Men at Work 'ripped off kiddies' song'

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
yes i read that, however from the kids singing and the men at work song its fairly difficult i think to make a connection, otherwise it may be construed that all music is essentially related in that while the variations of notes in the musical sequence are infinite and which indeed give the music its character, the notes themselves are commonly shared. id just like to hear the simply melody of both the tunes to make a comparison.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. ta ta ta ta ta tata ta ta ta. is the answer part of the flute riff. The call part of the riff that sets up KSITOGT is its own thing inmho.

The flute is doing a lot more around that basic pattern, but its still essentially that.

I havent read up on the argument but I suppose it must hang on that phrase functioning as a leitmotif of sorts, but one that appeals to the unconscious mind?

I mean its not like people were spontaneously breaking out into KSITOGT everytime the song was played and that flute riff appeared. Given Australians wont to bring down tall poppies and mangle culture, you would have thought that during the course of some drunken revelry, if the association had been that obvious people would have been singing that.

Maybe thats the point that the people who controlled the rights to the song felt that it was that successful because it incorporated such a brilliant riff that worked because it was based on this awesome musical statement that had been 'borrowed' without so much as a do you mind, please or thankyou.

All I know of plagiarism is that all Men At Work would have to show is some evidence of similar phrases and phrasings being used in folk/celtic music preceding KSITOGT.

Its a strategy that worked for many a rock band. Find a public domain tune that predates the song in question and you are home and hosed.

Originally posted by kmax87
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. ta ta ta ta ta tata ta ta ta. is the answer part of the flute riff. The call part of the riff that sets up KSITOGT is its own thing inmho.

The flute is doing a lot more around that basic pattern, but its still essentially that.

I havent read up on the argument but I suppose it must hang on that phrase functioning as ...[text shortened]... band. Find a public domain tune that predates the song in question and you are home and hosed.

A proposal

Someone could develop a "melody search" program.

The recording industry would then assemble a database of all music ever written or recorded. You could then type in the notes of any melody, and the "melody search" would go through the database and produce a list of the songs containing the closest matches.

All songwriters would then be required to run all pieces of their songs through this program to see if there are any close matches. If so, royalties would have to be paid to the person holding the rights to those songs. It wouldn't matter whether the songwriter deliberately copied from someone else. The songwriter would either have to change his song or pay the appropriate royalties

Originally posted by kmax87
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. ta ta ta ta ta tata ta ta ta. is the answer part of the flute riff. The call part of the riff that sets up KSITOGT is its own thing inmho.

The flute is doing a lot more around that basic pattern, but its still essentially that.

I havent read up on the argument but I suppose it must hang on that phrase functioning as ...[text shortened]... band. Find a public domain tune that predates the song in question and you are home and hosed.

i dont know what the Aussies national anthem is, but my goodness men at work is as good a candidate as one is likely to come across. i remember watching the Aussies i think play Croatia and the place was bouncing. i wish we had a national anthem like that, ours is ok, a bit of a kind of war dirge about tanking King Edward and sending him 'hame tae think again', but its not bouncy like Men at work. Other candidates might be , i dunno, some AC/DC number, its a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll, or something, those statesmen aught to get their act together.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
i dont know what the Aussies national anthem is, but my goodness men at work is as good a candidate as one is likely to come across. i remember watching the Aussies i think play Croatia and the place was bouncing. i wish we had a national anthem like that, ours is ok, a bit of a kind of war dirge about tanking King Edward and sending him 'hame tae ...[text shortened]... e top if you wanna rock n roll, or something, those statesmen aught to get their act together.

Chisels 'khe Sanh' probably gets the vote as unofficial anthem. Previously Waltzing Matilda had the gong but I haven't seen anyone under 50 go starry eyed at the singing of it the way that a gooden drunken chorus of

'Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone......yeah!

Though you'd have to go far to beat 'Down Under'. I mean it comes pre-packaged with a boxing kangaroo. Very hard to beat that. Its crowd dependent. For an RSL or Karaoke crowd on a Saturday night, it'l be Khe Sahn everytime!