Did Kid Rock steal Warren Zevons music?

Yes and No. It isn't stealing if you pay for it but how do you pay a dead man? Besides it is only a rumor I heard online and might not even be true that he even paid for it. He has passed it off as a mash up to Warren Zevon and Lynyrd Skynyrd music.
I am complaining because every time this song All Summer Long comes on the radio I get psyched thinking I am going to hear Warren Zevons Werewolves of London. A GREAT song...Then I get watered down McMusic from this totally over hyped and non substantive player best known for dating Pam Anderson.
I don't care if he bought it. This is like someone saying they wrote a book when it is really someone elses with a new cover. If he wanted to remake the song he should have remade the song. It shows he has no talent. And yes it bothers me unduly. There are other horrors in the world and I shouldn't judge but it is Sunday and I am sitting here listening to the radio and judging anyway.
This is something of interest I found while researching the thread. Apparently Beyonce and Kanye West are both accused of borrowing other peoples tunes. And here are a few more plagiarists you may not have known about.

The 5 Most Famous Musicians Who Are Thieving Bastards
www.cracked.com...

All you need to listen it to the first 30 seconds of these 2 to hear they are identical.
Artistically and ethically, I think this technique is a failure. I am sure the money makes him forget about his artistic shortcomings. I blame his audience - they do not seem to care.

Compare

Zevons Werewolves of London

Kid Rocks All Summer Long


Before I posted the thread where I initially accuse him of a blatant rip off and say he stole it (no question mark, yes jumping the gun) I indicate it is possible he might have bought it - then I googled around to see if he did PAY FOR USE and got some back ground from this blog where I also located this funny and very apropos video from an episode of a show called Hate by Numbers :

Kid Rock rips off Warren Zevon!
www.tdpri.com...


Enjoy!

Sort of.

he sampled Zevons, Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama by lynyrd skynyrd

reply to post by newcovenant


Oh man I laughed my *beep* off at that last one! And yeah....he ripped them off.

Unless he bought the rights, yeah, he rippid off Zevon. The start of both of those songs are note for note and beat for beat. No question about it.

reply to post by newcovenant
With a limited number of "power chords" which make up modern rock music, it is almost impossible to no "steal" or borrow licks and certian melodies. It makes it even more difficult with the current practice of "sampling". Unless the orignal aritst (or big record company) releases the rights to the "sample" well then yes that would be considered stealing.

Kid Rock is the PSA poster child for not stealing copy righted music from the net
*caution strong language*


I'm betting that he isn't a total douche'. If he "sampled" or borrowed from Warren Zevon I'd be willing to bet that he went throught the proper copy right procedure.
Edit:
IMO opinion this song is without a doubt "Warewolves of London" mixed with "Sweet Home Alabama". Like I said I'm willing to bet he properly "borrowed" these songs for his artistic interpitation ( I'm not a big fan by the way!).

reply to post by newcovenant


If you look back at rap music, especially in its formative, "break out" years, almost everything they put out featured a sampled loop of another artist. They literally stood on the shoulders of their predecessors to get where they were going. Their only contribution was lyrics. Rap music is where Kid Rock was said to get his start, I don't believe that. Everything I have heard from him is a mixture of all styles across the board.

As for the song in question. Yes, definite rip-off, but in todays "I'll sue your @$$ world" it's not likely that he didn't pay for the right to use the music. Even though Warren Zevon is dead, those royalties still go somewhere, children, grandchildren, record label, or just someone who bought the rights to the music. (Much the way Michael Jackson bought The Beatles music.)

Is it art? That depends on your definition. Personally, as a musician; bassist by trade, I tend to dislike anything not written by the artist themselves.

I did some studio work with Bob (Kid Rock) and the man is a very talented musician.
I even helped him with some lyrics on the tune "Jackson, Mississippi" and he gave me credit for
my input. I believe there has come a time when new riffs, melodies and music is hard to
find. I see it as paying homage to the previous artist. The newest genre of music is Gangsta Grass.
It is original due to the mixture of genres, but it is still the "Same ole, Same ole" only
IMO better.

Back to Bob, I found him more down to earth than most artists I have dealt with.
If you don't like his music, don't listen to it. I do enjoy him and I will continue to follow him.

Most of his hit singles borrowed from other musicians ("American Badass" used the main riff from Metallica's "Sad But True" for example) but that doesn't bother me, what does is when people have a sample or blatantly use something and then the ignorant masses hear it and have never heard of the original.

Like when a Stevie Nicks song came on and people went "ooh, Beyonce" until she started singing then went "ugh, whoever this is stole from Beyonce" and switched off. Bah, idiots.

reply to post by redzareptile

With a limited number of "power chords" which make up modern rock music, it is almost impossible to no "steal" or borrow licks and certian melodies.

There are no power chords in the intro of Werewolves of London.

Are you a musician? Have you ever written a song?

Do you know what a chord is?

Looking up things on wiki I found this...

"Genius, originality, authorship... "

...The Romantic movement developed the idea of the absolute originality and artistic inspiration by the individual genius, which performs a "creation from nothingness;" this is the so-called Romantic ideology of literary authorship, which created the notion of plagiarism...This idea is often called "romantic originality." The romantic poets' turned their beliefs on originality into "the institution of originality."

The English poet John Milton, who lived in the 17th century, was part of the origin of the concept. This idea was in contrast with the preceding artistic tradition, in which copying had been seen as a fundamental practice of the creative process; and has been especially challenged since the beginning of the 20th century, with the boom of the modernist and postmodern movements. en.wikipedia.org...-Enlightenment

Interesting. Have to say I did not know this.

Originally posted by SumerianSoldier
reply to post by newcovenant

 

Rap music is where Kid Rock was said to get his start, I don't believe that. Everything I have heard from him is a mixture of all styles across the board.

I bought Kid Rocks first album back in 90. He was pure hip hop.

reply to post by SumerianSoldier


You're right, I mention Beyonce and Kanye too.
After so many years it is all in the public domain.

Beginning with disco I think music became "commercially" directed at specific target audiences without having as much inherent value or originality as "music" but had great sales potential and could be marketed. MTV and artist visual appeal became as important as the sound, eventually image and marketing a "product" over took musical integrity as fully manifest in the popularity of Madonna and I think it only went down hill from there. But many will disagree. This is what makes generational differences. Older people will always say...You call that music? Now in my day that was music.

Rap is an original art form I think people will say...but it is poetry, with a musical score.
Unless you want to change the definition of music, which we have.
I love a lot of rap and it has transcended and broken out and formed its own genre.
Responding to another poster;
And yes, as a human being Kid Rock does some great stuff for kids.
I don't want to take that away from him, just defending a favorite song.
It doesn't tear down his character but doesn't make me respect him as a musician.
This might be an uppity, romanticized notion of "musician" anyway.

reply to post by Frankenchrist


Thank you for the education, I did not know that!

You CANNOT copyright a chord progression. This is why so many songs sound alike.

ie: Louie, Louie-Hang on Sloopy
Sweet Home Alabma-Werewolves of London

This is not the same as sampling an entire copyrighted passage of someone else's songs. This is also why in the beginning, cars looked alot alike.

ie: Mustang-Camaro
Camaro-Firebird-Trans-Am.

You cannot copyright or patent a design completely. Change one small bit, it becomes something new.
ie: Vegetable choppers-slice-o-matic/dice o-matic