Recycled Riffs

[Hemisaurus]

You know how it is, when you hear a song and think, that riff sounds just like <insert name of some other song here>. Recently I've been noticing a lot of recycled riffs, but I've realised, you know what, that was a good riff to start with, and I don't mind hearing it in another song, in fact the more songs it goes into the better.

I think I'd rather hear a riff recycled into another song, than an outright cover of another song. Maybe someone can start a band using 100% recycled riffs 

[justinhedrick]

i'm drawing a blank on some examples, but i'm sure stoner rock is FULL of them . . .

[The Shocker]

Valis stole the Rockin' Is Ma Business riff for Motorbike

[Hemisaurus]

Just off the top of my head, Orgone Accumulator and On The Road Again but I don't know if that counts cause it's really just a standard blues riff.

[LogicalFrank]

I steal as many riffs as possible but I'm not telling where I stole them from.

[justinhedrick]

I steal as many riffs as possible but I'm not telling where I stole them from.

i play lady gaga songs at about 1/8 the speed . . . i bet you're a brittney spears guy, no?

[eyeprod]

I totally borrow riffs here and there, and I love to discover cool music that also has lifted ideas.  Lately I've been on a Motorhead study, not sure why I never did it before. Anyway, they have so many tunes that use riffs that I swear I've heard before, but can't place. Some of the riffs are even cheesy, like the chase is better than the catch is totally 80's mid tempo metal riff. On other songs too, it always ends up sounding like motorhead as they get into the song, and it always works, it makes you move, it rocks. They're a good band to study. I study music to get it into my head, and then it can manifest itself in my playing and writing.

[Hemisaurus]

Motorhead borrow a lot of riffs from Motorhead. There's some common riffs in their stuff.

[Worthless Willie]

I watched an interview with Buzz where they asked what made a great song.  He said "being able to hide what you're sealing really well".

[hayseed]

I would say that in metal, Sabbath already wrote em all, we just borrow and rearrange.
I steal from a few sometimes, sometimes blatantly but most of the time my "awesome riff that i just came up with" is somebody elses.
I have reused my own riffs throughout the years and the rewrites are never that good it seems.

[dogfood]

I'm more of a steal an arrangement kind of guy.  I sit around writing riffs and then hear a great song and think "those two riffs that I crammed together wouldn't sound like dog shit with a killer arrangment like Asteroid."

[mortlock]

i try not to use the same old tricks over and over again

[Hemisaurus]

I steal from a few sometimes, sometimes blatantly but most of the time my "awesome riff that i just came up with" is somebody elses.

Don't you hate it when that happens

[Lumpy]

Some ideas are just floating around in the universal consciousness, or whatever. I've had ideas (more often for visual art, but music too) and then later it shows up somewhere else. They sure as heck didn't steal those ideas from me, a complete unknown shlub. Along the same lines, you can find band interviews where the writer says 'hey, you guys sound a lot like ____' and the band replies that they've never heard of that other band. It's like bands with the same names, on opposite sides of the world... some things are just good ideas that many people might come up with.

[Lumpy]

Like 'shrimp', or 'plate of shrimp'.

[mawso]

Inertia's Cave by Cathedral ends up in a huge jam on the riff from Moby Dick, by Led Zep (of course)

and it fucking rules

[LogicalFrank]

I steal as many riffs as possible but I'm not telling where I stole them from.

i play lady gaga songs at about 1/8 the speed . . . i bet you're a brittney spears guy, no?

I have been disappointed by Lady Gaga's last two singles and both of Britney's have been kind of good.

[The Shocker]

Like 'shrimp', or 'plate of shrimp'.

John Wayne was a fag.   

[Hemisaurus]