Rip Off This Joint

Hard-core Rock Turtleneck fan Dan Cassidy pitched a hot story idea to the RT editorial board: songs that are total rip-offs of the Rolling Stones. We greenlighted it without reading word one. Thanks, DC. Here's Part I. Have an idea for a post? Send an email to rockturtleneck@gmail.com

If “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, it’s a wonder The Rolling Stones can sit down with all the “flattery” that’s been paid to their rocking, wrinkly posteriors.

Like the Stones themselves, who started out by ripping off Chicago/Delta blues and Chuck Berry, a long list of artists have bellied up to the Stones’ bar and overindulged. But while the Stones also dabbled in country, English folk, disco and funk, the blues riff is their sweet spot.

Keith Richards' crunchy, twisted, open-tuned offerings are the riffs by which all others are measured. In fact, the sheer volume of rhythmic, plate-shifting riffs and hooks is enough to choke a Wild Horse: Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man, Happy, Rip This Joint, Rocks Off, Start Me Up, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Tumbling Dice, Bitch, Midnight Rambler, All Down The Line, Honky Tonk Women… OK, my wrist is cramping. He can flat out rock, is funky, and knows that not hitting the strings is sometimes as important as hitting them.

Well, it took some luck, more than a little…uh, chemistry, a one-of-a-kind frontman, a solid anchor banging the skins—and Keef, the riff savant, in the stormy center.

So let’s celebrate all that is derivative: great songs done in the style of the mighty Stones, in this case the Black & Blue nugget "Crazy Mama." No crime there. OK, maybe not outright theft, but there were definitely some fingerprints found at the scene.

The Black Crowes: “Jealous Again” (Shake Your Money-Maker, 1990)


"Crazy Mama" meets… "Crazy Mama." This is the first Stonesy riff we heard when the world met The Black Crowes — and it wouldn’t be the last. This, unfortunately, would be the Crowes’ high point. Soon after, they lost what little creative direction they had, and the Brothers Robinson's relationship devolved into a reality show worthy of the Brothers Davies.

"Jealous Again" is where their Keef fixation crossed paths with their affinity for another 60’s great, Rod Stewart, whose 1978 smash "Hot Legs" also borrowed liberally from "Crazy Mama."


OK boys, show 'em how it's done: