| John S Stuart 06.11.2007 20:08 |
link After a few listens, I think I am convinced - but is it really, or is it just what I want to hear? |
| Boy Thomas Raker 06.11.2007 20:40 |
I offer a $1,000,000 reward to the brave soul who posts this question to Jen, and another $1,000,000 if she lets it get through to Brian. Maybe if you phrase it "Dear Dr. May, I just love the WWWRY musical to death, it's the greatest thing ever (along with orbs and comets, LOL!!!) and think Paul Rodgers is a great choice for Freddie's favourite singer. Did you rip off Pooh's theme for Millionaire Waltz?", you stand a chance a getting a reply. Love the person who posted "Another similarity I noticed recently is that Brian's solo in "Radio Ga Ga" starts off the same as the one in Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn"..." Hard to rip off something when you pre-date it by 17 or 18 years. BTW, similarities in the Pooh stuff, perhaps influenced Brian, but not a rip off IMHO. |
| FriedChicken 06.11.2007 22:03 |
Would't be surprised as Freddie also recited some other music in his songs. For example the Brahms lullaby in Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, and the intro of Hard life |
| steven 35638 07.11.2007 00:18 |
The waltz melody used in both songs is more traditional than anything else. Technically, both songs are rip offs (if you want to call it that). |
| Benn 07.11.2007 06:50 |
It's incredibly hard for ANY artist not to show their influences in their own work. Pete Townshend OPENLY created the riff for "I Can't Explain" off the back of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me". As long as it's new and fresh, I don't see why anyone should have a problem. What I do have a problem with is the ENDLESS knocking-out of cover versions that to nothing to develop or enhance the original version...... |
| Sebastian 07.11.2007 07:06 |
Impressive. I should compile a list of plagiarisms ;) So far let's see what we've got: - 'Bites the Dust' bass-riff (apparently) - 'Waltz' solo - 'Innuendo' intro compared to Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?' - 'Bijou' compared to Jeff Beck's 'Where Were You' - 'My Fairy King' lyrics (thanks to John for pointing that out) - 'A Hard Life' intro - 'Loverboy' doing the lullaby It seems that nobody can escape from the 'My Sweet Lord' syndrome. |
| kween-iloveit 07.11.2007 07:42 |
i noticed the other day that the whole of "Love of my life" is a total rip of the Thundercats theme tune. |
| Raf 07.11.2007 09:17 |
Boy Thomas Raker wrote: I offer a $1,000,000 reward to the brave soul who posts this question to Jen, and another $1,000,000 if she lets it get through to Brian. Maybe if you phrase it "Dear Dr. May, I just love the WWWRY musical to death, it's the greatest thing ever (along with orbs and comets, LOL!!!) and think Paul Rodgers is a great choice for Freddie's favourite singer. Did you rip off Pooh's theme for Millionaire Waltz?", you stand a chance a getting a reply. Love the person who posted "Another similarity I noticed recently is that Brian's solo in "Radio Ga Ga" starts off the same as the one in Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn"..." Hard to rip off something when you pre-date it by 17 or 18 years. BTW, similarities in the Pooh stuff, perhaps influenced Brian, but not a rip off IMHO.I'm actually gonna write the e-mail, even though you won't pay me. ;) I just won't use the words you did. :P *Edit* Done. |
| The Real Wizard 07.11.2007 10:26 |
Sebastian wrote: Impressive. I should compile a list of plagiarisms ;) So far let's see what we've got: - 'Bites the Dust' bass-riff (apparently) - 'Waltz' solo - 'Innuendo' intro compared to Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?' - 'Bijou' compared to Jeff Beck's 'Where Were You' - 'My Fairy King' lyrics (thanks to John for pointing that out) - 'A Hard Life' intro - 'Loverboy' doing the lullaby It seems that nobody can escape from the 'My Sweet Lord' syndrome.Yeah... damn them for having influences. |
| Mr Mercury 07.11.2007 10:27 |
Boy Thomas Raker wrote: Love the person who posted "Another similarity I noticed recently is that Brian's solo in "Radio Ga Ga" starts off the same as the one in Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn"..." Hard to rip off something when you pre-date it by 17 or 18 years.Her version of Torn was a cover actually. Cant remember who had it out before her for the life of me though I dont doubt it came after Radio Ga Ga. |
| Sebastian 07.11.2007 10:30 |
"Being influenced by" is completely different to "copying". 'Bo Rhap' having structural similarities with 'A Day in the Life' (and lyrical as well, in the "head/dead" - "bed/head" rhymes) is an influence. 'Innuendo' intro having exactly the same pattern as the one in 'Am I Evil' is a rip-off. |
| Boy Thomas Raker 07.11.2007 11:14 |
Torn was released by Ednaswap on their first album in 1995, 11 years after the release of Radio Ga Ga. |
| Jan78 07.11.2007 11:25 |
Sebastian, without Metallica covering the song on the Creeping Death single and playing it live a lot of times since then, only a fraction of people would probably ever have heard the song at all. I seriously doubt that the four or five notes of Am I Evil are a straight rip-off. We're talking 1990. Do you think any Queen member would have checked out Metallica's back catalogue this far only because they just had a Grammy with Stone Cold Crazy? I think the Innuendo-Am I Evil connection is a bit far fetched. So you could even say, U2 ripped off Metallica by calling a song "One". Best wishes |
