Black Cat Bone

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42602900

Pop star Lana Del Rey says she's being sued by Radiohead for copying their breakthrough single, Creep.

Leeching, trying to steal some of the mighty Radiohead's greatness. First The Hollies copying them and now Del Rey!!!!! Charlatans!

I never knew that the Hollies successfully sued Radiohead. Presumably Hammond and Hazlewood will get a cut of LDRs song.

I heard the Lana Del Rey song months ago and part of it is more or less identical but I am amazed Radiohead can even be arsed

Tactful Cactus wrote:I never knew that the Hollies successfully sued Radiohead. Presumably Hammond and Hazlewood will get a cut of LDRs song.

It was indeed Hammond and Hazlewood who sued, not the Hollies. Shoddy journalism.

Just googled the song, as I was curious about how similar it was, and bloody hell it's brazen. It's an egregious copy, quite hilarious really.

Doubt its Radiohead, their publishers or the songs publishers more likely. Strange for an artist to be open and state percentages but she's done it and more likely if you're asking for 100% it'll be the publishers. I dare say Radiohead dont give much of a shit. Although until they make a statement otherwise the world will assume its them being greedy. I dont buy that one, and i'm not even a Radiohead fan. Just the way it looks, dont you think??

I don't really hear the Hollies lift.

I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part. It's a pretty common chord progression, and the feel's pretty different. I agree with PHR that it's a little silly to present it as if it's all Radiohead's doing. Although who knows - maybe they're so arrogant that they want to punish her for pretending she's at their level of genius. I wouldn't put it past them.

BCB's Most Tedious Poster wrote:I don't really hear the Hollies lift.

The lift is primarily in the song's structure and chord progression. This boring and pretentious trio illustrates what the hell happened. I'm sorry.

The band's publishers have disputed her claims, saying no legal action has been filed against the star.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42633115

Sound, is our Radiohead.

toomanyhatz wrote:I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part.

I've never heard one artist rip off another's song so blatantly as this. The verse is practically identical and you're thinking 'this must be the bit she's getting sued for' when the chorus comes in and that's identical too! I'm amazed she had the cheek to do it without giving some kind of credit.

The first minute and a half is pretty much identical, yeah.

As hatz says, there's a difference in feel, I suppose, but that doesn't amount to much. She's taken their song and recorded it through a haze.

The Modernist wrote:

toomanyhatz wrote:I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part.

I've never heard one artist rip off another's song so blatantly as this. The verse is practically identical and you're thinking 'this must be the bit she's getting sued for' when the chorus comes in and that's identical too! I'm amazed she had the cheek to do it without giving some kind of credit.

This.

I don't really get the Hollies/Radiohead similarity which is far more technical and strikes me as something that could just happen accidentally/innocently rather than consciously ripping someone off, what with there being nothing new under the sun.
Hers, on the other hand, is pretty much just the same song with different words. I have no idea how she had the gall to record it let alone the nerve to protest about it. Her fans viciously laying into these unknown no-marks they have never heard of for trying to cash in on her stardom and get themselves some publicity is quite amusing, though.

You do wonder how nobody at DelReyCorp pointed this out to her?
As Moddie says, its pretty blatent.
I reckon most artists will allow a steal if they are asked nicely, but if she didnt then she really deserves all she (doesn't) get.

A couple changes in the melody would have helped, like not doing that downward bit (equivalent to "I'm a weirdo"). That said, on my computer speaker in the morning haze, the LDR sounds better and more interesting to me than "Creep" or "The Air That I Breathe"!

toomanyhatz wrote:I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part. It's a pretty common chord progression, and the feel's pretty different. I agree with PHR that it's a little silly to present it as if it's all Radiohead's doing. Although who knows - maybe they're so arrogant that they want to punish her for pretending she's at their level of genius. I wouldn't put it past them.

But they publicly acknowledged deliberately stealing The Hollies' song.

So how can they then turn around and sue someone else for the same thing? Weird.

BCB's Most Tedious Poster wrote:I don't really hear the Hollies lift.

There’s a you tubd clip somewhere where they switch from hollies to RH- it’s practivally identical

Snarfyguy wrote:

toomanyhatz wrote:I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part. It's a pretty common chord progression, and the feel's pretty different. I agree with PHR that it's a little silly to present it as if it's all Radiohead's doing. Although who knows - maybe they're so arrogant that they want to punish her for pretending she's at their level of genius. I wouldn't put it past them.

But they publicly acknowledged deliberately stealing The Hollies' song.

So how can they then turn around and sue someone else for the same thing? Weird.

I can't find them publicly acknowledged stealing a song anywhere. The closest I can find is the Hollies claiming "they told us..." Can you point me in the right direction? Also, although the chord progression seems to identical, the melodies seem to be completely different which is presumably why they only had to give the Hollies a partial credit.
Now Lana Del Ray has nicked both the Hollies tune and the Radiohead melodies wholesale so I think it is perfectly valid for both parties to sue her stupid. And frankly anyone daft enough to record a song so blatantly ripped of deserves everything they get.
Jeez, I am no particular fan of Radiohead, but I am incredulous that anyone would be thick enough or death enough to try and defend LDR in this case.

Nikki Gradual wrote:

Snarfyguy wrote:

toomanyhatz wrote:I don't even think it's that blatant a lift on her part. It's a pretty common chord progression, and the feel's pretty different. I agree with PHR that it's a little silly to present it as if it's all Radiohead's doing. Although who knows - maybe they're so arrogant that they want to punish her for pretending she's at their level of genius. I wouldn't put it past them.

But they publicly acknowledged deliberately stealing The Hollies' song.

So how can they then turn around and sue someone else for the same thing? Weird.

I can't find them publicly acknowledged stealing a song anywhere. The closest I can find is the Hollies claiming "they told us..." Can you point me in the right direction?

I don't have a citation, sorry. This is hard to Google now (what with the current brouhaha), but years ago -- possibly before the composers of "The Air That I Breathe" brought their action -- there were accounts by Radiohead band members of how they took the Hollies' song and re-fashioned it into "Creep," just to see if they could do it, basically.

I almost want to say this was on video, but it was so long ago I can't remember.

I do note Lana Del Ray's current album is called Lust for Life. I gather originality isn't her strong suit.

BCB's Most Tedious Poster wrote:I don't really hear the Hollies lift.

There's one chord change and a snatch of melody that is very similar (the chord change sounds the same, the melody very close) and the general chord progression on the verses is similar (but not identical to my ears).

Maybe they did "rewrite" it but it's different enough, to my ears anyway.