{"id":20266,"date":"2026-02-04T13:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20266"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:41:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:41:01","slug":"the-beatles-song-john-lennon-accused-rod-stewart-of-ripping-off-thats-one-the-publishers-never-noticed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20266","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles song John Lennon accused Rod Stewart of ripping off: \u201cThat\u2019s one the publishers never noticed\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The bespectacled Beatle,\u00a0John Lennon, was less likely to hold his tongue than a football pundit after a couple of pints.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, his pronouncements were caustic, like his spat with the \u201cdarling\u201d Todd Rundgren, but other times, he was just being frank. That frankness certainly applies to the moment he accused Rod Stewart of a spot of pop plagiarism back in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it happens, Lennon was never overly guarded about originality. Much like any British band in the early 1960s, The Beatles gained their initial fame through a series of cover versions released to vast fanfare. The Fab Four, in a similar fashion to The Rolling Stones, leaned heavily on the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll spewing out from the United States as they rattled off multiple sets a night in Hamburg. Then, they later regurgitated Stateside staples into a perfectly formed pop hit for the British customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the Stones, however, The Beatles quickly moved on to writing their own songs in a bid for originality. As it happens, they even wrote the Stones\u2019 own breakthrough hit. However, despite switching towards self-written ditties, this new outlook wouldn\u2019t stop them from paying homage to some of their rock music icons like Chuck Berry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCartney once admitted that he had lifted Berry\u2019s bassline for \u2018I\u2019m Talking About You\u2019 and used it for The Beatles\u2019 own track \u2018I Saw Her Standing There\u2019, for example. As he confessed, \u201cI played exactly the same notes as he did, and it fit our number perfectly. When I tell people about it, I find few of them believe me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John<\/a>
Yoko Ono with John Lennon. (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That disbelief stems from the shimmering originality that the group displayed. On paper, it seems like too much of a dichotomy to be simultaneously the most unique band in history and the biggest thieves of the counterculture age, but both are gleefully true. In fact, one informs the other. Rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is all about taking what\u2019s good and making it sincerely your own. A well-dressed man doesn\u2019t have to have made his own clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nick Cave put it, \u201cThe great beauty of contemporary music, and what gives it its edge and vitality, is its devil-may-care attitude toward appropriation \u2014 everybody is grabbing stuff from everybody else, all the time<\/em>. It\u2019s a feeding frenzy of borrowed ideas that goes toward the advancement of rock music \u2014 the great artistic experiment of our era.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly, Lennon would\u2019ve agreed. His remarks about Rod\u2019s transposition of a Beatles classic are wry, but far from his most cutting. After all, he\u2019d been on the receiving end of an unfortunate allegation himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, \u2018I Saw Her Standing There\u2019 wouldn\u2019t be the last time Chuck Berry and The Beatles would cross paths. After the Fab Four shared their song \u2018Come Together\u2019, Lennon was forced to change a lyric following legal battering from Berry\u2019s publishers. This perhaps informed his outlook when his work, allegedly, was used by none other than Rod Stewart in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lennon\u2019s reckoning, the singer adapted one of The Beatles\u2019 final tracks into his own iconic song \u2018Killing of Georgie\u2019 \u2013 undoubtedly one of Stewart\u2019s finest anthems. When talking about the classic track \u2018Don\u2019t Let Me Down\u2019, Lennon wasn\u2019t shy about sharing his thoughts on Stewart\u2019s potential pilfering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy the way,\u201d Lennon later said to David Sheff, \u201cRod Stewart turned that into \u2018[Georgie] don\u2019t go-o-o.\u2019 That\u2019s one the publishers never noticed.\u201d Indeed, while the chords don\u2019t line up too neatly, the melodic phrasing is certainly very similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t seem to bother Lennon, though, who seemingly understood where Stewart was coming from. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t he just sing \u2018Don\u2019t Let Me Down\u2019? The same reason I don\u2019t sing other people\u2019s stuff,\u201d he explained, \u201cbecause you don\u2019t get paid.\u201d It\u2019s a smart assessment from a man who had made a career from the pinching of other people\u2019s material and turning it into a deeply personal expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Stewart responded to the claims via The Guardian<\/em>, using his cheeky, happy persona \u2013 and perhaps the fact that it was now 40 years down the road from the song\u2019s release \u2013 to offer a wry assessment: \u201cIt does sound like it,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing wrong with a good steal.\u201d It\u2019s a flippant remark, but one we imagine Lennon would have let Stewart get away with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure if you look back to the \u201960s, you\u2019d find other songs with those three chords and that melody line,\u201d Stewart added duly added. In truth, you could look at any era, both sides of \u2018Don\u2019t Let Down\u2019 and see plenty of binding ties. But the world is richer for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NCtzkaL2t_Y<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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