How did Oasis so blantantly rip-off "Bang a Gong (Get it On) with "Cigarettes and Alcohol", and get away with it?

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I've never seen this mentioned before, but Oasis steals the EXACT riff from that T-Rex song; I mean if I didn't know better I would say that it was an unoriginal version of a cover song.

― Christian, Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link

They asked Prince?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:24 (nineteen years ago) link

john lennon "imagine" = "don't look back in anger " piano intro
cure -"?" = " wonderwall " - piano chords at end .
the cure song is from disentrigration - my memory's gone - i think it's "prayers for rain".
at least they credited gary glitter for using "good to be back" in hello" and he popele who wrote stevie wonder's"uptight" in "step out"

― goel nallagher, Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Put this one in the Britpop file next to "how did Pulp get away with stealing the riff from 'Gloria' on 'Disco 2000'"?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:29 (nineteen years ago) link

i think you mean prince used a similar riff in "peaches".
p.s. mayte has a fine butt in hot pants in the video.

― goel nallagher, Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:30 (nineteen years ago) link

how did richard x so blatantly rip off "fade into you" and get away with it?

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:31 (nineteen years ago) link

does noel listen to the cure?

― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:34 (nineteen years ago) link

No Peaches. Cream.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 2 June 2005 02:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I've heard the T Rex accusation plenty of times but other than stylistically it doesn't sound like any specific Bolan song.

Gallagher though is a notorious magpie as Stevie Wonder and Neil Innes quickly spotted to his cost.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 2 June 2005 04:53 (nineteen years ago) link

No Peaches. Cream.
-- Naive Teen Idol (matthew.weine...), June 2nd, 2005.
i admit "cream" is closer but "peaches" is close too
and pulp did rip off gloria

has someone from Australia noticed the similarities between indecent obsession's " come back to me " and bee gees "words".
everyone knows the bee gees song so i'm surprised no-one at Melodian/ Mushroom record told the band.

― mayte's gold hotpants, Thursday, 2 June 2005 05:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Billy, what happened with Wonder and Innes? He didn't cop "Cheese and Onions," did he?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 2 June 2005 06:29 (nineteen years ago) link

During the Morning Glory recording sessions, Noel recorded 'Step Out' for the album...until it became clear that it had a remarkable similarity to Stevie Wonder's 'Uptight' and was shuffled off to the 'Don't Look Back In Anger' single (I remember reading that Wonder, rightfully, wanted some serious money, perhaps royalties, so the song was put on a single where it wouldn't sell quite so much).

The Innes rip-off was 'Whatever', which, if memory serves, is actually credited Gallagher/Innes/Bowie (as it's also the first in a long line of Oasis songs to steal from 'All The Young Dudes'), and might be a reason why the song has only been available on the original single...

― carson dial (carson dial), Thursday, 2 June 2005 07:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Rickey, it wasn't cheese and onions it was the aptly titled how sweet to be an idiot. Gallagher claimed never to have heard the song before then.

How sweet to be an Idiot
As harmless as a cloud
Too small to hide the sun
Almost poking fun
At the warm but insecure untidy crowd.

How sweet to be an idiot
And dip my brain in joy
Children laughing at my back
With no fear of attack
As much retaliation as a toy
How sweet to be an idiot.
How sweet...

I tiptoe down the street
Smile at everyone I meet.

But suddenly a scream
Smashes through my dream
Fee fi fo fum
I smell the blood of an asylum
Hey you, you're such a pedant
You got as much brain as a dead ant
As much inagination as a caravan site!

But I still love you, still love you, oooh
How swee-ee-eet to be an idiot
How sweet
How sweeeeet
How sweeeeeeeet......

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 2 June 2005 07:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Stealing a riff is better than a melody. That being said, "Cigarettes And Alcohol" is not particularly good, maybe because it sounds too much like T.Rex and not enough like The Beatles.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 07:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 2 June 2005 08:18 (nineteen years ago) link

I've never seen this mentioned before

welcome to earth!

― N_Rq, Thursday, 2 June 2005 08:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Put this one in the Britpop file next to "how did Pulp get away with stealing the riff from 'Gloria' on 'Disco 2000'"?

The answer is simply that copyright law protects lyrics and melodies, not arrangements.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 08:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Hell, these things happen all the time. People are always paying up, and as long as the original songwriter gets their share they don't necessarily get a credit. Elastica paid up 50% of 'Waking Up' to the Stranglers only weeks before an independent 'musicologist' reckoned the grizzly old fuckers (Stranglers, not Elastica) were worth only 30%. But it was that or no release at all. Radiohead paid up for 'Creep', Belle and Sebasian for 'I'm A Cuckoo', Edwyn Collins for 'Rip It Up' (not sure about that one)
You may pat yrself on the back for having spotted a resemblance, but some sharp eared lawyer has already beaten you to it.

― snotty moore, Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:23 (nineteen years ago) link

anyone else think noel might just have a really bad memory and not recall the songs hes ripping off?

