Steve Strange and Midge Ure must be pissed.
I heard this song on the radio today- when I heard the intro, I thought it was a remake of Visage's classic 80s hit "Fade to Grey." However, it was the new Kelly Osbourne song "One Word."
Hell, this is a really blatant ripoff. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a lawsuit about this.
Let's start looking at the ripoffs- and this is off the first time I heard it on the radio:
1. The melody to the first line is identical. The rest of the cadence nearly so.
2. It's got the foreign speech- French? I don't have an ear for languages.
3. The synth lines both in the intro and underlying the entire song are virtually identical.
As Rog says, this is a rip of an 80s classic being reintroduced for 14-year olds.
4 comments:
You forgot to mention that it sucks in comparison too. I had this mix tape back in '95 with "Fade to Grey", Prince's "Erotic City", and some Type-O Negative thrown in for good measure. I'm gonna have to hunt that down.
I never knew Midge Ure was in Visage, I always just thought of him as the Ultravox, "Do They Know It's Christmas" guy. Dayam.
I wonder if somebody will cover Ultravox's "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes". Hell, I say if you can't beat 'em join 'em... what are some other New Wave songs that would probably hit it big right about now (the funk soul brother)? Hmmmm. I think a rap cover of "88 Lines about 44 Women" would blow away the competition, I could see Marilyn Manson making a comeback with Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf", how about Eminem sampling "Turning Japanese" for a rap song but calling it "Turning North Korean" and starting WWIII [the video would feature legions of bowl cut blonde white boys with squinty eyes plowing farms with scratch plows while they dance the Kim Jong Il (wouldn't that be a great leadin for Entertainment Tonight or Extra! Extra!?, or Bill Murray covering "More Than This"? wait that already happened (plus, I'd call that more glam rock than new wave).
Holy crap, I just put on Ultravox's "Dancing with Tears in my Eye". What an awesome cheesy song. I love that bit in the All Music guide about how Ure knew they'd be big when he saw people doing "air synthesizer" after a concert.
Maybe they're not pissed. Have you seen the song credits? Even if they're not credited, they may still have licensed the tune.
Yeah, good point. Also, Strange isn't credited on the song, at least not according to All Music Guide:
Fade to Grey.
It's credited to Currie, Payne and Ure. I just assumed that Solid Neon's post title was a bit of transference of his own pissed offness.
The google search for "one word" "fade to grey" "kelly osbourne" reveals other people talking about this and the fact there's some Visage mashups out there. Also, Chris De Burgh's "One WOrd" is in some people's winamp playlists. egads.
Btw, that is French in both "Fade to Grey" and "One Word."
Post a Comment