Amy Guskin wrote:

> I used to do this for a living -- compare pieces of music and decide 
> whether
> or not one was an infringement of the other.  As I said, there are 
> definite
> similarities, but I'd honestly be shocked and surprised if Christopher
> Franke A) knows the PJ Harvey song, and B) would have 'paid homage' to it
> in such a way.  When a good songwriter likes someone else's song, and 
> wants
> to pay homage to it -- or write something similar -- or evoke it -- etc.
> etc., what they usually end up with is something that sounds COMPLETELY
> different to the average listener, although usually a trained composer
> would be able to spot the similarities/homages.

I can only suggest that you listen to a left--right comparison, then, with 
the bar music in the left channel and the Harvey song in the right. I can 
send just such an MP3 file - completely unfudged for speed - to you for the 
purposes of scholarship only, if you are interested. I think you'll find 
that rhythmically and in many other ways it is strikingly similar. Put it 
this way: even the pause before the first 'verse' is replicated *exactly*, 
and by the end of the second 'chorus' (when the bar music cuts to the 
'takedown' cue) there is a disparity of only a microscopic fraction of a 
beat between the two. It's really that close a match.

> I almost spit out my coffee once when my husband mentioned that Van 
> Halen's
> "Jump" was the inspiration for one of his most beautiful,
early songs, but
> once I stopped spluttering and going "HUH??" and stopped to
think about 
> it,
> I could see exactly where it came from, where the two songs crossed.  But 
> it
> had to be pointed out to me.  Seriously, no decent songwriter would have
> written something like we hear in "The Face of the Enemy" as a 
> _deliberate_
> homage to a song that sounded very much like it.  The similarities are
> probably just coincidental (and there are probably dozens of other songs 
> out
> there that sound just as similar to Harvey's).

I hear what you say, Amy, and recognize the truth of it. I honestly have 
view on the coincidence or otherwise of this. I am imputing no motive of any 
sort to anyone; I merely point out what I hear. If you were to hear it I 
think you'd be amazed too.

Bruce
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