SUNDAY SHOWDOWN: What Do You Want From Me? vs Smell The Roses...which artist(s) ripped themselves off the best?

[stonytokes]

ALRIGHT, R&D!!! IT"S TIME FOR ANOTHER SUNDAY SHOWDOWN!!! This week's bout poses the question: which artist(s) ripped themselves off the best? Both contestants have marked similarities to a composition(s) from WYWH. In this corner...Roger's riff on his own history...SMELL THE ROSES!!! And in the opposing corner...a daisy chain of plaintive pleas...WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!!!

YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT FROM YOU, R&D!!! MAKE YOUR OPINION KNOWN AND VOTE FOR THE COMPOSITION THAT YOU THINK MINES THE PAST MOST EFFECTIVELY!!!

vs

[keleven]

Hah. Good comparison. I still remember listening to What Do You Want from Me on the radio premiere of the new album and swooning when the keys came in. Then 30 seconds later - totally ruined. Such a waste!

[NuffM]

The hell do you mean?

[vbc3]

Agree to disagree on that one. Not one of my all-time favorites, sure, but *I* get swoony with about everything after 2:45 or so...

[Son of Nothing]

Well, I've stated before that I'm not a strong fan of this era from either camp. And as for the question it depends on what you mean by "most effectively?" Is it most thoroughly or most convincingly? I think old Rog throws in more direct quotes than old Dave does. I was going to be rude and say that's 9 minutes and 39 seconds of my life that I won't get back again, but to be honest I went off and checked some email while one of the tracks was playing. Interesting thing though is that in my head I thought Division Bell was the later era Floyd album that I thought I preferred, but I'd totally forgotten this track was on it and not on its predecessor.

Sorry to those of you who like this era, but once again I can't make a reasoned vote on this one.

[stonytokes]

Well, they're not both from really the same era unless you consider everything post '83 or so the later years. The poll question was supposed to be a sort of tongue-in-cheek comparison of two songs that obviously rip off Have A Cigar. I really enjoy both, but would agree that Rog throws in more direct quotes and sounds more like classic Floyd.

[beeco]

I'll go with Smell the Roses.

Can't stand that bass in WDYWFM. Sounds like the intro to a crap porno and totally ruins the mood after Cluster One.

Smell the Roses has a line about bacon in it. I like bacon.

[stonytokes]

You know what makes bacon even better? More bacon.

[thespitwasduringmoney]

but do you also like marmalade?

[lennyif]

What do You Want From Me easily. Nice hat tip to Raise my Rent.

Smell The Roses is the one track I really don’t like on Is This The Life.

[stonytokes]

I feel completely the opposite. As derivative as it is, Smell The Roses is the only listenable track on ITTLWRW, IMO.

[Emdy]

Both songs are obnoxiously derivative of older work, but I’ve got to agree with Beeco regarding the WDYWFM porno feel. Not just the bass, but all of the instrumentation, particularly in the live version, it’s just so corny. Bombastic Floyd at its worst. I don’t think most would listen more than once if it didn’t have guitar solos smattered all over it.

Of course, Roger singing about the room where they keep the human heir on Roses isn’t exactly top-tier material either, and all the sonic callbacks come across as lazy and nostalgia baiting more than they do any sort of creative choice. But I don’t physically cringe listening to that song, so it gets my vote.

[daemonspudguy]

In case my signature hasn't made it clear, I really like Is This the Life We Really Want?, so that's an easy win for Smell then Roses.

[NuffM]

I don’t think most would listen more than once if it didn’t have guitar solos smattered all over it.

You couldn't be more wrong.

[daemonspudguy]

You couldn't be more wrong.

Agreed. I love guitar solos as much as the next guy but a good guitar solo does not make a song I dislike suddenly something I like. FTR, while I do think that David's vocal performance on What Do You Want From Me isn't great I do still like the song, just that I prefer Smell the Roses because I largely prefer Roger's solo work.

[Emdy]

You couldn't be more wrong.

Everybody loves a subjective opinion disguised as an objective fact!

[Alan Smithee]

If you smell what the Rock is cooking..What Do You Want From Me sounds like the Floyd tribute band played by the Floyd..I checked out as soon as Gilmours wife was writing all the lyrics...She will never amount to a Roger as a song writer.. Sorry,David

[rontoon]

I checked out as soon as Gilmours wife was writing all the lyrics...She will never amount to a Roger as a song writer.. Sorry,David

How misogynistic of you. And she's not a song writer, she's a lyricist. So what if Polly doesn't live up to Roger's writing standard from over 40 years ago because he certainly hasn't.

[rontoon]

By referring to her as "Gilmour's wife" you completely demeaned, belittled and objectified her as a woman. You could have made the same point by referring to her by her name.

[stonytokes]

This is exactly what I meant in the DG vs RW thread about having to walk on eggshells all the time. Do you really think that Alan's intent with that comment was to "demean, belittle, and objectify her as a woman"? Is she not Gilmour's wife? Shall we start referring to Dave as "Polly Samson's husband" so we don't offend anyone's fragile sensibilities? How far do we go with this? This is getting ridiculous.

[Emdy]

I hate when I’m demeaned, belittled and objectified as a man when my dad’s friends ask him how his son is doing.

I haven’t laughed this hard at an online interaction in years. Thank you Ron.

[MrFender]

Let's stay on topic and just discuss the songs. Keep off the ancillary stuff please.

[Emdy]

If you smell what the Rock is cooking..What Do You Want From Me sounds like the Floyd tribute band played by the Floyd..I checked out as soon as Gilmours wife was writing all the lyrics...She will never amount to a Roger as a song writer.. Sorry,David

While her writing really isn’t my cup of tea either (I guess that makes me a misogynist, darn), the music on that whole album is just.. off. It has plenty of heavy-handed nods to prior work, but still manages to not really sound like Pink Floyd for a lot of the duration. Maybe it has to do with who was playing what, how the songs were composed, the production, I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like a natural evolution so much as an adaptation, if that makes sense.

Which is fine, a lot of people really love Division Bell. Something about the music rubs me the wrong way. Different strokes for different folks.

[stonytokes]

For all intents and purposes, TDB was essentially a Gilmour solo album again, just like AMLOR.

[Emdy]

It did start out as a proper band project, but from what I’ve read and interviews I’ve heard it does appear that towards the end it became more of a David and Company project.

[YASHA]

In my opinion this song (What Do You Want From Me) was just unlucky.

All the "sins" mentioned above and everything else that can be picked out, in my opinion, were simply an attempt to draw some completely ordinary and common everyday conflict.

An ordinary and common everyday conflict of ordinary people, of whom there are many millions. Probably this is what "deprived the face" of this song.

[Emdy]

I don’t think everything said has been to provoke some sort of conflict. My approach with topics like this involving two songs I don’t particularly love is to pick the lesser of two evils, and I tend to extrapolate on my reasoning with any topic. If people take personal offense to that, it’s on them.

[YASHA]

I meant that the song itself is "dedicated" to the conflict, etc.