riffs you never realised were borrowed from something else until years later

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it just cannot be coincidence that the synth line from Capella's 'U Got 2 Know' is exactly the same as the guitar riff from Siouxie & The Banshees 'Happy House' - this is one of the most bizarre and curious connections i think i've ever stumbled across

got any more?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The first time I listened to the title track from "Are You Experienced" I though "Hmmmm.. Haven't I heard this one before?". It took me some time to realise that the guitar solo on Right Said Fred's "I'm To Sexy" was based completely on that Hendrix track.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, Geir, that riff is from "Third Stone From the Sun", not "Are You Experienced?".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

One day when I was listening to some semi-legit MC5 btleg I was shocked into shame to discover that the riff on 'Revolution' by Spacemen 3 is totally ripped off from the 5's 'Black to Comm' track.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Anybody else noticed how the verse of Kula Shaker's "Into The Deep" was almost entirly based on "Bye Bye Badman" by The Stone Roses. I bought "K" before "Stone Roses" and it certainly robbed me of an illusion because "Into The Deep" used to be my favourite song on "K".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I am usually pretty good at placing the riffs but I had never heard the original song from "nuthin but a G thang" until my friend mixed the original>Dre

― Ben Silver (Ben Silver), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Seek ye....

Moments of Musical Mimicry

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 7 April 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

It was years before I realized that the guitar riff in "19th Nervous Breakdown" was taken from "Diddley Diddley Daddy."

― Burr (Burr), Monday, 7 April 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

shit, just saw this thread after i wrote my question about the strangulers' golden brown reminding me of some jazz track i'd heard. any ideas ?

― kevin brady (groeuvre), Monday, 7 April 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The Velvet's "There She Goes Again" stealing the riff from Marvin Gaye's "Hitchhike."
I've heard that riff in many different songs, actually.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 7 April 2003 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

It wasn't until over a decade later that I realized the key riff to "Blister In The Sun" was lifted from the Lambrettas "Cortina Mk. IV." It made me hate the Violent Femmes even more than I did when I was in high school.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 7 April 2003 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Shit, I just d/l'ed Happy House...fucking creepy!

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 7 April 2003 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

do you think Mr Capella was really up on his english new wave punk or what siegbran?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 7 April 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, U Got 2 Know was produced by Mauro Picotto who is somewhere in his late 30s and if I recall his bio, used to DJ in goth and synthpop clubs in the mid 80s...

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 7 April 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Dazed andConfused was "Im confused"by theYardbirds ( this I knew ) BUT! it was peviously lifted from Jack Holmes as noted in the current issue of Shindig!

http://www.shindig-magazine.com/news.html

― SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Monday, 7 April 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Man that factoid was noted way back in Hammer of the Gods!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 7 April 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, U Got 2 Know was produced by Mauro Picotto who is somewhere in his late 30s and if I recall his bio, used to DJ in goth and synthpop clubs in the mid 80s...

makes perfect sense, although i did not realise it was Picotto who was the same as Capella...thought it was another guy who ran that big Italian label - Media wasn't it?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 7 April 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

...Mauro Picotto who is somewhere in his late 30s and if I recall his bio, used to DJ in goth and synthpop clubs in the mid 80s...

Remember when people used to omit this part of their bios?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 7 April 2003 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Many of these "riffs" that are being mentioned are simply a series of 3 or 4 note melodies that have been used in literally hundreds of songs. One thing I'm certain of : Ghostbusters = I want a new drug

― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Monday, 7 April 2003 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

anecdote...

years after it had first come out, we had a huge argument on-air at the dumpy college station about whether disco 2000 was copping the intro riff from lost in the supermarket; it dragged on for almost an hour, as we tried to milk as much sour humor from the concept: we never actually played the tracks [except, near the end, for like half-second snippets, and then finally, we played them simultaneously right speaker / left speaker], we were constantly imitating the riffs and getting them wrong, trying to explain how the guy in disco 2000 WAS lost in the supermarket, or just thinking about that song, and conflating the lyrics and video for common people, and then fake plastic trees video, it was like the longest hour of my life. we had several call-ins who were very angry, who spouted off on air, and we would try to get them to "do one of the riffs, and don't tell us which, and we will try to guess, and we won't be able to guess: cos they're the same, and you at home can try to guess too" we did play a few songs that hour from the playlist, but we stopped them all halfway in order to say oh! wait! i just got it! listen: duh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuuh-nuh.

then, at the beginning of the next hour, after about 10 minutes of normalcy, i quickly barrelled through an explanation of how the fall's gut of the quantifier was actually based on funkytown, then we played it, and sang "won't you take me to / a funkytown!" on top of the stick in mud! parts of the song.

i guess we were trying to do a spinal tap or monty python like parody, but of what? knowitall college djs? or just people obsessed with songs that sound alike?

my favorite copped riff is moby octopad = european son, it just sounds so right, like an spiny avocado that's been cut open to the softness.

― mitch, Tuesday, 8 April 2003 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, a riff is just a riff, it's not a composition, there's no copyright. think of how few GREAT FUCKING tunes there would be if there was a rule about how the first person to play a riff was the only one who could do it.
basically (as Nick Tosches put in his intro to recentish ed. of Unsung), theft is an essential element of rock/roll.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

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