In college, a musician I knew played a tape for me of an impressive, bluesy guitar instrumental he said his band and he had written. Three years later, I played Stevie Ray Vaughan's "I'm Cryin'" on KCOU. After the song ended, I heard the opening strains of the album's next tune off the air, and said, "Wait a minute. I know that intro." The song that this other musician had claimed so proudly as his band's own composition was actually Vaughan's song, "Lenny." Two or three years after that, I bought an Eric Johnson CD, which contained the song, "Bristol Shore." On that day in college, this other musician also played an untitled song he had also proudly attributed to his band--which, I learned, was actually Johnson's song.
That got me thinking. I remember in the liner notes for his tape, he said a guitar riff on another allegedly original song was "inspired by Prince." "Inspired?" I thought. "I wonder if he really meant, 'lifted directly from Prince.'"
I wonder if he ever topped that level of audacity--by playing the national anthem and retitling it, "Tribute To Freedom: Ode To A Cool Place," for instance...
