Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Soul Asylum Vs. The Rolling Stones, Who ya got?

This is a continuing series on my blog about songs that sound the same.  This is the second blog on this subject.  Here's the first:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/monster-magnet-vs-cream-who-ya-got.html

I was at a few yard sales the other day.  I noticed with the invention of the Ipod, people are getting rid of their CD's.  The good news is that, they generally sell them for one dollar a piece.  I picked up a few that I had missed in the early 90's.  One of the CD's I picked up was Soul Asylum's Grave Dancers Union.  What was funny is that I had their second album, Let Your Dim Light Shine, but had never got around to getting their first album even though it was the better album.


So I'm listening to the whole album as a drive around.  I hear a song that is slightly familar.  I looked at the CD, and saw the song was called, "Without A Trace."  And then, of all the weird things, the memories came flooding back.  Grave Dancers Union was famous for three songs, 1. Somebody To Shove," "Black Gold," and "Runaway Train."  After those songs were played to death Soul Asylum released another song that didn't get much airplay.  That was "Without A Trace."


Here is was twenty years later, and there was something overly familar with the song even though I hadn't heard it for years.  Then it hit me, it was the same melody as The Rolling Stones song, "As Tears Go Buy."


Going all the way back to 1965, The Rolling Stones had a hit with their first ballad with "As Tears Go By," from the album, December's Children (And Everyone's.)


I gotta say, Soul Asylum's take on it is quite brilliant.  The melody is a bit unusual, but really stands out.  If you are going to rip off an artist (or artists,) you might as make rip off the talented ones.

3 comments:

  1. Just happened the same to me, looked on the web to see if somebody else noticed the similitude with the RS' song and ended up on this old post. Soul Asylum was a two (maybe three) hit wonder band.

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  2. And so did I today, but I have had Without a trace as a favourite for many years. Today I heard As tears goes by for the first time and the similarity hit me directly. Great songs both.

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  3. This blog post resonates so much with me, I'm here listening to spotify and the song as Tears go By comes on and I find myself singing along with the lyrics of Without a Trace by Soul Asylum and googled it and came across this post. It's crazy how vivid this connection was.

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