Submitted by Dave
Great comparison of The Eagles‘ mega hit “Hotel California” and Jethro Tull‘s 1969 track “We Used to Know”. The inspiration is also mentioned on the official Jethro Tull website.
Jethro Tull - "We Used to Know" (1969)
The Eagles - "Hotel California" (1976)
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Sounds nothing alike!
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They don’t sound that much alike except the chord progression, though you cannot deny the Eagles were influenced by Tull.
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They don’t sound alike tho that chrd progression is dead-on, exactly the same. We’re not talking about 3 chords in sequence, but 8!!
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Well, I came to this page because they sounded very alike to me. I’m not musician, but I have ears…
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The Eagles were the opening act for Jethro Tull in the 70′s. The chord progession is a total rip-off
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I am astounded that peope cannot hear the similarity. The melody is very similar and the timing and sentiment are also similar. In fact, I played the JT track for the first time ever this morning and though it sounded like Hotel California, hence I googled it and found this page. Listen again to the first mnute of each song.
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The Eagles toured with Jethro Tull in 71 and 72, but Don Felder wasn’t with the band yet and he supposedly wrote the music for Hotel California before he joined The Eagles in 74.
Inspired or influenced, don’t matter much to me, I think they are both great tunes, but I certainly notice those same 8 chords in a row that MP mentioned.
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Ripoff or not… certainly they sound VERY alike.
Those 8 chords are everything but little.
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ive also seen tulls song get compared to moody blues “nights in white satin” released 2 years prior to “we used to know”
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Exactly what I did
Happens from time to time, don’t blame anyone though. Must be hard not subconsciously adding bits and parts you’ve heard over the years.
People where way groovier on the whole borrowing thing back in the days, when music was alive.
God save the Kinks
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Descending 5ths progressions like these go back at least to Bach.
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