sly & the family stone-cloned dance to the music a milion times, but hey it's one of the best songs ever, who can blame 'em. Sly liked to milk something for all its worth and that's part of what made him so loveable (the fuzz bass on the dance to the music album, the fuzz guitar on life, the double-tracked bass, wah wah scat box and phased drums on Stand!)

James Brown-I guess there isn't really any particular song that he reused, but a lot his songs sound quite similar, but for a man who invented at least one genre and was a midwife in a few others, I'm not holding any grudges.

Stevie Wonder-Superstition is up there with the definitive funk-rock tunes of all time, but you can't argue with the fact that "Higher ground" "You Haven't Done Nothing" and a few other earlier songs(Do Yourself A Favor), sound a lot like it. Doesn't matter to me though; I'd rather have him fill all his next album with replicants of this song than the comparatively sappy borderline AC, but still mostly good and occasionally great stuff he's been releasing since 1980.

Prince-Ok, maybe he doesn't have a "dance to the music", but he's done his share of use and reuse. The Question Of U=Under The Cherry Moon, 1+1+1 is 3=Erotic City, I could go one but there've been whole threads devoted to this.

The Ramones-All their songs sound the same to me and I don't really like them, but I guess they spawned some sort of "movement" or something.

The Beatles-Yes even the almighty Beatles weren't totally original all of the time, in fact a strong argument can be made that every track on Sgt. Pepper (for the most part) has its rawer, edgier antecedent on Revolver, which is during their alleged artistic prime.

Led Zeppelin-I'm not really that deep into their catalogue, but I can tell that there's enough homogeneity between a numer of their songs to warrant an entry in this list.

Jimi Hendrix-Three studio albums and they're all classics, but let's face it, practically all his ballads are the same. Don't get me wrong, they're all fantastic, but still.
[Edited 2/17/05 19:34pm]

Dance To The Music is one of the best songs ever!!!!!

I disagree with all of those artist u mentioned.

AcDc is the ultimate in recycling..there's more I will come up with.

Jesse Johnson's stuff kinda sounds the same in the 80's. He never really switched up his style

Rick James---let's face it,many of his songs had the same themes (usually about a freaky girl that he admires,lol)...


"Super Freak"(1981)
"Hard To Get" (1982)
"Cold Blooded" (1983)
"U Bring The Freak Out"(1983)
"17" (1984)
"Sweet and Sexy Thing" (1986)
"Loosey's Rap" (1988)


granted,these are good songs,but they all basically say the same thing.

Michael Jackson definately.

Thriller... Heartbreak Hotel... Ghosts... Is It Scary

Man In The Mirror... Cry

And all those femme fatale dance tracks...

Dangerous... Heartbreaker... Blood On The Dancefloor.

jacktheimprovident said:

I completely disagree with you about Led Zeppelin. They are known for always having done something new with each album they put out. With the exception of the first two albums, which I agree are very similar and are really just blues-based rock, Zeppelin III was completely different than their first two and the critics hated it because it was a folk based album with a lot of acoustic on it, and everyone expected the hard rock riffs.

Zeppelin IV was yet again totally different from III, and so on with Houses of the Holy, onto Physical Graffiti, etc. Zeppelin took in influences and musical styles as diverse as hard rock, folk, Middle-eastern styles, rock-a-billy, world music, ballads, blues, and country. Hell, they even added reggae ad funk-tinged sounds in Houses of the Holy. And live? Man they played everything in their extended jams where for example during the 30 minute Whole Lotta Love live version, Page goes into some wicked pre-punk riffs in the middle of it, switches to a crazy reggae-meets-rock-a-billy groove, then onto a funky little jam. And "No Quarter" live starts out as the spacey-psychedelic number that it is, and then delves into classical piano from John Paul Jones, which morphs into a full-on latin workout. It just blows my mind every time I hear it.

Of course, they have their own "sound" that can be easily identified, but I think they really tried not to get stuck in a rut musically. It was the whole reason they refused to release singles.

Jimmy Page is quoted as saying, "When Houses of The Holy came out, the label were like, Well, there's no Stairway To Heaven. But when we did the third album, they'd been like, Well, there's no Whole Lotta Love....."Our approach to each album was radically different each time. Many bands would have some success, and because they were locked into having a single-unlike us-they had to make sure there was something similar on the next album. So something that sounded quite vital at first, sounded stale the second time around. That was never the idea with Zeppelin. The idea was to keep that spark of spontaneity at all times."

I started out as a casual Zeppelin fan, but the more I get into them, the more I hear live recordings and see DVDs of their live shows, and really listen to their later output, it has made me a downright fanatic about them. Don't get me wrong, it's not as if I think they could do no wrong, not at all, it's just that their music gets more and more interesting every time I hear it. Just listening to Page's "guitar army" in full effect, his numerous overdubs on their studio albums, and just the production in general, there's always something new I'm discovering even after all this time.


And looking over the rest of your list in detail, I don't really agree with the others you listed either. Except for The Ramones (and perhaps James Brown). I like The Ramones, but you're right. All their songs are pretty much the same.

[Edited 2/18/05 7:13am]
[Edited 2/18/05 7:15am]

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[Edited 2/18/05 9:19am]

C'mon, everyone recycles themselves at some point or another. Does anyone really release album after album that is in no way similar at all lyrically, thematically or musically to any other of their previous albums? Anyone?