It occurred to me that Springsteen quite often writes about nothing. What I mean is, the concept of nothing; nowhere, being alone. A quick trawl through some of his song titles: Nothing Man, When You're Alone, My Best Was Never Good Enough, the woefully unreleased The Losing Kind, Independence Day, Ain't Got You, and of course Radio Nowhere (which isn't a million miles from his own 57 Channels (And Nothin' On)). Then there's the nihilistic vision of Dancing In the Dark; which, like Dion's The Wanderer, is an upbeat pop song smuggling a dark and cynical scenario: "I get up in the evening/And I ain't got nothing to say/I come home in the morning/I go to bed feeling the same way/I ain't nothin' but tired/Man I'm just tired and bored with myself..." and so it goes on. Come to think of it, most of the Born In The USA album pulls a similar trick: No Surrender, Glory Days, Bobby Jean, My Hometown, and of course the title track are all pretty nihilistic songs dressed up, to varying degrees, as upbeat pop songs. Glory Days states pretty clearly that life is never as much fun as it was when we were younger, and there's no sign of that changing. Bobby Jean dwells on the singer's best friend, the guy he grew up with and shared everything with - then he moved on. Left without even saying goodbye. My Hometown is another tale of a man stuck in a rut: he and his family talk about getting out, but never do. They stay with mediocrity because it's familiar. No Surrender - those great opening lines that tell us that the only stuff in life worth learning is from rock 'n' roll. They all explore the nothingness of life, packaged within an infectious poppy exterior. As Dion put it, "I roam from town to town/I go through life without a care/And I'm as happy as a clown/With my two fists of iron, but I'm going nowhere". Another song that sounds like fun, but it's about a man who, by his own admission, is on a promiscuous downward spiral: a man who will keep moving just to avoid confronting the fact that his life is meaningless. Sorry, I seem to have wandered a bit. Anyway, I look forward to hearing one or two of these songs on Bob Dylan's upcoming 'Nothing' themed radio show.

I once saw Big Country do a superb acoustic version of 'Reaper'. They were supporting Page & Plant in Dublin (on the Egyptian Orchestra Extravaganza Tour or whatever it was called) and at the end of their first song their drummer exited sharply stage right never to return. A a dodgy curry apparently. The rest of the band looked as surprised as the audience but proceeded to give an impromptu acoustic set of mostly covers. Pretty good it was too. The only time I've ever seen a set cut quite that short.

........but did that stop Fantasy Records from suing John Fogerty for making records sounding like John Fogerty written CCR records.Or, turning the coin, what is anti-self-plagiarism? Neil Young sued by his company for making songs unlike Neil Young songs....

"Or, turning the coin, what is anti-self-plagiarism?"

Erm, The Rutles suing Oasis for not sounding enough like the Beatles was pretty close, right?

What is a Neil Young song? The feedback drenched glory of Like a Hurricane, the melancholic brilliance of After the Goldrush or Harvest? Or is it the crap that appeared on Greendale, This notes for you, Landing on water or many of the other sub-standard albums he has put out just when we thought he was a god? Not sure anyone would want to plagiarise Greendale.

I was speaking in legal terms, Lucas, which might well define "someone else" as "the copyright holder", which these days might not be the same as the person who actually wrote the song (e.g. the Jacko/Macca example I cited). I was hoping someone who understood copyright law might be able to shed some light on this.

You're right, Paul; it would be a head spinning concept. Sorry, I tend to hide behind pedantry when confronted with the legal.
The Neil Young/Geffen thing always fascinated me. Particularly when you look at David Geffen's intentions when he started: to let the artist do what he/she wanted, with minimal intrusion from the record company. As Young himself rather presciently noted in 1972, "Leftin' and then rightin' - it's not a crime, you know".

I second Lucas in thinking that it sounds very Warren Zevon, though the one I first thought of was Even a Dog Can Shake Hands.

Steve, in Macca's case, I'd say - yes!

There is no such thing as self plagiarism: to plagiarise is to take someone else's work and knowingly pass it off as your own. Which is one of those things that is impossible to do to yourself.

Gratuitous SftBH 'Tree' plug ahoy...

http://www.last.fm/music/Songs+From+The+Blue+House/_/%28Don%27t+Fear%29+...

"The biggest shocker on the record is a folk take on the Blue Oyster CultÕs vampire classic Ô(Dont Fear) The ReaperÕ. ItÕs as though the original was the cover, and the Songs from the Blue House version is as nature intended, the subtleties of the acoustic instruments and the sweet vocal harmonies all work perfectly. If such things as singles, airplay, charts and hits were still around this should be doing all that". www.americana-uk.com
Thanks. Carry on everybody. But with more cowbell

I vote for Reaper, can I just suggest "more cowbell"

Loved John Fogerty's 'Deja Vu (Vote For Change)' without thinking it sounded like Creedence. In the context of plagiarism a line like 'sounds like deja vu all over again' resonates. Reviews suggest his new album sounds more Creedence-like - indeed, it includes a track called 'Creedence Song'. You can hear the whole album streamed on cmt.com if you want to check it out.

Its funny but I listened to the single before seeing what you thought it sounded like and I immediately thought the intro was dont fear the reaper.Anyway regardless its a great single.Not being smug or anything but going to see him in Madison Square Garden on 18th - will do a review for you if you want.
By the way is self plagiarism the same as self abuse?

It reminds me a little of Warren Zevon's Splendid Isolation.

I don't mind, though, because it rocks like nobody's business and the album's rather good too.

The Boss's new single does sound familar, but I think it's great. It has echoes Of Oasis's "What's The Story Morning Glory" which itself nicked off an REM song.Can't remember which one at the time of writing.
If Oasis had penned Radio Nowhere it would no doubt be hailed as a classic return to form and Liam's sneering vocals would sound great if they had written a song in this vein. Sadly, I hear their new "Sweets" inspired single the other day and it is shit.

Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" is what it reminded me of the moment I first heard it.

It bears more trhan a passing nod to grunge also-rans The Screaming Trees, too.

Does anyone else think it sounds a bit Bob Mould/Sugar - ish?

Not directly related, but an odd thought struck me the other day: back when Jacko owned the copyright on most of The Beatles' back catalogue, if Macca had written a song which recycled the tune from one of his old Beatles numbers, could he have found himself in the peculiar situation of being sued for self-plagiarism? I don't see why not, but it's a head-spinning concept!

It's Department S isn't it?

perhaps the post should have been entitled 'Three chords and the truth'?

as you say, there are only so many chords to go round, but you'd think he'd even have changed the *key* of 'Jenny'. shameless! ;-)

mind you, this isn't the first time Sir Bruce Of Springsteen* has nicked a tune. listen to chorus of 'Into The Fire' on The Rising, and I think you'll find that it's note-for-note the same as the chorus of 'Modern Girl' by Sheena Easton.

*thanks, you guys, for the introduction of that turn of phrase.