5 Famous Guitar Riffs That Are Ripped Off

In this video we're analyzing some classic riffs everyone knows and find out that maybe it's not written by who you think it is!

▶SUPPORT PATREON◀

▶FOLLOW ME◀

▶MY COURSES◀

▶GUITARS◀
Gibson ES-335
Gretsch Duo-Jet

0:00 Riff 1
1:31 Riff 2
4:25 Riff 3
6:18 Riff 4.1
7:30 Riff 4.2
9:51 Electric Elevation
10:51 Riff 5

Hi, my name is Paul Davids! I am a guitar player, teacher, producer, and overall music enthusiast from the Netherlands! I try to inspire people from all over the world with my videos, here on YouTube.

Thank you for watching!
Paul

Below is the gear and services I use to make these videos. They redirect to websites and provide me with a small kickback should purchase any of these things.

▶GEAR LIST◀

▶SFX & Background music◀

▶MICS◀

▶SOUND◀

▶VIDEO GEAR◀
50mm:

[Maynard]

-no intro
-no nonsense
-straight to the topic
-legendary beard

perfect video

[tarik]

Everybody knows that Johnny B Goode was first played by Calvin Klein in 1955

[kedbreak]

“The 1-4-5 from the blues, the 2-5-1 from the jazz, the 808 from hip-hop” - what a good line!

[ricoludovici]

Chuck wrote in his autobiography that you took something good and "worked on it until it became original." And he actually mentioned that the JBG lick came from a song he knew from years ago.

[robdavis]

"Lets just call it inspiration and move on." Very sound advice. Excellent video, Paul.

[Bezgels]

As well as musicians inspiring other musicians, every musician these days knows the feeling of writing the best piece you’ve ever made then realizing it’s literally just the last song you listened to

[knotwilg]

I once wrote a song and when I played it to my guitarist he said: "Yeah, man I don't know, that sounds a lot like Sultans of Swing". And there I was, Sultans of Swing being one of my favorite all time tunes. I had been so immersed into the creation and so proud of the result that I was completely oblivious to the blatant influence it had on this tune I wrote

Edit: I understand this can be interpreted as me boasting about having written SoS again, including the amazing solos. Of course that's not what happened. It's more about the chord structure and the overall feel of the song. And what I wrote isn't nearly as great as SoS. Hope that's clear!

[khaymanib]

I know this video is a few months old but for riff 5 I think it started with Deep Purples "Burn". It's completely impeccable. That track came out in 1974

[ProgrammedForDamage]

Adding the 'Come As You Are' vocals over 'Eighties' and 'Life Goes On' sounded brilliant.

[heavynov]

Blackmore is kind of notorious for messing with interviewers. My favourite bit was when he explained to a journalist how his mother was a gypsy and had taught him all manner of superstitions and magical rituals and that his dad had worked at the airport.

[chrishalemusic]

Coming up with something that hasn’t been done can be difficult but it also gives some insight to why we guitar players gravitate to innovators who do something fresh and new that we can’t categorize.

[notpsicoh]

The second half of the guitar solo in Johnny B Goode (the part with the breaks) is also 100% lifted from a T Bone Walker guitar solo from 1949 or 1950.

[fewwiggle]

I always took the "Revolution" riff as a homage to the old blues/rock -- I don't think they were pretending to be plowing new ground.

[Chief_Brody]

I always knew about Killing Joke/Nirvana but didn't know about The Damned doing it first! You truly can learn something new every day.

[zachary]

Once I listened to an album my bro gave to me, and one of the songs had the exact riff - the EXACT riff - that the band I played in at the time used for the chorus to one of our songs. Our singer, who wrote the riff, had never heard that song before.
There’s just not too much variation you can really get from 12 notes, especially when you’re playing blues-influenced music that relies on five notes.

[TNdawg]

Love this! I used to get caught up in artists “stealing” riffs but I’ve honestly broadened my view. If an artist can take something and make it their own then by all means. There is definitely still such a thing as “stealing” a song but most of these weren’t. Great vid

[Chiro]

The Come A You Are riff can be found on 22 Faces by Garden of Delights, too, also from 1984 and released a few months before Killing Joke’s version.

[markleveson]

Paul, your demeanour is always so warm and lovely. Don't ever change. Thanks for all you do. 🤘🎸

[Ανδρέας-ΓεώργιοςΣκίννερ]

Mentioning Budgie makes Paul even more of a legend than he already was

[stegra]

Very pleased to hear The Damned mentioned. So often Killing Joke are the only comparison given. It feels like a petty that The Damned didn't make more of that baseline than throw it away on a filler track on the Strawberries album, particularly as they are my favourite band of all time and made me aware that there was a totally different scene outside 'the hit parade' back in the early '80s. Well worth the 15 miles walk home after my first time seeing them live.