Friday, March 7, 2014

Did Aerosmith Knock Off David Bowie's "Fame" with "Last Child?"

I was working out the other day when Aerosmith's 70's classic Last Child came up on the old iPhone.  Given my age and the amount of music I've listened to in my life, I'd venture that I've heard that song well over 500 times.  But somehow, upon my last listen, something struck me as oddly familiar.

It took me a while to figure it out, but it finally hit me: the song is eerily similar to David Bowie's hit Fame.

I present both to you for your consideration:



Here are where I see the similarities:

  • Both songs employ soft lead-ins and then immediately convert over to a strong funky groove
  • While time signatures differ, the grooves themselves are very similar
  • The staccato,. machine gun-like drum riff exists on both and is nearly identical
  • Both songs' lead-outs are very similar as well
I very well may be wrong with this.  In fact, if you perform a Google search on it you won't find much that talks about it, which likely means that I'm barking up the wrong tree.  However, to my seasoned, albeit damaged hearing, it sure sounds similar. 

5 comments:

  1. I was just listing to this on tunein radio and was thinking the same thing. Amazing how artists don't realize that being too close for comfort is not a credit to the original artist. But some bands have blinders on sometimes it seems.

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  2. I was thinking this too - and Earl Slick, who played with Bowie (not on Fame) has covered the Aerosmith track.........

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  3. I just came across Aerosmith Last Child track and immediately noticed similarity to David Bowie's Fame (released previous year). I googled to see if this has been talked about and found only this thread.

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