The Ripoff Jukebox


Monday, January 25, 2010

I Could Really, Really Use Somebody

Bryan Adams, "Somebody"
Kings of Leon, "Use Somebody"

This is the kind of ripoff observation that causes people to hate me. The mere comparison of the alt.cool Kings of Leon to Canadian pop prince Bryan Adams is scoff-inducing. Alleging that one of the Followill brothers' most acclaimed singles would rip off or even be influenced by an '80s teeny bopper power ballad qualifies me for a lifetime ban from the musical hall of the internets.

I'd be concerned for my own sanity and safety were it not for the obvious connection between the two songs.

I'll answer the accusations of any haters* in advance: I'm not a fan of the Leonite Kings. I don't think they're terrible, they just make me yawn. But this entry has nothing to do with my personal feelings toward them. It's just that my initial reaction to this song was that it sounded like their take on a Bryan Adams song of almost exactly the same name. It's like Bryan Adams went off of Xanax and rewrote his old song. And that's fine. It's kinda catchy.

But, you know, it's earned its spot here, don't you think?


*Don't you like how I pretend that a) people are reading this and b) it's triggering some sort of intense emotional response? I'm silly like that.

3 comments:

  1. WEB SHERIFF
    Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
    Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
    Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080
    websheriff@websheriff.com
    www.websheriff.com

    Hi AK / TRJ,

    On behalf of Adams Communications and Bryan Adams, we would kindly ask you not to post pirate copies of Bryan Adams albums / tracks or videos on your site.

    We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Bryan, but Adams Comms. would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirated files in question.

    Thank you for respecting the artist's and labels' wishes and, if you / your readers would like good quality, non-pirated previews from Bryan's latest album - "11" - then full-length versions of "Tonight We Have The Stars", "I Thought I'd Seen Everything" & "Walk On By" are available for fans and bloggers to stream / host / post / share etc from the Archive section of www.bryanadams.com. Up-to-the-minute news on Bryan's 2010 shows is, of course, available on the official site and on www.myspace.com/bryanadams and an increasing archive of exclusive film footage of Bryan Adams performances is also available for fans and YouTubers on Bryan’s official channel at www.youtube.com/bryanadams ... .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further BA news, preview material and on-line promotions.

    As you will appreciate, this e-mail is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients' accumulated, worldwide rights and remedies remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.

    With Thanks & Regards,

    WEB SHERIFF

    ReplyDelete
  2. You got it. I will not post pirate copies of Bryan Adams tracks to my site. I will post an embedded version of the musical ripoffs playlist.com playlist which has no links to any downloadable content whatsoever. I'll also refer you to playlist.com's copyright notice (including a form for requesting removal of illegal use of copyrighted content, to which they will happily oblige) http://www.playlist.com/about/copyright.

    But there are no links on this site for me to remove, so I'd suggest you go through the proper channels and cut down this tree at the trunk instead of trying to take down the leaves one by one. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd like to commend you for politely telling web sheriff off. I'm the author of CanadianBands.com, and was recently harassed by them and threatened because I don't like censorship. I politely told them off too. The post you received is almost a carbon copy of half a dozen others they've sent to sites. With me, it was an ignorant, poorly researched threat with no bite. I used to not encourage illegal downloading, with bryan adams, because in part of web sheriff, i highly recommend it. but again, congratulations on standing your ground.

    ReplyDelete

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