Does Garden Party rip off Run Boy Run?

[Scarlet Sun]

At least unintentionally? Sorry if this question has been posed before . . .

[sodascouts]

I went back to listen to Run Boy Run and Garden Party, and I can see what you mean in that the opening lines sound alike. I think that's probably just a coincidence, though. It seems like a pretty basic melodic structure.

[bernie's bender]

I don't think so...

a rip off would include several characteristics: 1) the ripoff artist would have had to hear the original he was stealing from. 2) there has to be significant portions of the ripoff song that completely mirror the original.

it is possible that Rick heard Longbranch Pennywhistle, but just as likely that he hadn't. The descending line intro to Garden Party is very different from Run, Boy Run and while there are similarities in the first line on several notes, there are differences... the chord changes in the song are significantly different, so I think Ricky is safe.

Here is an interesting article about the He's So Fine/My Sweet Lord case. When you listen to those songs or the Ghostbusters/I wanna new drug songs... you can really hear a true ripoff..

My college girlfriend was the Nelson's babysitter (Woodland Hills go ahead!)... I may contact her and ask if she ever saw a Longbranch Pennywhistle record there... she is a pretty big music fan and might remember... on the other hand, I think she might still be mad at me!

[Scarlet Sun]

it is possible that Rick heard Longbranch Pennywhistle, but just as likely that he hadn't.

Maybe he heard them once in the Troubadour . . . perhaps it was something like that.

[bernie's bender]

totally possible although Rick was touring like crazy back then... and it wasn't until the Ronstadt band that Randy met Glenn... and Randy was working with Rick before Poco...

[sodascouts]

Glenn has said he'd seen Randy at the Troubadour performing with Nelson, although they hadn't spoken to each other. Guess the opposite could be true, too!

[bernie's bender]

totally possible... Glenn would totally remember Rick coming to his show though.... that would have been a big deal... Everybody Glenn's age grew up with little ricky and even if you were in your "i'm too hip for ozzie and harriet" phase... it would have been memorable.

like the kristofferson thread... Rick in person was just, well, beautiful. Even as he aged and even in the 'coke' years, he was still startlingly handsome.

I met he and Kris once and oh my... I am not usually to impacted by meeting people who are famous... only a few people that I've met have startled me with their looks.... Kris and Ricky were two..... almost like alien beings...

I'd just bet that Glenn would have mentioned it. If you've been to shows at the troubador, it is not a big place and you can see pretty much everything going on...

[miket156]

I guess everyone knows that Garden Party was written after Nelson and his band got booed off the stage at Madison Square Garden. They were invited to play in a oldies show (Fifties music) and they had long hair and didn't dress as the other Fifties oldie groups. The crowd didn't like it. My sister lived in NYC at the time and she was at that show. She sad she couldn't believe how rude and nasty the crowd was to Nelson and his band, even for New Yorkers which are usually pushy and rude anyway.

Rick Nelson had a difficult time in his music career after the TV show was gone. He and his music never really gained wide acceptance.


Mike T.

[sodascouts]

Hi Mike - welcome!

Very cool that your sister was at the infamous "Garden Party" show. The good news is he got a hit out of it, right? Still... wow. I would never boo a performer, even if I wasn't into his stuff.

[MikeA]

I experienced something like that once. Back around '73 I think. Fayetteville, Arkansas. Went to a Doobie Bros concert. A relatively unknown group outside of Northwest Arkansas and Southern Missouri was opening for the Doobs. A group called Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Crowd went absolutely wild for them and when they ended there set without an encore and the Doobs came out, the crowd was sort of "Okay, lets get this cert OVER and get out of here." It was so lackluster a response to the Doobie Bros that they must have shortened their planned set realizing that they weren't capturing the audience.

But they were not actually "Booo'ed".