Taking Sides: Hollies' "Long Cool Woman " vs. T. Rex's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)"

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Both with similar features. Both from 1971.

FITE!

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I absolutely love the Hollies track, and I'm sick to death of "Bang a Gong (Get it On)" (not that it's a bad song, but you'd think over the years, some other T.Rex song would get an airring on the radio, no?)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Bang a Gong," but the Hollies song always sounded much more CCR-ish to me.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I love that "Long Cool Woman" sounds like it was recorded in an echoey wind tunnel.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the arpeggiated guitar intro on "Long Cool Woman" all by itself better than any part of "Bang a Gong."

Another T. Rex track might have made it a tougher contest.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

but you'd think over the years, some other T.Rex song would get an airring on the radio, no?

Well, 20th Century Boy did get a lot of exposure via Mitsubishi TV ads a while back...but your point is understood.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Another T. Rex track might have made it a tougher contest

Typically, I'm not necessarily looking for the toughest contest...but if two songs sound similar and come from generally the same time frame, I question it and wonder where everybody else stands on it.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I absolutely love the Hollies track, and I'm sick to death of "Bang a Gong (Get it On)" (not that it's a bad song, but you'd think over the years, some other T.Rex song would get an airring on the radio, no?)

Yes, this.

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 11 July 2005 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The American Idol finalists sorta surreally covered "20th Century Boy" last season.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 11 July 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The American Idol finalists sorta surreally covered "20th Century Boy" last season.

*cringes*

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how Long Cool Woman gets confused by commoners with CCR.

― Jimmy Mod Is Sick of Being The Best At Everything (ModJ), Monday, 11 July 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how Long Cool Woman gets confused by commoners with CCR.

"It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no"

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Monday, 11 July 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Bang a Gong" by a mile!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 11 July 2005 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Long Cool Woman v.s. Green River\

I honestly forget the differences between the two riffs so often that I'd have to hear them back to back to notice the difference.

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 11 July 2005 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the Hollies a lot, but I go with "Bang a Gong."

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I kind of think the Hollies sound a bit silly trying to pretend to be a real rock 'n' roll with riffage and swagger, which is what Long Cool Woman seems to be. Regardlless of how overplayed Bang a Gong is, it's swagger and rock 'n' roll cool-attitude feel more real.

― Justin Farrar (Justin Farrar), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno. The Hollies could've easily beaten the glitter out of Marc Bolan.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

that reverbed-out yelp the hollies dude lets fly after the second chorus or whatever is one of the greatest moments of "the rock and roll era.*"

*as they refer to it on the oldies station

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The Hollies could've easily beaten the glitter out of Marc Bolan.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2196/marcmicky7qg.jpg

How could you punch such a lovely, angelic face?

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

air that i breathe -vs- love is like oxygen

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

http://webpost.net/ma/mandyflyme/hollies.jpg

"Oi, Bolan! COME GET SOME, YOU NANCY BOY!"

― the Hollies (vassifer), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The Hollies are posting, and they don't even realize that they posted a photo of the wrong era Hollies!!! Nash-era Hollies is so much cooler than Long Cool Woman Hollies.

― Justin Farrar (Justin Farrar), Monday, 11 July 2005 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll go with the Hollies on this one. I think the lyrics in "Long Cool Woman" are more more unintelligible than "Louis Louis". Is the long cool woman in a black dress working for the FBI? I don't know, the words kind of sound something like that but I figured it was one of those things better off not to know for sure.

"Bang A Gong" is a good song, but it isn't my favorite T-Rex song, that would be either "Monolith" or "Baby Strange".

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Get It On. Hey 'Monolith'! Yeah! Alright! I love that song.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Why does the man on the far left in the Hollies pic look vaguely like that blonde guy from the O.C.?

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Someday, somehow, I'm gonna have to look up the lyrics for that Hollies song - can't make out more than the occasional word - and if they're really REALLY bad, then I'll change my mind. But until then, I do choose "Long Cool Woman" over the T.Rex. Sure, "Get It On" is a catchy tune no matter who sings it, but it's overplayed and hasn't quite got the choogle of the Hollies song. And in truth, I'd actually prefer to listen to the covers by the Power Station or Witch Queen (whose discofied '79 version was the first I ever heard.)

(Now, if it was "Jewel" or "Jeepster" or "20th Century Boy"...)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Mikheal Rickfors.

Now, he was funny.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

intro "Long Cool Woman" > "Bang a Gong" > rest of "Long Cool Woman"

all you need are RIFFS

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sitting in a nescafe, man." ???

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

eighteen years pass...

Took me most of my life to realize the similarity--I've always thought of "Long Cool Woman" as imitation CCR, but hearing it in the car today, the T. Rex guitars jumped out at me. All the "get it on"s at the end, the intent is pretty clear there, too.

― clemenza, Friday, 11 August 2023 01:52 (three years ago)

I know what a cool woman is but what is a long woman

― calstars, Friday, 11 August 2023 01:54 (three years ago)

Like a femme fatale?--Faye Dunaway in Chinatown?

― clemenza, Friday, 11 August 2023 01:56 (three years ago)

Oops...you said the opposite.

― clemenza, Friday, 11 August 2023 01:57 (three years ago)

A friend was in the Army with a guy who saw someone killed in a bar fight while “Long Cool Woman” played on the jukebox. Even as a third-hand story, the detail forever haunts me. I’ve illustrated the story in my minds eye with a fight I saw in a bar in rural Maine. Just a bloody hand in that fight. There was probably something on the jukebox there too, but not as good a song.

― Terrycoth Baphomet (bendy), Friday, 11 August 2023 02:47 (three years ago)

feel like this is a the other dress thing, as iirc the long cool woman could just as easily be wearing a red dress

― mookieproof, Friday, 11 August 2023 02:53 (three years ago)

Green River

mentioned above, but it's worth noting this is the ur-text for both tunes

― budo jeru, Friday, 11 August 2023 03:45 (three years ago)

Hollies track was definitely influenced by CCR, I doubt the T Rex one was.

― Monthly Python (Tom D.), Friday, 11 August 2023 06:40 (three years ago)

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