Monday, February 27, 2023

Great Bands Steal, Mediocre Bands Borrow

And speakng as we were last week of the fabulous Any Trouble, please enjoy -- from their 1980 debut album (on Stiff, natch) -- my personal favorite track, the ska/pop charner "Second Choice."

And from 1982, dig the equally fab The Floor Models and their equally insinuating live confection "She'll Make Up Her Mind."

As you will notice, those two tracks sound suspiciously similar, which is totally my fault. When our late great 12-string genius Andy Pasternack first presented us with the song, I immediately commandeered the arrangement, knowing that the guys had not yet heard the Any Trouble album and thus would have no idea I was pilfering from it. Later, after the resemblance had been pointed out to them, they looked at me and basically said, oh well, in for a penny, plaigarism-wise.

I liked them for that. I mean hell -- it wasn't like we were gonna be sued a la George Harrison.

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13 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/27/2023 7:17 AM

    How about "Hush" stealing/borrowing/quoting "A Day in the Life?" Or Bruce using the opening hook from "And Then He Kissed Me" in "Racing in the Streets."

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  2. steve simels2/27/2023 9:16 AM

    I’m in favor.😀

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  3. dorethyroad@aol.com2/27/2023 11:16 AM

    Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal ;-)

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  4. steve simels2/27/2023 11:18 AM

    That quote has been attributed to all sorts of people. I heard it originally credited to Saint-Saens.

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  5. Alzo2/27/2023 12:27 PM

    Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism.

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  6. dorethyroad@aol.com2/27/2023 1:38 PM

    TS Elliot - earliest example I could reference

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  7. pete2/27/2023 2:09 PM

    The Velvet Underground's "Here she comes again" borrows pretty liberally from the Rolling Stones arrangement of "Hitchhike."

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  8. Anonymous2/27/2023 2:14 PM

    Yours has more stereo separation.

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  9. Anonymous2/27/2023 2:18 PM

    Beg,Borrow and Steal...Beach Boys, Chuck Berry

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  10. JB2/27/2023 4:44 PM

    Plagiarism, the sincerest form of flattery. I think John Lennon only plagiarized from people he admired:}

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  11. edward2/27/2023 9:12 PM

    And the chorus on Second Choice is remarkably similar to Costello's Two Little Hitlers.

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  12. Steven Augustine2/28/2023 3:36 PM

    Speaking of Elvis: on his latest album releases (Boy Named If and Hey Clockface) E does a brazen steal from Joni Mitchell's Clouds (so close to the original it makes one cringe-giggle), a brilliant and constructibe steal from Lennon's I Dig a Pony and he even vastly improves a whole passage from Radiohead. He MUST be doing it on purpose and teasing (given his reputation) and showing off to great effect. If those albums had come out of a thirty-year old they'd have been hailed as saviors of college rock/ rock-pop.

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  13. Steven Augustine2/28/2023 3:38 PM

    erratum: CONSTRUCTIVE (not "constructibe"... yipes)

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