I’ve mentioned Radiohead a few times before. In fact, I’ve mentioned that their biggest hit ‘Creep‘ is loosely based on another song. I’ve also mentioned a clone song taken from Karma Police. Guess what? Karma Police itself might not be so uniquely original itself either.
I’m certainly not the first to mention this and I certainly won’t be the last, but you can compare The Beatles song Sexy Sadie from 1968 to Karma Police and hear a some familiar hints. Try it yourself:
This post is somewhat of a follow-up on the post about Coldplay. Sometimes a song is so coincidentally similar, that despite it being an original work, people have to be credited because otherwise there will be lawsuits.
Radiohead are often praised as being musical geniuses who have made ‘difficult’ and ‘experimental’ music in a time where recycled pop-tunes reign. But even their biggest and most covered hit, Creep from 1992, is not a isolated work of brilliance.
The songs credits list Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood as co-writers of the song. Both of them are song-writers who have quite a few well-known songs from the sixties and beyond. One of the hit songs they wrote together is The Air that I Breathe from 1974 that was performed by The Hollies.
While most people will recognise the subtle similarities in feel and even some chord progressions. And while Radiohead never confirmed they were inspired by the song by the Hollies, they were forced to put the credits on it regardless.
Of course a whole string of people covered the Radiohead version. It was included in Rodeohead (a country & western cover/medley of Radiohead by Hard ‘n Phirm) in 2005. Tears for Fears have done it, Richard Cheese has done it, Amanda Palmer has done it, even Korn have done it and many many more.
So far I’ve talked about covers, songs that have lifted parts of the lyrics or tune from other songs or songs that literally sampled a bit from another song. There is however another category of song: the clone. The clone is an almost literal, purposely made imitation of the original, to feel and sound the same as the original, but without using the exact same notes and lyrics to prevent copyright infringement.
Meet the song Save my Soul by a band called Superglue from 2000. You probably never heard of them, mainly because this was their only hit and only in the Netherlands. And even here it’s forgotten. It was used in an advertisement, for what, no one even remembers. Clones are often made especially for advertisements. All I can tell you it was sung by a guy called Edwin Meijster (who?) and it was written by him and a guy called Frank Pels in affiliation with EMI Music.
By now I hope you’ve listened to the link above (if not: do so) and recognised this song sounds a suspicious lot like a song from another band that used to be signed to EMI: Radiohead. In fact, if you put Karma Police (1997) next to it, the likeness is uncanny. And that was exactly the intention of Save my Soul. Less royalties to pay, same song. Even the band’s name might fool you into thinking it was Supergrass if you hadn’t paid attention.
By the way, if you want to hear a truly magnificent, but honest cover of Karma Police, I must again recommend The Easy Star All-Stars version of Karma Police from their Radiodread album. Besides making a full album of reggae Radiohead covers, they’ve also tackled Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the Moon and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But that’s another story.
Since EMI has disallowed embedding of the YouTube video for Radiohead’s Karma Police, instead I give you the Superglue song:
According to Thom Yorke, the music industry is on the brink of collaps “within months” and signing with a a major record label is like going sailing with a sinking ship. Not only that Thom, you also forgot to mention the fact they throw you into huge debts with the only possibility to get out of unless you become a huge star (which every one always thinks of themselves, but a lot rarely accomplish) and that at the end of the day, the own most of the stuff you made.
There’s a few interesting posts on other blogs and sites I’d like to point out for further reading. The Cult’s Ian Astbury said that he thinks what Radiohead did with their release of In Rainbows was irresponsible. Nathan Harden posts that he thinks people who share music are killing rock ‘n roll. All this criticism is based on an incorrect assumption that a restructuring of the music scene, the distribution and industry as a whole equates to killing it. Kyle Bylin has written a very good column explaining that it’s the industry that is broken.
The fact that sharing is free, doesn’t mean there is no money that can be made by honest individuals and companies. Also, at the end of the day it’s art, not a consumer product. You can sell it, but it selling it is not its purpose in life. If any thing, it is not a bad time for rock ‘n roll at all. Unless you’re a corporate rock band.