Two or three weeks ago, I invited a handful of friends over to booze and shoot the shit. At some point, one of them mentioned wanting to check out the Music-HD channel, and I obliged, flipping to channel 208 or 3,047 or whatever it is. Much to my dismay, they were showing a Green Day concert from an outdoor festival in what appeared to be a cold and snowy locale. My audible sighs and cringing intensified as I continually asked, “Seen enough? Can we check out what else is on?” I couldn’t believe the responses were generally positive, and my pleas to change the channel were vetoed.
Towards the end of the show, they started playing the song that starts, “I walk these streets alone…,” and I started singing, “…That they’re gonna throw it back to yeeew / By now you should’ve somehow realized what you gotta deeew” in my best Gallagher Brother accent. Even a retard like me could quickly tell there was more than just a slight resemblance between this Green Day song and “Wonderwall.” The chord structure, I think, went unchanged for the entire song. Just like “Wonderwall.” We laughed as I called Green Day unoriginal. Hilarious, right? Ingenious, right? I know, I know, I’m so perceptive. And special. And handsome. Just like my mother always tells me.
Then this morning, while I was eating breakfast, I stumbled across this brief article, where Noel Gallagher (the same comedian who called Jack White “Zorro on Donuts”) cries plagiarism. I enjoyed reading through the flurry of commentators who have come to the defensive of the reprehensibly bad Green Day (Okay, it’s “Punk News” site, so it’s to be expected). What’s better is, Gallagher asks that the band should have at least waited until he was dead to rip him off, and the final song the Music-HD channel aired from the concert — Z pointed out — rips off Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
Oh, and Jack: A Netflix for CD’s seems like it would be wrought with challenges from the industry. In order to try it, you have to start as a local service, based out of a distribution center that contains a rather large library of albums two or three times over to compensate for multiple customers craving the same thing. Seems like it would cost a lot. But what do I know. I’m getting laid off from my job as a cashier tonight.
