Hello PRF. I am trying to remember some minutia from the old forum. What was the name of the band that the Smashing Pumpkins stole the riff of '1979' (I think it was this song???) from? They were a local Chicago band as I recall? For some reason I am thinking it was something like "Suddenly Susan" or something like that...
I remember Mark Prindle writing 1979 was stolen from a Husker du song. Can't remember the name of the song, but went to youtube and yeah, there was some resemblance.
And I remember reading here SP were a Poster Children/ Skunk Rip off band. I disagree.
I found out recently that "1979" was completely plaigarized from Milwaukee band Sometime Sweet Susan. I discovered this while interviewing SSS's former guitar player for a piece i wrote for the Milwaukee Onion, which was published this week. He said that "1979" was ripped off from their song "Point," and being skeptical of such things, i listened to the song (their old drummer burned me all their old CDs in order to refresh my memory of the band, since they broke up in 1996). Anyway, i listened to it, and holy fucking shit. It's the same riff down to the guitar tone and the bassline. It's ridiculous. "Point" came out in 1993, by the way, and "1979" was, what, 1996?
It's pretty close no doubt, but such things don't bother me, as has been pointed out, it's simple stuff, and the original is missing the big choruses.
I had a bandmate who was fixated on the Siamese Dream guitar tone. He was looking into all the shit Billy Corgan used, but should have been worshipping Butch Vig.
We're headed for social anarchy when people start pissing on bookstores.