something.

I would agree with most of the cases made that the cover sounds better than the original in this thread so far.

 

[chewbaccadoll]

Also...

Although I'm a huge Beatles fan I will admit that I like "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" by Joe Cocker as well as "With A Little Help From My Friends" as separate entities all together.

That's a good example of what I was trying to say ealier.

Aerosmith's "Come Together" is another I feel the same way about.

Must be a Beatles thing.

 

[howlingwind13]

Alright this is a weird one...I listen to my Ipod at work all day. I found that the "The Kraken" from the Pirates of the caribbean dead man's chest track...is the same as WWE wrestler Triple H's old theme called "My time"...at first my wife called bs...then I told her to take the one ear buds out. And then she agreed 100%.
It's hard to hear the Triple H music being the same, because theres this obnoxious sound that plays over it.

 

[Wes R]

Rappers are the biggest bunch of sample thieves. Not sure how bad it is now that lawyers aim right at them but for a long time all they did was rip folks off. I agree I hate it when kids thing all these cover songs are something new. Even when the original bands get credit it gets lost when someone gets it off an mp3 site and there is no info about it. It's part of why classic rock is suffering now.

 

[0neiros]

2 words....Vanilla Ice.

 

[Jet Beetle]

2 words....Vanilla Ice.

The pathetic thing about him was that he tried to deny that Ice Ice Baby and Under Pressure by Queen/Bowie were anything alike!?!?!!!

Okay, this one is just plain out and out stealing -

Aussy had this great band back in the 80's called "RATTLING SABERS" and they did a song called "All Fired Up" which is super duper hard to find on anything - especially here in the good old USA.
YouTube - ‪"All Fired Up" - Rattling Sabres (1987)‬‏

Pat Benatar released this song not long after they did theirs -
YouTube - ‪Pat Benatar: "All Fired Up" (1988)‬‏

She claimed the two were nothing alike and Rattling Sabers lost all of their money in court when she sued them for suing her -

 

[the_batdemon]

Wow, I can't believe the judge did hear the similarities in the "All Fired Up" case. Here;s a whole site dedicated to the subject: Songs That Sound The Same

 

[Bobtherocker]

Ha! It's true about Linkin Park. All their songs do sound the same, utter dog toffee :lol

 

[Amish Trooper]

I think this band was and is overrated and Ian acts like a db
Oasis rip of John lennon's Imagine for there intro
Oasis
YouTube - ‪Don't Look Back In Anger‬‏
Lennon
YouTube - ‪John Lennon - Imagine‬‏

They also rip off R.E.M. guitar from the One I Love for there song Morning Glory
Oasis
YouTube - ‪Morning Glory‬‏
R.E.M.
YouTube - ‪R.E.M. - The One I Love‬‏

 

[Frank]

I think this band was and is overrated and Ian acts like a db
Oasis rip of John lennon's Imagine for there intro
Oasis
YouTube - ‪Don't Look Back In Anger‬‏
Lennon
YouTube - ‪John Lennon - Imagine‬‏

well, they did that one on purpose to **** off. Guess it worked, huh?

 

[JD]

Metallica and Megadeth have been doing it back and forth for years. This is just one example...


Megadeth - Holy Wars:
YouTube - ‪Megadeth - Holy Wars...The Punishment Due‬‏

Metallica - The Call of Ktulu
And about 53 seconds into the song, the riff played is the same chords as Holy Wars:
YouTube - ‪The Call of Ktulu - Metallica‬‏

These are pretty obscure chords, so this was the example I went with. There are certainly others between these two bands that really don't like each other at all.

-Ss

Mustaine is a songwriter on both songs. I think that comparing The Mechanix and The Four Horsemen are a better comparison.

YouTube - ‪Megadeth- The Mechanix‬‏

YouTube - ‪Metallica - Four Horsemen‬‏

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Stone Roses completely ripped off the melody of the 1970 track Mother Sky by Can. Can't remember the name of the Stone Roses track. Such things are best buried.

The biggest rip off was the The Verve with that 'Bittersweet Symphony' which, once the gorgeous string riff is subtracted, is quickly reduced to a handful of lame chords and sixth form lyrics (the string phrase - the track's only hook - is stolen from Rolling Stones arranger Andrew Loog-Oldham, from his 1965 version of This Could Be the Last Time). Happily, the talentless Verve have been stripped of all royalties to this track which now go to Jagger and Richards, though I myself think they should go to Loog-Oldham.

 

[moffeaton]

Haha, and here I remember that Soup Dragons track that I though totally ripped off The Stone Roses:

YouTube - ‪Soup Dragons - "I'm Free"‬‏
"I'm free to do what I want, any old time"

YouTube - ‪The Stone Roses - Standing Here (audio only)‬‏
"I'm standing here, I really don't think you know that I'm in heaven when you smile"

 

[JD]

Satriani vs Coldplay?

The Bitter End by Sum 41 sounds like about a dozen Metallica songs.

Rainbow Warriors by Bleak House vs. Metallica's Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 

[moffeaton]

This came first:
YouTube - ‪Pixies - Where Is My Mind‬‏

And this seemed to me to be the same thing:
YouTube - ‪The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream - Today‬‏

 

[moffeaton]

Untouchable:
YouTube - ‪the clash-straight to hell‬‏

Less impressive:
YouTube - ‪M.I.A. PAPER PLANES official video‬‏

 

[Celtic007]

Alright this is a weird one...I listen to my Ipod at work all day. I found that the "The Kraken" from the Pirates of the caribbean dead man's chest track...is the same as WWE wrestler Triple H's old theme called "My time"...at first my wife called bs...then I told her to take the one ear buds out. And then she agreed 100%.
It's hard to hear the Triple H music being the same, because theres this obnoxious sound that plays over it.

haha thats funny. I noticed in another Hans Zimmer track, Harvey Two Face, a small piece reminded me a lot of part of the Undertakers theme.

0:10-0:14
YouTube - ‪Classic WWF Undertaker first theme FULL TRUE ORIGINAL‬‏

sounds a little like
4:43-4:50
YouTube - ‪The Dark Knight Soundtrack - Harvey Two-Face‬‏

 

[JD]

This came first:
YouTube - ‪Pixies - Where Is My Mind‬‏

And this seemed to me to be the same thing:
YouTube - ‪The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream - Today‬‏

Great catch, there. Where is My Mind is an all time fave of mine.