There is a lot of buzz today surrounding Kelly Clarkson's new song Already Gone and its musical similarities to Beyonce's hit Halo. Although she performed Already Gone on Good Morning America this morning, Clarkson is claiming that the song is being released against her will. She seems to be blaming Ryan Tedder, the One Republic frontman who is the songwriter of both songs. It appears that Tedder submitted the same backing track to both artists, accounting for their very strong musical similarities.
Read the New York Magazine story and listen to both songs here.
This case brings to mind the story of how Bon Jovi's breakthrough hit You Give Love a Bad Name began life as If You Were a Woman and I Was a Man (yes, that's really the title) by Bonnie Tyler. In that instance Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and songwriter Desmond Child reworked the song Child had earlier written for Tyler into You Give Love a Bad Name. While not a big U.S. hit, If You Were a Woman and I Was a Man topped the charts in several European countries in early 1986. It preceded You Give Love a Bad Name's release on Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album by six months.
Here's the video for Tyler's song. See if it doesn't sound familiar:
Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce: Too Close for Comfort
Bob Dylan: Treat Her Right (Roy Head Cover)
For no particular reason, here's Bob Dylan covering Roy Head's Treat Her Right. This was taped during a rehearsal for Late Night with David Letterman in March 1984.
Words of wisdom, gentlemen!
And here's Roy Head's original from a Shindig appearance in 1965:
Nelly Furtado, Timbaland, sued for Plagiarism
Nelly Furtado and producer Timbaland are being sued for plagiarism over the song "Do it" on Furtado's 2006 album Loose. Finish composer Janne Suni claims "Do it" is a rip-off of his composition "Acidjazzed Evening." It might prove to be an interesting case because it focuses on the fuzzy line between sampling and good old fashioned copyright infringement.
Here' the You Tube video that's helped highlight the similarities in the songs since it was posted two years ago:
TONIGHT!! - SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT ON RADIO 2
I will join the pride of Manchester, England Pete Mitchell on his BBC Radio 2 show tonight at around 10:30 EDT. Listen live here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/
Dazed and Confused: The Evolution of a Classic
I'd always heard that Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused had been "inspired" by an obscure song written and recorded by Jake Holmes on this 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes, released on Tower Records, a Columbia subsidiary.
Holmes shared a bill with Jimmy Page's Yardbirds at New York City's Village Theater in August, 1967 and that's when Holmes claims Page was first exposed to Dazed and Confused. Finally hearing the Holmes track confirms that the songs share similar melodies, descending bass lines and lyrics. Page took the sole composers credit when Zeppelin released Dazed and Confused on their first album. This was possibly due to the fact that the lyrics have been changed and the arrangement has been embellished and expanded.
A missing link between the Holmes version and Zeppelin's can be heard in this clip of the Yardbirds performing Dazed and Confused from French TV in March, 1968. Note that the lyrics adhere to Holmes version, while the musical elements of what would become Zeppelin's version are already apparent.
It's also interesting to hear the late Yardbirds lead singer Keith Relf s vocals on the song rather than Robert Plant's. Released decades later this version was credited to "Holmes: arr. Yardbirds."
Holmes has had a successful and varied career which has included writing songs for Sinatra's Watertown album (a neglected gem in the Chairman's catalog),and the Four Seasons Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. He's also written numerous ad jingles including "Be all that you can be" for the U.S. Army. Although he wrote a letter to Zeppelin's publisher regarding Dazed and Confused during the 1980s, he said he never received an response. He's never taken any further legal action in the matter.
Revealed: The Nirvana-Boston Connection
This clip from the UK Reading Festival in 1992 reveals that Nirvana were well aware of the similarities between the guitar parts in Smells Like Teen Spirit and Boston's More Than a Feeling. It also shows that Kurt had a sense of humor about himself. Kurt leads the band into Boston's FM radio staple before launching into Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Sounds Like Teen Spirit recounts that the guys in Nirvana thought that the guitar pattern in Smells Like Teen Spirit sounded "so much like Louie Louie or a Boston riff" when Kurt first played it for them. How ironic that the crunching riff that introduced most of the world to Nirvana and changed the course of pop music in 1991 had its roots in Boston's AOR classic.
Dylan: Old Habits Die Hard?
Here's and amusing story showing that what was thought to be a revelatory poem by a teenage Bob Dylan is actually his (slight) revision to the lyrics of Hank Snow's song Little Buddy. It seems Dylan discovered the joys of "creative borrowing" when he was still a teenager. Note that Dylan subsequently covered Snow's (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions. A 1969 outtake of the song appears on the now-deleted Dylan album released in 1973.