| Jan78 07.11.2007 11:45 |
...speaking of which. Would anyone go as far as calling "Action This Day" on the Milton Keynes DVD (second half of the song) a rip-off of Nutbush City Limits? |
| inmydefence 07.11.2007 12:03 |
The melody of the chorus from "We are the champions" is basically Ner Ner N-Ner Ner!... you know, the ner ner you make as a kid when you have something that you little bro, sis or friend wants, and you want to wind them up about it?... Ner Ner N-Ner Ner!! that could be called a rip off... but its genius.. because no one can ever right a more fitting "I'VE WON AND YOU'VE LOST!!!!" song. |
| Micrówave 07.11.2007 12:35 |
... and Huey Lewis gets paid everytime Ghostbusters is played or shown. Ray Parker Jr. doesn't. What's the point? If we couldn't copy, plagerize, or steal, we wouldn't have rap music. And that would just be a shame. |
| Tim June 07.11.2007 13:05 |
Action This Day" on the Milton Keynes DVD - Nutbush City Limits ? Interesting though. The main melody works in a similiar way. I think a lot of Queens early studio tricks were inspired (deeply) by the Beatles. |
| Tim June 07.11.2007 13:09 |
Sorry, I mean a interesting idea... no "though". |
| Jan78 07.11.2007 13:17 |
Tim, I noticed it especially towards the end of the song, where Freddie improvises "action, action...action give it to me" or something. But then maybe that's just a sign of my nerdyness and old age. :-)) |
| Danne 07.11.2007 13:53 |
Sebastian wrote: Impressive. I should compile a list of plagiarisms ;) So far let's see what we've got: - 'Bites the Dust' bass-riff (apparently) - 'Waltz' solo - 'Innuendo' intro compared to Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?' - 'Bijou' compared to Jeff Beck's 'Where Were You' - 'My Fairy King' lyrics (thanks to John for pointing that out) - 'A Hard Life' intro - 'Loverboy' doing the lullaby It seems that nobody can escape from the 'My Sweet Lord' syndrome.Neither 'Loverboy' nor 'It's a Hard Life' could be called rip-offs (I haven't heard the others, so I can't comment), they're no more ripoffs than Brian's arrangement of 'The Wedding March' on Flash Gordon (although that one is more obvious), but concious homages or quotations, in a manner which is more reminicent of Bach (who borrowed quite a bit, not the least from himself :) ) than Vanilla Ice. |
| RoHo 07.11.2007 19:51 |
Well, this is the first time I've heard about the Innuendo - Am I evil similarity, so I decided to check it out. I have the Metallica version from the Garage Inc. album and I think they are very very similar!! Obviously the Metallica song is a cover, so I have searched wikipedia for the title of the song "Am I evil", which directed me to the page of the band Diamond Head. There I found the information that they were influenced on this track by an orchestral music written by a man called Gustav Holst. It is called The planets (ohh Dr. May would be delighted :D)and this particular song is influenced by the part called "Mars". There are also many musicians who were influenced by this piece of music, for instance the intro to White room by Cream, and Jimmy Page used segments of it in Dazed and confused (according to this page) Go check yourself: link So after reading this, and knowing the fact that Queen always liked classical music (It's a hard life etc.) I think the Innuendo intro also could be influenced by this music! |
| Jan78 07.11.2007 23:54 |
Now now...that's a different thing. Dr May knows and likes Holst's The Planets. He's been blogging about it here and there, can't find links tho. So from that point of view the connection can be there. I couldn't imagine Queen checking out Diamond Head, but Holst or even Zeppelin is definitely a possibility. Interesting... |
| Griffin 10.11.2007 08:50 |
Be the Pooh! cue up Innuendo, crank it loud, pour champagne...? |
| JoxerTheDeityPirate 15.11.2007 07:18 |
surprised no ones mentioned the old theme tune to Battlestar Galactica with dirk benedict and Was It All Worth It in this plagarism discussion,maybe its just me that hears the same tune,oh well... |
| John S Stuart 16.11.2007 16:59 |
Sebastian wrote: Impressive. I should compile a list of plagiarisms ;) So far let's see what we've got: - 'Bites the Dust' bass-riff (apparently) - 'Waltz' solo - 'Innuendo' intro compared to Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?' - 'Bijou' compared to Jeff Beck's 'Where Were You' - 'My Fairy King' lyrics (thanks to John for pointing that out) - 'A Hard Life' intro - 'Loverboy' doing the lullaby It seems that nobody can escape from the 'My Sweet Lord' syndrome.I think you need to add that "Get Down, Make Love" is a direct reference/allusion to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". Both structurally and philosophically, they are the same. There is another Zeppelin allusion in "Tie Your Mother Down" when Freddie add-libs ala Robert Plant "Gimme every inch of your love", (another line directly taken from "Whole Lotta Love". I forget the exact Cross Led Zeppelin rip-off, but off the top of my head is it "On Top Of The World Ma"? |
| YourValentine 17.11.2007 06:26 |
"I forget the exact Cross Led Zeppelin rip-off, but off the top of my head is it "On Top Of The World Ma"?" Yes, exactly - "Whole Lotta Love" There are more similarities although I would not call them rip off: Invisible Man - Ghost Busters Spread Your Wings - Rocky Racoon Off Topic - has anyone ever compared "Knocking On Heaven's Door" to "Helpless" by Neil Young? |