two most similar songs, and why you feel they are similar

[Borderstone]

Surprisingly,no one ever mentioned that,"Sea Of Tranquility" and "Waiting For You" sound quite alike! I noticed this while recording my GL tape the other night,so I put them back to back. Also,don't forget "Wherefore and Why & Mountains and MaryAnn!

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Borderstone - "Little 'Ol Message Maker Me!"

quote:Originally posted by Borderstone:
Surprisingly,no one ever mentioned that,"Sea Of Tranquility" and "Waiting For You" sound quite alike! I noticed this while recording my GL tape the other night,so I put them back to back. Also,don't forget "Wherefore and Why & Mountains and MaryAnn!


I said this in the topic where someone(I forgot his name) posted a poem with lyrics and he said sing it as though you were singing 'Sea Of Tranquility' and I said I had a better time singing the tune to 'Waiting For You'. Your right, these 2 do sound alike and the rhythm is almoste exactly the same.

[talbot10]

I"n April of 1987, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against Michael Masser, alleging that Masser's song "The Greatest Love of All" (recorded by Whitney Houston) stole twenty-four bars from Lightfoot's 1969 hit "If You Could Read My Mind"

I think these things are likely accidents.
That does not mean you could still not sue someone of course but Gord has inadvertantly done it too in my opinion. Listen to the opening bars of "Spanish Moss". and tell me that is not Buddy Holly's "it's raining in my heart". It is the same meloday and chord progression.

Bill Hall

[vlmagee]

When borrowing from oneself, it obviously doesn't matter. When borrowing from someone else, the issue is "how much". Obviously, one can't copyright one chord. Or a three or four chord progression. Or a sequence of 4 or 6 or 8 notes ... but where does one draw the line? Those 24 bars were pretty far over the line, I think. The borrowing was very likely inadvertant, but those 24 bars could hardly be considered "original". As I understand it, the suit was settled out of court. It sure sounds like IYCRMM to me, and it sure did to Lightfoot when he first heard it over the PA system at his health club.

quote:Originally posted by talbot10:


I"n April of 1987, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against Michael Masser, alleging that Masser's song "The Greatest Love of All" (recorded by Whitney Houston) stole twenty-four bars from Lightfoot's 1969 hit "If You Could Read My Mind"

I think these things are likely accidents.
That does not mean you could still not sue someone of course but Gord has inadvertantly done it too in my opinion. Listen to the opening bars of "Spanish Moss". and tell me that is not Buddy Holly's "it's raining in my heart". It is the same meloday and chord progression.

Bill Hall



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Valerie Magee

Visit my GL web site at gordonlightfoot.com and Cathy Cowette's site at cathycowette.com

quote:Originally posted by talbot10:


I"n April of 1987, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against Michael Masser, alleging that Masser's song "The Greatest Love of All" (recorded by Whitney Houston) stole twenty-four bars from Lightfoot's 1969 hit "If You Could Read My Mind"

I think these things are likely accidents.
That does not mean you could still not sue someone of course but Gord has inadvertantly done it too in my opinion. Listen to the opening bars of "Spanish Moss". and tell me that is not Buddy Holly's "it's raining in my heart". It is the same meloday and chord progression.

Bill Hall

I may have heard this song at the gym. There was a woman singing and the tune was the same as 'If You Could Read My Mind' only it was a rock song and she was singing it a bit faster. Is this the song? If so, she did go over the line.

[Borderstone]

I'm sorry. George Harrison accidently delving into He's So Fine is one thing because it barely sounds like it. There's just too much similarity between Gord's IYCRMM and Greatest Love Of All. By the way,George Benson did the song 1st in 1977 for the movie "The Champ"-Starring Ricky Schroeder. He did it as a ballad and badly I might add. If Gord should have sued anyone it should have been the movie makers and George Benson. Later!

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Borderstone - "Little 'Ol Message Maker Me!"

I just noticed this the other day. 'Station Master' and the re-recorded 'Endless Wire' kind of sound the same at the very beginning, just played a note apart from one another.

[seahawk11]

You probably won't believe this unless you play guitar, but 'Triangle' and 'Alberta Bound' use the exact same chord progression and phrasing...one just happens to be in 3/4 time and the other is in 4/4 time, which makes them sound totally different. Go ahead and throw the words to either song into the other: it works pretty well.

[Big Blue]

A lot of Gord's songs start off sounding like something other song by somebody else, like Last Time I Saw Her starts off like Sounds of Silence and Never Too Close sounds an awful lot like a Jimmy Buffet song, maybe Margaritaville. On his first version of Early Mornin' Rain, he sounds just like Elvis, which is funny because Elvis later covered it and it sounds just like Gord! Gord didn't seem to find his voice right away, but when he did, it was very distinctive. Oftentimes playing Gord in my head, one song will meld into another and I always find it rather amusing until I can't sing one or the other song properly and then I have to play them on my stereo to set my head right. Example: last time i saw her face it was too late for prayin'. My girlfriend thinks Stone Cold Sober sounds like a lot of his other songs, but I can't figure out what she means and her 3-year old son, who loves Shadows and asks her to play it over and over, thinks its the best song I've ever written because I sing and play the guitar and sound a lot like Gord!

[Big Blue]

I forgot to mention: Has anyone noticed that Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer starts off exactly like Poor Little Allison?

[Big Blue]

Hey back again, don't mean to hog the whole topic! But I just noticed that Big Blue and Fitz sound kinda similar. And Fitz sounds just like She's Not The Same and She's Not the Same sounds exactly like Sit Down Young Stranger and that sounds exactly like Cotton Jenny, ergo, Big Blue is Cotton Jenny!

[joveski]

I've noticed what you said about Kiss Me. It is the same chord sequence D, Dmaj7, D7.
they're both great songs.

even approaching lavender usues that same one during the verses

quote:Originally posted by Big Blue:
Hey back again, don't mean to hog the whole topic! But I just noticed that Big Blue and Fitz sound kinda similar. And Fitz sounds just like She's Not The Same and She's Not the Same sounds exactly like Sit Down Young Stranger and that sounds exactly like Cotton Jenny, ergo, Big Blue is Cotton Jenny!

One of us needs a hearing aid.

[Big Blue]

I don't really think those songs sound anything alike. I purposely chose songs that sound nothing alike to be satirical since this topic has me comparing every song now and that's kind of missing the point of the music. He's one guy and he's got a certain style and only so many stories to tell. But anyway, you probably knew that DMD3.

On the topic of songs running into each other in your head, All The Lovely Ladies and The Pony Man seem to run together in a funny way: All the lovely ladies in their finery tonight, some are white and some are brown.

i'd do it again and bend in the water? they sound similar, also knotty pine sounds close to let it ride, at least the instruments do

If you take the lyrics from 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' "but time has no beginnings and history has no bounds" and put it in 'The Pony Man' it seems to go along really good.
I was being sarcastic too.

[Borderstone]

Listen To What The Man Said-Paul McCartney & Wings and My Life-Billy Joel. Different rhythms but similar vocal styles.

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Borderstone - AZ's answer to GL! (but what was the question?)

Not only do the originals of Early Morning Rain and Canadian Railroad Trilogy sould a lot alike at the beginning, the re-recordings on Gords Gold also are very similiar to each other.