Hello everyone,

I just found out that the 'la da di da" song from the old K-Mart ads was by Phil Judd! What a cool surprise?

During the la da di da part, has anyone sung along the verses of While My Guitar Gently Weeps? They are VERY similar!

Just a bit creepy is all...

Can't say I'd noticed a Beatles connection, but I've always thought the bass-line in "Counting the Beat" sounded very similar to the Pretty Things' "Come See Me".

There was a Greenday song (I'm not a fan, just wanted to say that) that would have come out somewhere between 1997 and 1999 that was so close to counting the beat it wasn't funny. Very similar feel and very similar descending chords. Must admit I've never thought of While My Guitar Gently Weps when listening to the outro of counting the beat.

The song I think you're thinking of Camus is called Hitchin' A Ride and appears on Nimrod which came out in 1997.

Never noticed the similarity until you brought it up. But it's glaringly obvious.

But that's nothing new for Green Day. The verses of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" are musically a direct lift from Wonderwall by Oasis, or perhaps Writing To Reach You by Travis, which is admittedly lifted straight from Wonderwall anyway. Whilst the outro part is ripped lock stock and two smoking barrels (with one or two notes changed) sonically and musically from the outro to "Tongue" by Bell X1

Tee hee, and Green Day's "Hitching a Ride" also reminds me of Alien Ant Farm's "Glow". Although "Glow" itself does not remind me of "Counting the Beat". Or the Pretty Things for that matter.

does anyone know the chords?

From memory, I believe it goes from B to A to E for the verses. Then G,A,B - B,D,A for the piece going into the chorus, with a repeat of the verse for a bar or two before the "La Da dee Da" bit, which is where my memory is failing me. It's been a long time since I played it.

Hope this is of some help...

thanks, i'll give it a belt.

tricky thing is that it's Judd so you've got to take it into consideration. on the Mushroom birthday concert video back in '82 and when i saw Schnell Fenster play it, PJ is keeping on that b chord the whole time during the main part of the verse. so if you wanna play it like him, hold the b. not exactly the kind of song you can play on accoustic at a party. which is probably why it's never been covered. never, never would be even tougher!

I'm not technical enough to judge on the ctb bass line but it sounds pretty generic to me. Not just The Pretty Things (in fact I once was in a band called The Move Machiine and we used the Pretty Things "LSD" as a basis for a more psychedelic song called "ESP").Think of how many songs were based on the"Louie Loue", "Psycho" or "Steppin' Stones" chords. There's probably several other songs based on that bass/drum line. The imaginative use of guitar and voice, IMO, give the song its peculiarity.
I would LOVE to hear Schnell Fenster's version.

quote:

Originally posted by ::iarla:::
[qb] From memory, I believe it goes from B to A to E for the verses. Then G,A,B - B,D,A for the piece going into the chorus, with a repeat of the verse for a bar or two before the "La Da dee Da" bit, which is where my memory is failing me. It's been a long time since I played it.

Hope this is of some help... [/qb]

Who's Bell X1? I'm fascinated to hear this song of which you speak, ::iarla::

Hey ::iarla::, you mentioned how similar "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Wonderwall" and "Writing To Reach You" are?

Well some enterprising DJ also noticed the same thing and did a mash-up mix of all three songs called "Boulevard Of Broken Songs". It actually works quite well.

Maybe we could get that DJ to try and do a mash-up of "Counting The Beat" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" to see how similar they actually are - because I'm buggered if I can see the similarity!!

Ok, I busted into the Beatles archives and found this rare demo version of "WMGGW" with Phil Judd on background vocals, apparently it was originally named "While My Guitar Counts The Beat", but George thought it stank and gave it to Phil...

Hmm, I'm not so good at sound editing, so the tempos aren't quite the same, but you'll get the idea of what I've been talking about all along

Enjoy!

http://www.freewebs.com/oldjoesplace/guitarbeat.mp3

old green day do sound like they ripped off phil and the swingers, oscar wilde got it right. he said "talent borrows, genius steals"

I can see how you can work the two in together - But at the same time, I think that it's just that.

If you put the piece back into it's original context, it bears no relation in my opinion - Well what I mean is that there are many musical motifs you could take from one song, put them in another and they'd work,

But BWIG, It's the sign of a keen musical ear at work! Which is never a bad thing!

A similar bump in the SE Forum has inspired me to dig out Youtube clips for the Pretty Things' Come See Me, Green Day's Hitching a Ride, and Alien Ant Farm's Glow