I don't really listen to the RHCP anymore, but for those of you who do, does their latest single sound like Tom Petty's "Last Dance with Mary Jane?"

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06012006/go ... agesix.htm

ARE the Red Hot Chili Peppers really stone-cold copycats? The Peppers have just come out with a huge new album, "Stadium Arcadium," but its success is marred by insiders' charges that the CD's hit single is uncomfortably similar to a Tom Petty hit from the '90s.

"The single 'Dani California' [currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart] is a huge hit - but there is a major problem," one source claimed. "The song has the same chord progression, melody and tempo of Petty's 'Mary Jane's Last Dance.' The song even has a similar lyrical theme."

"Dani California" starts off: "Gettin' born in the state of Mississippi / Poppa was a copper and her momma was a hippie / In Alabama she was swinging hammer," while "Mary Jane's Last Dance" goes: "She grew up in a Indiana town / Had a good-lookin' mama who never was around / But she grew up tall and she grew up right / With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night."

Our source said, "Tom Petty was made aware of this and is looking into legal ramifications. The Chili Peppers could be facing a huge plagiarism lawsuit - which is a major problem for Warners. Both bands are on the Warner Bros. label. If Tom sues, the album, which is Warner's biggest hit of the year, would have to be pulled from shelves pending litigation."

Petty's rep, Heidi Robinson, said: "I am well aware of this situation. [The two songs] certainly do sound similar, don't they? I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tom doesn't have a comment on this at all. I have no idea if he is going to sue the Chili Peppers, and am not prepared to make a comment on that."

Chili Peppers' rep Liz Rosenberg referred calls to Warner Bros. spokesman Link Burland, who said, "This is the first I have heard of it."

Meanwhile, Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis talked about the album to Rolling Stone and noted: "Love and women, pregnancies and marriages, relationship struggles - those are real and profound influences on this record." Nowhere did he mention Tom Petty.

Pretty standard progressions. And there is the Rick Rubin connection. I remember when the Petty song came out, the same thing was said about it ripping off the Jayhawks.

Man, that RHCP song is crappy. What a flat turd. When I first heard it I couldn't believe it - "this is how you're kicking off your big single? Drum beat and a couple repeats of this stale progression?"

I was hoping this was a thread about Brian Peppers.

I don't think they sound similar at all, and I should know, I wrote both songs.

I can live with similar chord progressions(so many often go well together), but cheating on the melody is too much of a coinkydinky.

it sounds kina similar during the verses.
so what.

i'm sure tom petty has pleanty of songs that sound like other stuff.

exactly.

Tom must need some cash.

I should add, If TP does'nt care and you don't, then so what.

those lyrics aren't similar at all to me

Tom isn't going to do shit. He's too cool for that.

The New York Post? That article was a couple reps' quotes (and a "source") twisted into gossipy horseshit. Read it again: there's no substance and it really only works if you hold a pinkie up to the corner of your mouth.

It's a non-issue jizzed up over a couple songs with a super-common chord progression and unimaginative sing-speak melodies.















I think it's a conservative smokescreen.

I know both songs pretty well and I never made the connection.

I think it sounds like about 40 other RHCP songs, but not like Petty.

If TP didn't sue The Strokes for plagiarizing "American Girl" in "Last Night," he'll probably let RCHP slide, too.

Wouldn't that have triggered a countersuit from the Byrds?

A couple of dingleberries hash this out on the air. You can obviously tell the Petty track has been sped up to match.

http://www.wgmd.com/SOUNDS/FEATURES/051706-petty.mp3

Total garbage.

um. what the fuck!?!

Shiv is your friend, man. You should have expected that, therefore.

nothing better to do than rip on the chili peppers.

have you people heard "under the bridge" or "mellowship slinky"?

That's my main complaint w/ the new one. Heard 'em allll before.

Man, I gotta admire Gauche for sticking up for these guys. He is unrelenting.

Yeah, him and 600,100 others who bought the disc, according to Rolling Stone/Billboard, sending them to "number one for the first time in their careers."

Wonder how many of those discs went to a used CD store within that first week. I know mine did.

Gauche- have you seen the new RS? Your heroes ("best band in America with one of the top 100 guitarists," according to you, I believe) made the cover, with a big, boring article inside.

Bleagh.

best band in america, no. one of the biggest for sure, and they deserve respect in my humble opinion. anyone that made albums like "freakey styley" and "mother's milk" and "uplift mofo party plan" deserves at least a little bit. they've evolved...they have a new sound. unfortunately it hasn't changed at all really since californication, but they still right good songs. if you put together one album out of their previous two with the best songs, it would be really ill.

can't stop, 21st century, snow, this is the place, dosed, desecration smile, tell me baby, hard to concentrate would be a totally tight short album.

and please don't rip on john frusciante. you just obvoiusly haven't listened to any of his playing or solo stuff if you're going to say he's bad. the things he does on stadium arcadium and their last 3 albums definitely make him the best mainstream american rock guitarist...who else is there?

and of coure the RS article was boring and bullshit and chili peppers fluffing....i can't believe i get ripped for actually listening to this album yet some of you people admit to reading the RHCP rolling stone article. you guys are nuts.

The article was okay in a we ex-heroin addicts aren't bisexual anymore and we're married and stable and it's all about our kids and our art now middle age rock icon kinda way