There is a long an honourable tradition of songwriters copying each other’s work. Elderly bluesmen had their back catalogues rifled by Elvis, the Stones and Led Zeppelin; James Brown was the unwitting co-author of numerous hip-hop anthems; and Noel Gallagher dared to rip off the Rutles.
But there’s another kind of copying; a wry nod, a few words or notes that pay tribute with a smile. A familiar riff would come out of nowhere, and be gone almost before you’d noticed it. It was so blatant, only the most tight-assed copyright lawyer could complain. For some reason, these were particularly big in the late 1960s/early 1970s, examples being:
The Small Faces, ‘Lazy Sunday‘: comb-and-paper snatch of the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’.
David Bowie, ‘The Laughing Gnome‘: the gnome asks “Have yew got a loight boy?” in emulation of the wonderful Singing Postman, Allen Smethurst.
The Beatles, ‘It’s All Too Much‘, from Yellow Submarine: while Ringo invents the Madchester drum sound 20 years before the fact, George gives us a brief snippet of ‘Sorrow’, by the Merseys.
Roxy Music, ‘Re-make, Re-model‘: Graham Simpson’s bass solo is copped from the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper’.
Any more?
5 Responses to The lost art of the analogue sample
Analogue samples, eh? I thought this was going to be about Beaver & Krause sampling and looping an American Indian voice on their wonderful Legend Days Are Over in 1972.
But it’s not so, er … how about Aztec Camera transposing the entire trumpet Solo from Love’s Maybe the people Would be the Times etc etc etc onto guitar for their song Oblivious.
Blood Sweat And Tears House In the Country briefly introduces, if I remember rightly, a riff from The Doors Love Me Two Times. (Or maybe it’s The Doors’ Riders On the Storm that nicks a riff from House In the Country.)
There’s always been a lot of it about.
I have a great list of songs that are all pretty much Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee riff. Another list of songs that use the Bo Diddley rhythm.
Riffs were always just there in the ether for anyone to adopt and adapt. Deep Purple’s Black Night (1970) riff is note for note Blues Magoos We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet (1966) which, in turn, was apparently nicked from a riff James Burton once recorded.
I’ve also made a neat (well, I think it’s neat) mix of Santo & Johnny’s Sleepwalk into Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross into Mike Oldfield’s Jungle Gardenia where – if you didn’t know the songs – you’d hardly notice any change.
Plagiarism was never a problem until the invention of copyright but, who knows, thanks to the internet copyright may soon be a thing of the past, and musicians can get back to using each other’s melodies as they did in every century before the 20th.
It’s odd, isn’t it, that we worship classical composers who nicked half of their tunes from anonymous folk musicians, but if a modern musician borrows a tune from another musician he’s a thief and he gets sued. Unless, of course, he’s Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan or Andrew Lloyd Wobbler, in which case it’s clearly a hommage or inspiration or something of the sort.
Sorry, I’ve drifted off the topic, but it’s all kind of related isn’t it? Please, somebody say ‘Yes’.
Blue Moon makes a brief appearance in Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love
“was apparently nicked from a riff James Burton once recorded”
It’s actually Ricky Nelson’s masterful arrangement of that old chestnut, Summertime…
Worst ‘analogue sampling’ of recent years: Green Day’s “Warning”, which is almost entirely The Kinks’ “Picture Book”…
Thanks, Joss.
“Ricky Nelson’s masterful arrangement of that old chestnut, Summertime…”. This I have to hear. I can’t figure out in my head how that riff could fit into Summertime.
I probably got mixed up because (and I hope I’m right in saying this) James Burton played the guitar on lots of Ricky Nelson stuff.
Wasn’t it Picasso who said “A bad artist imitates, a good artist steals?” Not sure if he was right, but I can understand the sentiment.
Yeah, old Robert Quine was a massive fan of Burton’s work on Nelson’s records, and he knew a ting or two about fret mangling (as opposed to w*nking!)…
Was fortunate enuff to see Burton and Paul Burlison playing with the reconstituted Rock’n'Roll Trio in NOLA a few years ago, and they were awesome – in fact, they enjoyed it so much that they playyed Train Kept A Rollin’ TWICE!
Been listening to a lotta western swing recently, and it’s amazing just how much those hot ’50s players picked up from the late-’30s guys (and also Lowell Pauling of the 5 Royales)…