George Harrison and plagiarism

In 1971, George Harrison was sued for plagiarizing The Chiffon's "He's So Fine" on "My Sweet Lord." You can read all about it here. Neon Phosphor believes the plagiarism charges were unfounded and ridiculous, and even if Harrison did copy the melody, "My Sweet Lord" is a vast improvement over "He's So Fine."

The reason for this post, however, is to show an interesting similarity between Harrison's 1979 hit "Blow Away," and Enya's 1988 hit "Orinoco Flow."

Here's the music video to "Blow Away":



And here's Enya:



"Blow away, blow away, blow away" versus "Sail away, sail away, sail away." Coincidence? Probably.

"Do the Tonics plagiarize?"----See the list below:

• The opening chords of "Sunday Night" are lifted from Dave Clark Five's "Because"
• The organ part during the second half of the "Mean Song" verse is from Del Shannon's "Runaway."
• The "ba ba ba ba" harmonies on "Distance" is based on "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys.
• "Save The Day" borrows from Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" and The Strokes' "The End Has No End."
  
• The beginning of "Get Things Done" is "Embarrassment" by Madness (according to Johnny Cashpoint of somesongs.com)
• The guitar riff on "Lucy" is a modified version of Nirvana's "All Apologies" riff.
  
• The inclusion of "Bartleby" rips off Pet Sounds in a conceptual way.
• The harmonies at the end of "Lucy Tricked Me Into Something" is similar to "Because" on The Beatles' Abbey Road. Also, the descending flute/organ part is a conscious attempt to copy that flourish on the second verse of "God Only Knows."
  
• The ooh-la-las on the third verse of "Hamlet" is from The Beatles' "You Won't See Me."
• The electric piano on "Greenback" is a lot like the one on The Doors' "Riders On The Storm."
  
• The verses of "Love Makes People Stupid" rip off the whole genre of flamenco music.
  
• "Elegy For Anne Bancroft" rips off "Neon Phosphor" by Sculpted Static.
• "Thank You" is so completely ripped off Sculpted Static that it is literally the same take of the song that appeared on Sunny Ash.