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06/04/2008: "Deja Vu' All Over Again"

Plagiarism is a funny thing. You can set out to do something totally original and creative, only to find upon completion that it reminds people of something someone else already did. Sometimes, the resemblance isn't an accident, as in the Chinese iPhone knockoffs. But other times, it's a complete - and usually unfortunate - accident.

That's particularly true in music, where the "borrowing" of ideas has become the stuff of legend. Whether spreading the gospel of the late Bo Diddley by borrowing his classic lick, or blatantly ripping off a digital track from another act via "sampling", it's clearly a case of what goes around comes around

But what about acts with a particularly distinctive sound? Can they be accused of plagiarizing themselves if their songs sound too much alike? The '70s supergroup Boston had many hit songs, and they never sounded the same, but there was no mistaking the distinctive sound. But what about someone like John Fogerty, whose unique voice and guitar licks powered Creedence Clearwater Revival in the Sixties and can still be heard today on his solo tours. His hit "The Old Man Down The Road sounded so similar to the CCR track "Run Through The Jungle" that his former label sued his for plagiarizing his own songs. Fortunately, while the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, Fogerty was ultimately vindicated.

I bring all this up because of a song I heard today. Back in the early '70s, Tom Petty was a struggling musician in Gainesville, FL, playing in a band called "Mudcrutch". When that group went nowhere, Tom and Mudcrutch guitarist Mike Campbell made the long trek to Los Angeles. Once there, they formed a new band you might have heard of - The Heartbreakers - and the rest is history. Thirty years and dozens of hit records later, Petty and Campbell reunited with Mudcrutch members Tom Leadon (brother of former Eagle Bernie) and Randal Marsh to record a new Mudcrutch album.

Here's the hitch: I heard the first song off the album today, a country rocker called "Scare Easy". It had a nice, comfortable sound - too comfortable, in fact. By the time I got to the end of the song, I knew why - it sounds just like the TP&HR hit "Won't Back Down". One could be a studio out-take of the other. Now, is this the inevitable result of bringing together so many of the Heartbreakers (HB keyboardist Benmont Tench plays on the MC album as well), or is Tom just getting lazy in his older years?

Give them both a listen yourself, and let me know what you think.