― ppp, Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:45 (nineteen years ago) link

"Edwyn Collins for 'Rip It Up' (not sure about that one)"

Completely different scenario: Edwyn / Orange Juice knowingly, deliberately and unashamedly lifted two complete lines of lyric; as well as the trademark signature lead guitar line; from a Buzzcocks song and immediately acknowledged this clear act of homage in the following line of the song:

"You know me I’m acting dumb-dumb
You know the scene it’s very humdrum
And my favourite song’s entitled 'Boredom'".

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:53 (nineteen years ago) link

So then, who was the one who originally wrote the "Put your hands up in the air and wave'em like you just don't care" line then? :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 2 June 2005 11:05 (nineteen years ago) link

they got away with t because noone cares. legal matter aside (you cannot control a chord progression, only a melody), oasis made a career out of image and a host of damn fine songs, mostof which sound at least a bit like something else. and since most people don't really care about who wrote what etc, the songs were eaten up because they were familiar, yet edgy and somehow fresh.

i mean, sure the beatles wrote bunches of different chords and melodies, but people still buy those records, above all, because they're familiar--classic. so's bang a gong...

― b b, Thursday, 2 June 2005 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I always thought The Hollies' Long Cool Woman was the ultimate Bang a Gong ripoff musically.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:20 (nineteen years ago) link

How did Oasis so blantantly rip-off "Bang a Gong (Get it On) with "Cigarettes and Alcohol", and get away with it?

Erm, probably because Bolan ripped it off from someone else first.

I'm not sure it matters, really. I mean Blur's rip-off of "Boys Keep Swinging" was even more blatant if possible, and no-one's ever called them on it.

Radiohead paid up for 'Creep'

I've never heard that. What was Creep a rip-off of?

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:35 (nineteen years ago) link

I was wondering about "Creep", too. I'm guessing "The Air That I Breathe" by the Hollies, but I've never heard anything about payment.

― brianiac (briania), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Blur's rip-off of "Boys Keep Swinging"

What song was that?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 2 June 2005 17:32 (nineteen years ago) link

M.O.R? I think... It is very similar.

― KeefW (kmw), Thursday, 2 June 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link

M.O.R., yes. The vocal melody/chords/arrangement are almost identical to Bowie's up until the chorus, which was presumably just different enough to prevent Bowiecorp suing.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more litigious it gets. E.g., The chorus of "Boys" goes "Boys keep swinging/Boys always work it out", whereas M.O.R has: "You, me, we, we'll work it out!"

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link

I mean Blur's rip-off of "Boys Keep Swinging" was even more blatant if possible, and no-one's ever called them on it.

Bowie and Brian Eno have a co-songwriting credit for "MOR" on the single and probably every other release of that song (other than the album).

So yeah, Blur got called on it.

― bob knob, Thursday, 2 June 2005 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Oasis never denied taking it from Bolan, however... they even admitted to it in "Getting High", their first bio, I believe. Noel was a huge fan of T-Rex and really praised them more than just about any other artists besides the beatles.

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Friday, 3 June 2005 04:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Belle & Sebatsian also increased Cliff Richard's bank balance thanks to Wrapped Up In Books being similar to In The Country.

And there's a song of theirs, which esacpes me now, which is a direct ripoff of a Lee Hazlewood song.

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 3 June 2005 05:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Dog on Wheels?

― KeefW (kmw), Friday, 3 June 2005 07:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Didn't know about the Blur one being credited... Interesting though, because the original artists don't seem to get a huge percentage on the whole. I mean, I'd have given the Stranglers 90% of the royalties to "Waking Up", but 50% sounds like a good deal to me, considering that all that's different are the words. You could make a good deal of cash out of an LP of loosely disguised cover versions by the looks of things.

― KeefW (kmw), Friday, 3 June 2005 07:52 (nineteen years ago) link

It would seem Marc's interests aren't being looked after that well by his publisher.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 3 June 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link

xp 1- KeefW- Words are fifty per cent of publishing. Hence cases like the NIrvana split, when Cobain took 66.666% of credit at someone else's suggestion (I can't think who) after success struck. Previously they split three ways. That's a lot of cash to lose. Blur went something like 50/25/12.5/12.5 though Albarn could have claimed the lot (but he'd never have made it without Coxy)
xp 2- 'Creep' is 'The Air That I Breathe'. Don't know if the Hollies wrote it, but apparently the writers did collect from Radiohead (and why not. It has the same melody)
xp 3- Stewart. I was kidding about 'Rip It Up'. But Shelley/Devoto's publisher would be well within their rights to collect. Admitting theft doesn't mean it isn't theft. Orange Juice almost certainly sold more copies and certainly received more radio play.

― snotty moore, Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, "Dog on Wheels", ridiculously ripped from Summer Wine by Lee'n'Nancy.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 5 June 2005 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Oasis rip off the La's on the new record, but if Noel actually managed to get them to re-form wouldn't that make it more of a tribute?

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Sunday, 5 June 2005 12:29 (nineteen years ago) link

john lennon "imagine" = "don't look back in anger " piano intro

"all the young dudes" = the rest of that song!

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 5 June 2005 14:39 (nineteen years ago) link

But the La's have reformed. Does this mean Noel's work is done?

― snotty moore, Sunday, 5 June 2005 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Definitely Maybe meant Noel's work was done.

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Sunday, 5 June 2005 20:19 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=867

― hott the moople, Monday, 6 June 2005 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link

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