One Tune to the Song of Another
Posted by Steerpike on 24 November 2008 - 11:56am.
Ever hear a song and know with cold eyed certainty that you've heard that tune somewhere else? Of course you have. Doesn't it drive you mad?!? Well for literally years, Mercury Rev's 'The Dark is Rising' has done exactly that. But this morning, I finally stumbled across the answer. It's Neil Young's 'Borrowed Tune' from Tonight's the Night. A very apt title I now consider. Thank the Lord for that - now I can sleep nights again.
Anyone else want to share such crazy frustrations? Or perhaps you disagree with the Rev/Young connection?
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...and Neil nicked it from The Rolling Stones
I'm singing this borrowed tune,
I took from The Rolling Stones,
Alone in this empty room,
Too wasted to write my own.
The Stones song being Lady Jane from Aftermath.
Thank you Seamus
...guess i should have googled it!
hmmm
Don't think it's the same time myself, in the same ball park I'll grant you. On Sleeps with Angels Neil nicked the same tune (ok, his own)and backing track for two songs, not sure why
I believe Mercury Rev
have done their fair share of Young covers throughout thier career with an idea for the B-sides from Deserter Songs all being On The Beach covers. I think.
Neil Young was "Helpless"...
...after listening to "Knocking on Heavens Door".
Blimey, he and Dylan even did it a a medley. There's another "version" by Trevor Lucas on Fotheringay's 1st, as I recall.
I like the tale that Brass in Pocket(Pretenders) is Hold your Head up (Argent), speeded up.
Folsom Pinball Blues/Wizard Prison Blues
Slightly different scenario, but you can gain moments of innocent pleasure by singing the words of "Pinball Wizard" to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues"....
Knockin' On Helpless Door
Neil Young recorded his song and released it on Deja Vu in 1970. Dylan's song came three years later.
And, with regard to Sleeps With Angels, there's something far more intricate going on than merely repeated tunes. Treat the middle of the album as the starting point, and then go in both directions at once. You'll find that the album, lyrically and melodically, is like one big audio mirror that meets in the middle.
Played by both sides
Magazine - Shot By Both Sides and The Buzzcocks' Lipstick share a few chords. Presumably Pete Shelley wrote the chorus to the former too.
Airhead
Radiohead 'Creep' last bars are same as Hollies' 'Air That I Breathe' it seems to me.
I've read that Iggy's 'Dum Dum Boys' has a certain resemblance to Talking Heads' 'Drugs' - Iggy was first of course. I can see that.
Coldplay 'Violet Hill' not far removed from Fleetwood Mac 'Tusk'?
Radiohead had to give their royalties to the Hollies
due that similarity.
London Calling
is ...I never felt so much like singing the blues!
The definitive answer
I gotta say it
That's top class. I laughed first time, my wife came to see what the noise was, and we laughed at it together.
Very clever ...
... but he forgot The Farm's - 'Altogether Now'.
And Streets of London too?
I think that would have fitted into the medley seamlessly.
Am I wrong?
Belle and Sebastian's Seymour Stein sounds awful similar to REM's E-Bow The Letter (the one with Patti Smith on backing vocals)