Staff Top 10
Top Ten Contemporary Songs that Artfully Recall Classics

By: Mike Orme
2007-09-14



Posted 09/14/2007 - 05:39:59 AM by meatbreak:
 Interesting piece marred only by the fact that Hot Chip sound fuck all like Silver Apples. In their dreams.
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 10:12:41 AM by scyte100:
 Totally agree with the M83 comparison. Good piece.
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 10:25:31 AM by Ninja_Blacksox:
 Nels Cline joined Wilco AFTER "A Ghost Is Born" was in the can. His first studio track with the band was "Just a Kid" - a song featured on the soundtrack to the "Spongebob Squarepants" movie.
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 10:34:01 AM by grzegorz:
 To my ears, keep the car running doesn't really sound much like dancing in the dark... Isn't it more like I'm On Fire, off the same springsteen album?
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 10:39:48 AM by Jeffro:
 I actually hear the Eddie & the Cruisers "On the Dark Side" when I hear "Keep the Car Running" (much like the allmusic review points out).
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 11:08:57 AM by J_R_K_:
 excellent idea for a column. i'm so glad someone finally nailed beck on ripping of serge gainsbourg!
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 12:37:52 PM by cwperry:
 The opening of "Centerfield" by John Fogerty lifts the riff to "La Bamba" by Richie Havens. "Families" from Neil Young's Living With War sounds just like "No Surrender" by Bruce Springsteen. Probably unintentional. Not so unintentional, however, is the same album's "Let's Impeach the President" being set to the tune of Steve Goodman's "The City of New Orleans" (made popular by Arlo Guthrie). Sorry, I couldn't come up with any hipper contributions.
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 12:38:23 PM by cwperry:
 Jeffro: My wife pointed this out and you guys are both right!
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 12:41:05 PM by TysonT:
 It's amazing how often people think Nels Cline is on A Ghost Is Born. Good thing he wasn't - Jeff Tweedy's soloing on that record is gorgeous, whereas Cline's on Sky Blue Sky is obnoxious. (For the record, I've seen Cline play free jazz, and it was beautiful - I just think he's an unecessary presence in Wilco.)
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 12:50:41 PM by toddburns:
 The above mentioned factual errors have been corrected.
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 05:07:27 PM by terrorist:
 "Over and Over" sounds like "Oscillations"?????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
 
Posted 09/14/2007 - 05:47:39 PM by robiskeen:
 I always thought it was neat that Morrissey's "I know is gonna happen" is essential a rewrite of Bowie's "Rock-n-Roll Suicide" and that later Bowie covered the Morrissey tune.
 
Posted 09/15/2007 - 12:35:43 PM by allison1:
 I really don't think that Quincy Jones intended to get the synthesizers "out of the way" on "You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." No one in the eighties was groaning at the use of synths like they were a bad pun. I have nothing polite to say today.
 
Posted 09/15/2007 - 06:16:27 PM by cwperry:
 HOLY SHIT! Check out "Blue Harvest" on the new Pinback album, Autumn of the Seraphs. I really thought they were covering The Police's "Message in a Bottle" until the vocals came in and I checked the tracklist.
 
Posted 09/16/2007 - 03:05:26 PM by Garret:
 Clinic has a bunch of songs that sound like Silver Apples.
 
Posted 09/17/2007 - 02:08:56 AM by mklear:
 Where is m83? I liked to think they were added simply for the awesome art. But again, where the hell are/is they/he?
 
Posted 09/17/2007 - 12:10:18 PM by tcote76:
 "Keep the Car Running" actually sounds a whole lot like "All I'm Thinking About", off Springsteen's Devils and Dust album. And if you were going to talk about the Scissor Sisters, didn't it make more sense to point out the similarities between "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" and Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"?
 
Posted 09/17/2007 - 04:53:57 PM by MikeOrme:
 terrorist: I think what's notable in this context is that "Over and Over" actually doesn't sound all that much like "Oscillations" (though it certainly does at parts). However, it exhibits a clear lyrical, instrumental and rhythmic influence such that the comparison makes increasing sense with (not too much) thought, listening, and exposition. The idea of "sounds like", while appearing in a couple of spots on this list, is not necessarily the point.
 
Posted 09/17/2007 - 06:49:53 PM by MikeOrme:
 mklear: Do you mean, where are they on this list? They can be found at #4. If you are asking their location in a larger, perhaps more existential sense, then note that Anthony Gonzalez is most likely back in his native France, recording a new album to follow on the heels of his recently-released Digital Shades, Vol. 1 "ambient" record.