6 Incredible Songs That Took Lyrics from Other Songs: Radiohead, The White Stripes, and more

There's a very fine line between homage and plagiarism, but these six artists walked that line masterfully when writing the lyrics to these songs. Here are six incredible songs that took lyrics from other songs.

1. Radiohead - "Pyramid Song" (2001)

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has cited Tom Waits as one of his greatest musical influences, saying that Waits' purposeful ignorance of his own instruments inspired his own exploration of electronic music. Yorke subtly acknowledges this influence in Radiohead's classic "Pyramid Song," which contains one of Waits' greatest lyrics, "we all went to heaven in a little row boat," originally from Waits' "Clap Hands" from Rain Dogs.

2. Slint - "Nosferatu Man" (1991)

Because most of Slint's songs were originally written as instrumentals, the lyrics and vocals almost come off as afterthoughts, and the fact that they're kept low in the mix emphasizes this. I had heard "Nosferatu Man" about twenty times before I realized that one of the song's verses contains paraphrased Hank Williams lyrics. The lines, "I can be settled down/And be doing just fine/Until I heard that train/Rolling down the line," are taken from the classic Williams ballad "Ramblin' Man".

3. The White Stripes - "The Union Forever" (2001)

Jack White is an enormous fan of Orson Welles (his label Third Man Records is named after Welles' film The Third Man), and his most blatant expression of Welles fandom came in the White Stripes song "The Union Forever." Each lyric in the song is taken from Welles' classic film Citizen Kane, and the middle section comes from a song in the film.

4. Built to Spill - "You Were Right" (1999)

Built to Spill's Doug Martsch is one of indie rock's greatest lyricists, but this song from 1999's Keep It Like a Secret is famous for its repurposing of lyrics from ten other songs. Each line in the verses begins with "You were right when you said..." followed by a famous lyric from artists like Neil Young and Pink Floyd, though the chorus is slightly different, with Martsch singing, "You were wrong when you said everything's gonna be alright," a reference to Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry."

5. The Beastie Boys - "Johnny Ryall" (1989)

The Beastie Boys referenced Bob Dylan lyrics in a few songs, such as "Funky Donkey" and "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win," but one of the group's earliest Dylan references came in 1989's "Johnny Ryall," when Mike D and Ad-Rock dropped the line, "He ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more," a line from Dylan's "Maggie's Farm," of course.

6. Bruce Springsteen - "Racing in the Street" (1978)

"Racing in the Street" is undoubtedly one of Bruce Springsteen's saddest and greatest songs, but the title is actually a play on a much more upbeat song. At the end of the first verse, Springsteen sings, "Summer's here and the time is right/for racing in the street," a reference to the classic Martha and the Vandella's single "Dancing in the Street," though Springsteen's mournful tone couldn't be any further from that song's classic Motown atmosphere.

Tags

Radiohead, Tom Waits, Slint, Hank Williams, The White Stripes, Jack White, Thom Yorke, Built to spill, The Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen