This in interesting, from Gigwise, DE radio station WGMD claims that the Red Hot Chili Peppers first single off of Stadium Arcadium, Dani California, was a rip off of Tom Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance. Saying that “The chord progression, the melody, the tempo, the key, the lyrical theme… they’re identical.” Not quite as scandalous as this but done subconsciously or consciously, it's certainly not the first time this has been called out in music with little retribution. Given the Peppers' history, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. In any event, the radio station offers this MP3 as evidence.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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Quickly looking at tablature online, this is what I am seeing...
On the intro/verse part:
Petty's chord progression is Am - G - D - Am
Chorus: Am & D
RHCP's chord progression is Am - G - Dm - Am
Chorus: F - C - D - Am
But, I haven't had time to mess with either one on the guitar today. Now. These are similar. Not IDENTICAL.
If I had a nickel for every song that kicked off with a variation on these three/four chords...let's just say, I would have more time to write this blog. Here are a few:
*Led Zeppelin "Tangerine" with variations of the A chord
*Blind Melon "Change" is A-G-D I think...
*Bob Dylan "Knockin On Heaven's Door" is G-D-Am7 (eh, inverted)
If you really want to have fun look at G-C-D-Em. Forget about it. As for this guy saying that the lyrics are identical...that is stretching it. This is sraight-up Kiedis style. He has stated that the character "Dani California" has grown through two previous songs (one of them is "By The Way" I think) and that this song was a natural evolution of this character's journey, yadda yadda yadda, Kiedis talk. It's f*cking Kiedis people!
The bottom line is that this is not the first or last time this will happen in music.
You can play Pearl Jam's "Given To Fly" over Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" in similar fashion. "Wonderwall" & "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Knock yourself out.
And don't forget just about every Stones/Led Zep riff is lifted off Robert Johnson or another blues musician. How do you say...umm...it's what happens when you have influences (which is not to say that TP is an influence of JF, the rumor was that he was listening to a lot of Wu-Tang during recording). People forgive this aspect of music when they want to and then point it out when they want to slam a band.
As i've been saying all over the place.........Petty directly ripped off "Mary Jane.." from theJayhawks song "Waiting For The Sun".
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