Soundalike Songs

[Johanna]

Another recent thread on the same topic. One of my posts there didn’t get a response, but the similarity was so striking I would like to post it again.

@Johanna

Tito & Tarantula’s 1996 song “After Dark” bears a remarkable resemblance to Pere Ubu’s 1978 song “Over My Head”. Listen:

[ul]
[li]same key (C minor)[/li][li]same chords in the same sequence[/li][li]same rhythm[/li][li]same tempo[/li][li]melodic similarity[/li][li]lyric similarity[/li][/ul]

Compare:
AD: “In her eyes
A distant fire light
burns bright”

OMH: “In the gas her eyes are imagined
And what she sees cannot be detected”

AD: “In the dawn
I wake up to find
her gone”

OMH: “It’s pretty cute the way she tucks me in at dawn”

It would seem inescapable that Tito must have ripped off Ubu. Unless both songs are imitating an earlier model with that guitar rhythm, chords, and spooky mood.