Saturday, July 23, 2011

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

The first few seconds of "Spanish Bombs" by the Clash sound very very similar to the first few seconds of Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again." Whether or not this was done on purpose, I have no idea.

Compare. Contrast.




I'd never noticed before. Now the two songs are inseparable in my head. Christmas in July.

Also, the first few seconds of "Sowing Seeds" by The Jesus and Mary Chain sound just like the first few seconds of one of their other songs, "Just Like Honey." Both are from the same album, so maybe this shouldn't be as surprising.

But you will notice that both songs sound similar to the beginning of "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes. This was probably done intentionally as the J&MC were going for that dense atmospheric Spector-esque wall of sound.

Boom. Ba-boom. BAP.





I've got a ton of 'em. I'm sure you do too.

Whether done purposefully as inspiration (as above with these Psychocandy songs), purposefully as an I-hope-nobody-notices rip-off (as with Oasis' "Cigarettes and Alcohol," stolen from T-Rex's "Get It On"), or unintentionally (as with George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," unconsciously zapped from the Chiffons' "He's So Fine"), there are only so many notes and chords and rhythms and noises. Somebody somewhere is going to double up, and it's going to temporarily cause me to wonder what a Tom Petty Christmas song is doing in the middle of a Clash album.

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