Progress Is Derivative.

Case in point.

“The Shed” from Rainbow and “Are You Gonna Go My Way” from Lenny Kravitz.

From 1.10, check “The Shed” out, especially the riff and drum pattern behind it. And then play “Are You Gonna Go My Way” from Lenny Kravitz.

So can we conclude that due to these similarities, Blackmore is super original and Kravitz isn’t.

Not a chance.

Kravitz is doing what every artist before has done. Take from your influences, be inspired and do a new take on an old sound.

Because if you want to talk influences or being influenced, when Blackmore starts “The Shed”, for the first 11 seconds, he paraphrased the “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” vocal melody from The Beatles, who took the vocal melody from the A and D blues scales.

And on and on and on it goes, the cycle of influence.

But lawyers are convincing juries and judges that the work of the artist they represent is so super original that anyone else who uses it as influence is copying.

And juries believe it.

“All my life it seems, just a crazy dream”.

The words of Ronnie James Dio in “Light In The Black”. It’s a crazy dream alright when culture is pillaged by corporations (labels, publishing, fund managers who have purchased copyrights, tech services and lawyers) and the heirs of dead artists.

Money first, culture second as the real creators go back to the shed to write some more.