Ladies and gentlemen, may we present Josh Burt from the staggeringly good Interestment.co.uk…
Whilst the legal implications are slight, everyone knows that copycatting is disgusting, an insult to humanity – and yet it goes completely unpunished. Every day, you probably stroll past two, perhaps three, copycats on a simple trip to a local shop for some condoms.
Well, enough is enough. We have scoured the history books, and discovered the four most despicable copycatting crimes of the last fifty years…
1 – The Rolling Stones, 1967
1967 was considered by many to be The Beatles‘ finest hour. They’d spent the preceding months going on zany psychedelic trips to find the most far-out sounds in the stratosphere, and emerged brandishing the Sergeant Pepper album. The world went totally bananas. That was July. By December, the Rolling Stones had unleashed their floppy imitation, Their Satanic Majesties Request, which came complete with songs about rainbows, and a picture on the sleeve of the bandmembers done up like Grand Wizards in the KKK sitting in a weird fairy tale kingdom. As accurate an interpretation of the hippy era as putting on a fedora and insisting you’re a cowboy.
Interestingly, it was the only album they ever produced themselves.
2 – Rocky II, 1979
On the back of the success of the first Rocky came this – exactly the same film. The first one found the moronic beefcake, played to perfection by Sly Stallone, go the distance with Apollo Creed, against the odds. At the end he loses, but he’s a winner because he tried. He starts bellowing “Adrian” from the corner of his mouth. In this one, against the odds he goes the distance against Apollo Creed, but WINS, and starts yelling something to Adrian from the corner of his mouth. By the last one, Adrian was dead. Of shame perhaps?
3 – Fame Academy, 2002
A year behind Pop Idol, and yet almost exactly the same, the BBC tried to fool everyone that Fame Academy was actually classier, because it had the word Academy in the title. And, look, it’s set in some kind of mansion. Oh, and our contestants aren’t contestants at all – they’re students. Students living in a mansion. Students who included series one winner smarmy David Sneddon, and series two winner Alex Parks, a diminutive lesbian who triumphed despite sounding precisely like a foghorn talking to a trumpet. Lemar aside, this had no redeeming features, while Pop Idol was never anything short of totally brilliant. Hang your head, so-called Mr BBC.
4 – Jodie Marsh, 1978 –
It’s hard to know where Jodie Marsh begins and ends, she is a walking amalgamation of some of the worst celebrities ever churned from the conveyor belt. She has spent years copycatting the most vile UK celebs, and has now morphed into a freakish fusion of Danielle Lloyd, Jordan, Jade Goody, and, most recently, Amy Winehouse with her sudden lust for tattoos. Only in Jodie’s case, the tatts were seemingly penned by a nervous asthmatic, working hurriedly from his garage. They’re completely awful.
Like that, did you? Then go over to Interestment immediately. Josh has got this sort of stuff coming out the wazoo.
Kevin N says
Think I might have to come to the defense of ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’.
In no is it a copy of Sgt. Pepper, everyone seems to miss that it is a ripoff of the first Pink Floyd album.
Think I best get back to my copy of Mojo, smoke a pipe and stroke my beard.
Raezin says
Here, Here, Kevin. If the Rolling Stones were desperate to rip off the Beatles, as you would have to be to write and record and release a record in only six months.
A lot of bands at this time were “going on zany psychedelic trips to find the most far-out sounds in the stratosphere”. Take the Beach Boys into account, too. A lot of experimental stuff was going on in the 60s and to call the Rolling Stones CD a mere rip-off is ultimately a discredit to the entire genre of experimental rock, which lives on to this day.
Anyone that can’t just enjoy a trippy song about rainbows, sir, probably can’t enjoy this genre, period.
Kevin N says
Ironically I have to admit it is my favorite Stones album