Photos:Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Delta Air Lines)After reading through the thousands of emails from readers just like you, all telling me how much you enjoyed that first 'Experiment In Sound' where we put up three songs that sounded quite a bit like three other ones, I realized that there was a 'sincere hunger' for more items like this. If you enjoyed checking out three soundalikes, you'll really love checking out five soundalikes! Because five is more than three!
I went back into the Y! Music vault and there between the data telling me where everyone who works here lives and the data telling me how much my co-workers are paid and which part of the Yahoo! compound they are legally entitled to when they turn 65, I found the information regarding every song ever recorded. I spent the new few weeks listening to every song in the database and discovered just how much I like The Incredible String Band and 1980s-era Rod Stewart.
In the meantime, these songs came screaming to my door. Thy name might not be ripoff, per se, but the results are uncomfortably familiar.
5) Not sure this has ever been acknowledged by either parties, but one listen to Dave Mason's piano part and visions of Roy Bittan tinkling behind the Boss should become clear. Dave's song leaves out the guy losing his job, getting his girlfriend pregnant, getting married and driving down to a dry river but otherwise it's exact!
4) This one has fascinated me for years. When I first heard "Small Town" on the radio, I had just been listening to Ian Hunter's You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic album and was waiting for Mr. Mellencamp to begin singing the words to "When The Daylight Comes" since that's what comes next! People act like it never happened! See for yourself!
3) Dave Grohl is such good friends with everyone who has ever played rock 'n' roll in any capacity that I wouldn't be surprised to learn he has a "gentlemen's agreement" that says he's allowed to borrow a lick, a chorus, a song from other rockers as long as he agrees to invite them to play with him at a later date. Start playing "Wheels" and see if you don't start singing the Tom Petty song!
2) As a huge fan of the Barbra Streisand album Guilty with Barry Gibb, you know, the white one with them holding each other that was made into a poster…anyway, "Woman In Love" was so relatable to me as a youngster that I knew it by heart, so when Britney popped up with her pop song I was sure it was a co-write! But lo and behold it was not an homage but a call to arms! The Y! Music computer is highly upset!
1) From what I see, "Some Nights" is credited to four guys and none of them are named Paul Simon. Considering how Mr. Simon is known for allegedly borrowing rhythms and other alleged cultures as he sees fit for his own alleged music, it shouldn't bother him much that a young band from New York stumbled upon some melodies and rhythms that can allegedly be heard in his own song, allegedly.