re: Sam Smith/Tom Petty controversy

Love that last youtube - all you do is change the tempo and the key, and they sound exactly alike!

I think the real "copying" here is not the notes themselves but, as someone else noted, the accents. Singing 3-2-root isn't exactly an earth shattering melody, but STAY WITH ME, won't you, STAY WITH ME" tracks the way Petty sings won't back down too closely.

Anyway I once read an interview with Roger McGuinn (who came off as a complete a-hole btw) who accused Petty of ripping off the Byrds with American Girl. I think of that every time one of these __ is ripping off Petty stories comes out. I think Petty's music is so basic and so fundamental that it inevitably reminds you vaguely of something else you've already heard. Hell that's part of Petty's appeal. But it works both ways.