acknowledgment is key

[novapsyche]

I love Foo Fighters. Great band. One of many sounds upon which my dad & I agree.

However, I do not love plagiarists.

Now, if this is unthinking plagiarism, then I'm sure the band will have no problem paying the estate of Jimi Hendrix.

"But, Honestly" (from Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace) has a guitar riff that starts about 3:10 minutes into the song that completely rang a bell for me. For days I puzzled as to what song it resembled. Then I happened upon "1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" from Jimi's Electric Ladyland. The riff begins around 2:30 minutes.

Any other eclectic music listeners out there, compare the two pieces & tell me what you hear.

Comments

[fadedpaladin.livejournal.com]

mighty similar indeed, from a melody standpoint. Harmony's pretty seriously different, though.

Coming from a classical music background, composers 2-4 centuries ago stole from each other all the time, and it was seen as a tribute to the original composer - "You wrote something so awesome that I'm gonna take it and work with it."
Yes, in the past decades, plagiarism in the rock world has become a much more blatant theft-to-make-money, not theft-as-homage.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/when-it-comes-to-songwriting-theres-a-fine-line-between-inspiration-and-plagiarism-2021199.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-sigman/plagiarism-the-words-and_b_462088.html are tips of the iceberg)

That said, a google search for "foo fighters" hendrix 1983 merman honestly plagiarism came up with no references to this as a stolen riff - no angry fans, no media reports of legal action. I'm not sure if that means nobody's noticed, or if just nobody decided to talk about it.

only semi related, my favorite Spider Robinson short story deals with musical copyright. and it's available freely on the web. http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html