In what might turn out to be another one of my classic goose egg threads, here I’m looking for examples of songs people meld together when they’re running songs through their head.
Alas - where you come to a part in a song that sounds like the part in a different song, then, boom - marriage.
There’s just no country way I’ll believe I’m the only one who’s doing that. (caring about it, though - possibly a different matter.:p)
(And not that the melded parts need to match up precisely, note by note, beat by beat, obviously…just “in the neighbourhood” is good enough, so that the melded parts at least have some similarity to each other to make them meld-able.)
First two examples, of which there’s more, but I’ll be a cruel tease for now:
After Kool and the Gang yell “Come On!”, the rhythm guitar, at 1:33, melds right into… Steve Howe’s guitar (1:47) after Anderson yells “In and around the lake” in Roundabout.
After Roger Hodgson says “You’re coming along” in School, I always imagine the outro burst at 5:18 melding into the epic 4:21 end of St. Pepper’s.
And if someone’s brilliant enough to actually edit these mind-melds together…
Every time I hear Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” – not so much in my head but on the radio – even though I definitely know it’s “The Chain,” I want to meld that guitar intro with Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive.” (Or maybe it’s the other way 'round. I just can’t help but concatenate those two songs.)
The latter two are more similar to each other than to the first, but all three of them have enough common elements that I half- expect the hook from one to pop up in another if I’m listening to it.
Been a couple decades, but yes all three of them - Declan’s stellar songwriting career notwithstanding - do seem similar, especially the first two, while the first half of “Pay it Back” less so, the latter half, more so, I thought.
Now that I play it in my head, it is the other way around. You know how the beginning of “Dead or Alive” has that descending riff that’s played twice, and then it goes into the little bluesy-country bending guitar figure? It’s at 0:17 here. Well, every time I hear that intro, at that point in the riff, I always sing to myself “Listen to the wind blow…”
On Bon Jovi’s Who Says You Can’t Go Home whenever they hit the refrain of
“WHO-says… you can’t go hooooome”
I always hear
“CU-pid… draw back your booooow”
This one probably doesn’t count, as it’s essentially the same song, but I always jumble up the lyrics of Chuck Berry’s “School Days” with “No Particular Place to Go.” : “Working your fingers right down to the bone, with no particular place to go!” Wait, that’s not right.
I don’t know if it’s the peppy little beat or what, but the refrain of Shawn Mendez’s “Stitches” always puts me in mind of the Austin Powers theme song.
They don’t sound identical, but I believe they are the same lick. Starting at about 2:22 of Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave you is (I believe) the same lick as the opening riff of Chicago’s 25 Or 6 To 4. Pink Floyd uses the exact same lick in one of their songs too but I do not recall which one or where it occurs. After watching the documentary on The Wrecking Crew, I am not surprised when different groups sound similar; although these groups were known for playing their own instruments and writing their own material. They also might have been after the time frame when the Wrecking Crew musicians were in their most productive years. When I was working on construction crews back in the late 70’s and early 80’s we used to kid that they all had the same guitar teacher. Links:
The two pieces of music that always remind me of the other, apparently no one else in the world can hear any connection. They are: the Main Theme from The West Wing, and Bach’s Invention # 1 in C Major. I cannot pinpoint a note for note duplication, but I never hear one without thinking of the other. I feel like the Bach was playing in the lobby when Snuffy Walden was waiting for an elevator to the studio where he wrote the West Wing Theme. Or maybe he was giving his nephew a piano lesson the day before he wrote the theme. I will include the links, but I will also explain that when I used to hear Invention # 1, it was played MUCH slower than this guy plays it- less than half as fast. It was played at exactly 30 beats per minute because that is the slowest setting with four beats on my kid’s metronome. The two pieces of music remind me of each other, and I think the one influenced or somehow inspired the other (with fewer flourishes and more stately brass). Links:
Ah yes - I was trying to remember that one. Even when I was a kid, I’d mention that to people and they were like “huh?”, so I’m finally glad I’m not the only one who saw that. The Zep link, btw, didn’t work - hopefully this one will: https://youtu.be/wrUZJMksPCg?t=141 < (interesting cover, that!) Badfinger melds right into Joe Jackson
Yeah, you got me on those, too. I’m very familiar with Invention #1 (I still could probably play at least the first few bars from memory) but I can’t hear any similarity with the West Wing theme.
Yes, I know. No one else can hear it and to me it is very obvious. When I try to find some metric to demonstrate why I link the two in my mind, the best I can offer is they both have sixteenth notes and are both relatively short.
Do you, or does anyone recall the Pink Floyd tune with that same lick? I know it exists, in fact it resembles the Zeppelin more than the Chicago does if I recall correctly. The one time I wish my brother was easier to reach, and where is he? (out of reach)
I listened to it earlier and couldn’t get it. Just tried it again, but it is far too distracting here right now. I will give it another listen when it is quieter in my world. If I am not able to hear the connection, I will defer to your expertise.
