Songs that sound the same

Subject: Songs that sound the same
From: mexican
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 11:34 AM

Listen to Almost Independance Day by Van Morry on the album St Dominic's Preview - is this Wish You Were Here by Floyd or not! Mind you it came out a bout 4 years before the Floyd one.

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: mexican
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:10 PM

Thousands on a raft - dark side of the moon

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Sliding Down The Bannister At My Auntie's House
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:25 PM

Bloose songs are all the same talentless poop!

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Mr Happy
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 09:24 PM

but bloos consistency- they all got da same toon!

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Gurney
Date: 01 May 03 - 02:23 AM

How about that new Nora Jones CD. Every number is good, but by the end I'm reading or something.....

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Cluin
Date: 01 May 03 - 02:48 AM

"Early Morning Rain" sounds the same every time I do it.

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: alison
Date: 01 May 03 - 03:10 AM

"Long black veil" and "Belfast / Aragon Mill"..... tunes are almost identical.........


slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 May 03 - 04:25 AM

'A' music for Dark Eyed Sailor and verse for Fidlers Green sound very similarish.

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Bugsy
Date: 01 May 03 - 05:48 AM

This is going to sound stupid, but---

Meet Me On The Corner,
Streets Of London
Farewell To The Gold.

Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: GUEST,folkytype
Date: 01 May 03 - 06:00 AM

I'd agree with Bugsy about meet me on the corner/streets of london.

What about Masters Of War/Nottamun Town

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: reggie miles
Date: 01 May 03 - 06:38 AM

Everything I do seems to sound slighty different everytime I do it. I can't get no consistency. ;O)

It's only natural that with the process of creation and mass production being so streamlined as it is today that more of what is created can be pushed out for public scrutiny, er, enjoyment quicker than ever before. With more and more music reaching a wider audience, one that perhaps was previously isolated due to the restraints of technology, the infuences that those songs and tunes can now have on listeners and other musical artists alike on a global scale is mind boggling. Thanks to the webmeisters for that.

As to why some songs or tunes within certain genres of music like blues, bluegrass, etc. sound alike, well, there are only so many notes and therefore mathematically only so many ways to play with them. Factor in the various ability levels of all the players involved and the rate at which learning takes place within each individual, plus the many musical influences that today can be absorbed via modern communication technogurus, some of whom spent millions trying to force feed the masses a particular vibe in the hope of gaining a sizable market share in return and there's bound to be some overlap.

In the ebb and flow of things musical there will always be some on the leading edge of a new wave and others satisfied to continue to play with, or listen to, that which has gone before. I'm not saying we've done it all or that it's all been done before. Each new person brings something unque to the mix that can't quite be duplicated by anyone else. Some folks, especially industry types, love to try to categorize every little thing. It helps them in their pursuit of the almighty $. If you don't fit neatly into one of their categories, they just invent another category. Much of what the music industry does is to try and create desire for their musical products via the domination of production means and distribution facilities. They have access to deep pockets that spend endless advertising dollars to create new and improved flashy exploding bells and whistles, fireworks, smoke and mirrors or whatever it takes to get you to buy their stuff. In the eternal struggle of the haves and don't gots, them what gots get a bigger piece of the $ pie and the have nots are left to knaw on the bones. This attempt by industry to tempt more folks to gobble up their creations or to manipulate what's available musically to masses in this global arena has some problems. One of those is that darn math thing, only so many notes. So they also try to reinvent the past with new faces, much the same as the movie industry has been doing by rehashing old plots and ideas by adding a few new twists recreating old movies for their new crop of actors. They get more bang for their buck by controlling both sides of the musical/entertainment apetite the old and new.

Thankfully we can't all be industry darlings and be so fortunate as to have our tunes and songs pounded out endlessly over the airwaves to the countless masses until the repetition of them forces even the most staunch fan to change the channel. ;O)

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Lanfranc
Date: 01 May 03 - 07:07 AM

Al Stewart always maintained that Ralph McTell stole the tune for "Streets of London" from his earlier song "Oh Samuel, How You've Changed". It is perfectly possible to segue both songs seamlessly with "City of New Orleans"!

For as long as songwriters stick to the standard 12-note scale. conventional chord progressions and modulations, some close duplications are almost inevitable.

Think of poor old Pachelbel, if he had lived to collect the royalties from every tune based on his "Canon in D", he'd be wealthier than McCartney!

"Plagiarise - but, please, call it research!" Tom Lehrer.

Alan

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 01 May 03 - 05:06 PM

All of these have the same melody

I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
Carter Family

The Great Speckled Bird
Roy Acuff

The Wild Side of Life
Hank Thompson

It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
Kitty Wells

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 May 03 - 05:12 PM

It took me years to realize that the New Orleans (black) jazz funeral mainstay "Glory Glory Hallelulia/When I Lay My Burden Down" has the exact same melody as the Appalachian (white) spiritual "Will The Circle Be Unbroken."

Since "Circle" is, at least in part, *about* a funeral ("my mother's"), it may have been consciously set to the melody of the pre-existing "Glory Glory." Just a theory...

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: Mudlark
Date: 01 May 03 - 08:52 PM

Tunes close, tho not exactly the same, but the chord progression is:

Greensleeves
When I Went to Liverpool (whaling chanty)

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: GUEST,W.C.B
Date: 01 May 03 - 10:02 PM

all rap sounds the same.The reason the have titles is so you can tell 'em apart.

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 May 03 - 10:26 PM

A great amount of research has been done on this at the James Taylor Catatonic Blandness Rehab Unit, a wing of the prestigious Neil Young Center for the Terminally Screwed. It seems that you can identify any song written by James Taylor simply by singing the lyrics to "Fire and Rain" to it or by singing that song's lyrics to the tune of "Fire and Rain." All this was done on money allotted from a goverment grant.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: toadfrog
Date: 01 May 03 - 11:02 PM

Guest: You are cheating just a bit, because "It wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is a parody of "Wild Side of Life."

"As I sit here tonight, the juke box playing,
Your song about the Wild Side of Life . . ."
Aside from that, I agree.

Shady Grove
Little Margaret and Sweet William (Evelyn Ramsey)

Bonny Laddie, Hieland Laddie
Donkey Ridin'

Hard, Ain't It Hard
Black Mountain Rag

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 02 May 03 - 12:25 PM

Toad,

It isn't a parody. It's an answer. Big difference in my opinion.

Weird Al does parodys (ies?) So does Cletus Judd. Not Kitty Wells. An answer song is a response to another song. A parody is more of a ridicule or a "roast" of a song.

Technical?

You bet! Music is highly technical.

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:28 PM

I just heard a version of "Spanish Fandango" where the first part was almost note for note identical with the chorus of "Poor Ellen Smith."

Is there any prize for most obscure reference?

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: dwditty
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:51 PM

everything Stevie Nicks ever sang.

Subject: RE: Songs that sound the same
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 02 May 03 - 05:18 PM

A quote from VIZ comic: "Why waste money buying a Big Country album? Simply buy a single and play it over and over again." Fnarr!