sleepy jack

You should lose all respect for Johnny Cash too then, ever heard cocaine blues? Compare to in search of little sadie by Bob Dylan.

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Mama Booze

Maybe I shall, I shall look at it later.

Vanilla

It's not really that bad. RHCP pretty much sound the same in every song now anyway. They're not bad.

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Seltzer

Well that guitar chord progression is so common that you could you can just pick up plenty of songs which have the same one. It doesn't mean that they all copied each other - it's just a common chord progression. Having said that, it's not even the same chord progression anyway.

If you count 1, 2, 3, 4 - play one drum on beats 1, 2 and 4 - then play another drum on beat 3, then play them over each other, it's going to sound like a coherent beat when they're combined. It'll make the drums sound like a normal rhythm where you might have 4 beats in a count of 4. The drums aren't anything like each other, but when you mix them it makes them sound coherent.

The bassline is completely different. Tom Petty's bassline is reflecting the chord progression of the guitar (very common). RHCP's bassline is reflecting the chord progression of the guitar (very common) as well as adding fills in all over the place - it's more complex. The basslines aren't alike.

Lyrically, the entire song is a metaphor for drugs. Mary Jane is slang for marijuana and if you look at the song deeply, it really has nothing to do with girls. Anyway, talking about girls and drugs isn't exactly rare in rock.

When the radio presenters played them together, they 'accidentally' forgot to mention that they altered the tempos to make them play together.

When it comes down to it, yes, the chord progression is similar and they're both funky - and that's about it. There are 100000 other songs in the world which use that chord progression - with the millions of bands around, you're going to get some songs which sound similar.

If Tom Petty really thought it was a rip off, he would have said so - but he denies it. I would be more worried about the Strokes who actually admitted to using a Tom Petty riff (American Girl). I don't see that getting any press - probably because there aren't greedy radio hosts who think they can make a dollar or two by making silly accusations.

I don't blame you for thinking they sound similar. The chord progression is no grounds for a case, but it is probably one of major things people listen for in music. And those radio hosts made the bass and drums sound similar when they were nothing alike.

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Mama Booze

Yes but I didn't even hear it on the radio. I had my iPod on shuffle and Mary Jane came on then Dani California came on, back to back. I noticed they sounded horrifically similiar, let a few people listen and they agreed with me. You all don't have to and that's fine, but in my opinion, OK yes a lot of the chords and such are used in many different songs. But these sound so simmiliar that it could be a rip off. And I believe it is. Tom Petty is still suing I believe (did he drop the charges?)...

_Spinning_

I agree.

I listened to them both yesterday and they are freakishly alike.

Regardless, who cares? Music is music.

It's not like they Stole Petty's riff or anything. It's a coincidence.

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Stone Magnet

Lol.

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Lock to field screen, row the ocean onto sentient ground.
New rites of a Vedic sun to attend the blue horizon.
Prevails flight resplendent, sails the shrine effulgent windship.
Stillness breathes apex supreme - I walk toward the mountain.

Crowns the sovereic rite to freedom.
Shored the origin forms to a ground accede.
Axiom core of the light shrine flight to shining.
Glows serene to attenuate the space and time.

MoonlitSunshine

that would be my problem with them. They aren't making music anymore; they're recycling. I love their older stuff, but anything past Californication I don't really like.

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boo boo

He means that using a similar approach dosen't mean it's a direct ripoff, if you gave two different bands instructions to do a 3 chord riff in the key of of E without going below the 5th fret, then theres a possibly that those two riffs will sound a lot alike, but that dosen't mean they're ripoffs, it's just a common technique that's been used to death, that's all.

It's like how Billie Joe Armstrongs riff in Brain Stew sounds like a ripoff of Chicago's 25 To 6 To 4 riff which in turn sounded like a ripoff of the riff used in Led Zeppelins version of Babe I'm Going To Leave You, which sounds like a variation of the bassline to While My Guitar Gently Wheeps.

Unless it's a really complex riff, if you come up with a riff, chances are, it's been used before, weither you realised it or not, there is no such thing as being completely original.

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Stone Magnet

Yeah, it's just funny how he worded it.

__________________
Lock to field screen, row the ocean onto sentient ground.
New rites of a Vedic sun to attend the blue horizon.
Prevails flight resplendent, sails the shrine effulgent windship.
Stillness breathes apex supreme - I walk toward the mountain.

Crowns the sovereic rite to freedom.
Shored the origin forms to a ground accede.
Axiom core of the light shrine flight to shining.
Glows serene to attenuate the space and time.