Steven sent in U2‘s “Peace on Earth” vs. John Mayer‘s recent release “Heartbreak Warfare” and pointed me to the Mayer chorus and the second verse of Peace on Earth.
I wasn’t too psyched about this one until I listened to the intro of Mayer’s Heartbreak and was immediately reminded of U2’s 1984 track “Bad” and figured that the combination of U2 similarities were enough.
U2 - "Peace on Earth" (2000)
John Mayer - "Heartbreak Warfare" (2009)
U2 - "Bad" (1984)
John Mayer - "Heartbreak Warfare" (2009)
Hi All, I have been wondering for years what U2 song I heard in this John Mayer song. Thank God I am not the only one who heard it. My (former) girlfriend declared I was nuts!
Spent about 20 hours combing through John Mayer catalogue. It is easier to find original and inspired work, mostly EP and first albums, than chords, melodies and soundscapes he’s not cribbed or copied outright. Curtis Mayfield, U2, Marvin Gay, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty, SRV, Squeeze, and so on. It would seem this is a talented lyricist who needs a songwriting partner as he had early in his career. Without a musical partner, it is highly probably that Mayer binge-listens to a song, so infatuated with it, that he re-pens it to make it his “own.” If you’ve ever been a songwriter, you’d know the trap. If you’re not a songwriter and never made a livin as one, you’ll be satisfied to stop and just say it is good music. Neither is really wrong IMHO so long as you listen and then buy the ‘real’ music that inspired him. If not, you’re essentially consuming Muzak. End of sermon.
Hehe. Yes, writing completely original music is … difficult. It’s even more difficult to make it good! I remember making music in high school and before any of our songs were recorded they would have song names like “Jawbreaker song” or “the U2 song” or whatever we thought the song reminded us of. You’ll read the same sort of thing on every website when people talk about original music (or films or any other type of art). Hell, I’m a big fan of the show Stranger Things myself. Even though it is highly derivative of shut classics as The Goonies or E.T. and many more I really enjoyed the story, the cinematography and everything else that made the show so popular. But hey, at least there’s Google to find this site when you type in something like “what does that John Mayer song sound like it’s driving me nuts” 🙂