Don Adams aka Maxwell Smart has passed

[JSngry]

Inspector Gadger theme is a direct ripoff of Topsy -

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If by "Topsy" you're using code for "In The Hall Of The Mountain King", then I'll agree with you!

[BruceH]

similar intervals, last part VERY close - somebody shoulda sued someboday -

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C to F to E to F

vs

F (to C to E to F) to B to C

An E over a dominant C+ is the same as a B over an tonic F7?

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Would you believe....?

Man, I was startled to learn Don Adams was 82!! I always kind of assumed he was born in the 30's.

I can remember seeing the opening to Get Smart when I was a little kid and thinking it was a serious drama. The opening made it seem so exciting and cool. Later I used to watch repeats obsessively. (I'm talking about the color episodes. I never even knew they had a black & white season until much later when some obscure local channel showed a few.) I had kind of a thing for Babara Feldon's Agent 99----as much a kid in elementary school can have a thing for anyone, that is.

[AllenLowe]

1) getting back to this late - the whole feel of the Get Smart theme, the way it phrases etc etc is a real ripoff of Walkin - don't have the music in front of me but listen to both and you know the Get Smart composer ripped it off - listen to the opening phrase of Get Smart and the end - it doesn't have to be note for note to be a steal -

2) Inspector Gadget is almost exactly Topsy - I got a call from Eddie Durham's daughter about 10 years ago on this and she was talking about suing but I don't think anything ever came of it -

3) and Bag's Groove/Odd Couple Theme are absurdly close - Neal Hefti shoulda sent Milt Jackson some money on this one -

we're not talking theory but a theft of feeling and basic melodic material -

[DukeCity]

...and what's up with "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Bah-Bah Black Sheep" and the A-B-C alphabet song? Same damn tune, that's what!

Somebody shoulda got fired over that one!

[JSngry]

1) getting back to this late - the whole feel of the Get Smart theme, the way it phrases etc etc is a real ripoff of Walkin - don't have the music in front of me but listen to both and you know the Get Smart composer ripped it off - listen to the opening phrase of Get Smart and the end - it doesn't have to be note for note to be a steal -

2) Inspector Gadget is almost exactly Topsy - I got a call from Eddie Durham's daughter about 10 years ago on this and she was talking about suing but I don't think anything ever came of it -

3) and Bag's Groove/Odd Couple Theme are absurdly close - Neal Hefti shoulda sent Milt Jackson some money on this one -

we're not talking theory but  a theft of feeling and basic melodic material -

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1 - I don't hear it as a ripoff of anything at all, except of countless spy/detective show/movie themes that placed emphasis on color tones in a minor key (and along those lines, the bridge to the Perry Mason theme is freakin' GENIUS!). And even then, I'd have to consider it more of a subtle parody of those things than a ripoff of "Walkin'". Sure, both tunes hit their color tones on the upbeat going into the first measure, and both tunes end on a descending, almost sequential pattern, but good lord, how many other tunes do that? I can hear a similarity in those regards, but it's so general, with the actual specifics so different, that if I was to claim anything, it would be ingenuity, not theft.

2 - Absurdly close? The only similarity is that both use descending minor phrases that begin on the 5th scale degree and that both go to a subdominant chord after four bars. That's it! Chicago and Salt Lake City are both cities, and both have lakes. Are they also absurdly close?

3 - Now this one is just wrong! Inspector Gadget and Topsy would both apper to be derived from Greig's "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" to one degree or another, and Gadget is a helluva lot closer to it than it is to Topsy! Don't believe it? Listen for yourself and see, uh...HEAR! http://people.nnu.edu/wdhughes/mountain.mid

Now really, if it weren't for "theft of feeling and basic melodic material", we'd have hardly any Popular Music, would we!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[DukeCity]

Sngry, I don't know who that pianist is on that HOMK, but man, he's got rock solid time; and such a firm touch!

[BERIGAN]

...and what's up with "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Bah-Bah Black Sheep" and the A-B-C alphabet song? Same damn tune, that's what!

Somebody shoulda got fired over that one!

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Somebody has a big check to write to Mozart!

[JSngry]

Sngry, I don't know who that pianist is on that HOMK, but man, he's got rock solid time; and such a firm touch!

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[AllenLowe]

Jim -

1) not only do Get Smart and Walkin' sound too much alike - they have almost the identical chromatic descending phrase at the end (sure, they're 1 step apart, but that's a musical smokescreen) I know a lot of spy movies/tv shows used these basic blues phrases, but these two are just too close to avoid plagiarism charges -

2) Topsy: Sorry - gotta disagree with you her, whatever the source - we have two copywritten pop tunes, and Durham's came first -

3) Bag's Groove and the Odd Couple Theme have identical melodies, pure and simple.

Case closed -

Edited October 22, 2005 by AllenLowe

[JSngry]

NOT!

1 - I'll grant you the broad structural similarities, but that's it. If broad structural similarities were all that mattered, then Jayne Mansfield would be Mamie Van Doren. Case dismissed for lack of corroborating evidence!

2 - Objection overruled! Presuposes that thefts/borrowings/etc proceeds in a linear fashion, that once a source is "borrowed" from, then the next borrowing will be from the previous borrower. Would you similarly claim that anybody who was to write a TV show them with original lyrics and who paraphrased the melody to "O Sole Mio" was ripping off "It's Now Or Never"? Depends on the writer, of course, and since the Gadget theme was composed by Shuki Levy, I'd say that the odds were good that the Greig piece was more familiar to him than was "Topsy". In fact, if they says that I'm right RIGHT HERE, and since it's on the Internet, it's GOTTA be true!

3 - Contempt of court! "Identical" means identical, and since the opening phrase of "Odd Couple" has a 9th in it, that closes the case right there. Never mind that "Bags Groove" is a riff and that "Odd Couple" is a song melody that goes places after that opening phrase that are completely unrelated to "Bags Groove". Using a lingua franca riff as the basis for one phrase of an entire song is nowhere near the same as ripping off said riff, and prosecution should know better than to claim that it is.

Prosecution is hereby ordered to get the CD accompaniment to That Devlin' Tune on the streets with all due haste and to get another book on the market likewise.

Edited October 22, 2005 by JSngry