This week, Lana Del Rey stated that she is being sued for copying Radiohead’s 1992 song Creep in her 2017 release, Get Free.
It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing – I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 7, 2018
First, some facts…
- Both songs use the same chord sequence: | I | I | | III | III | | IV | IV | iv | iv |
- Creep is in G major, so | G | G | B | B | C | C | Cm | Cm |
- Get Free is in Bb major, so | Bb | Bb | D | D | Eb | Eb | Ebm | Ebm |
- They are both mid-tempo (Creep is around 92 BPM; Get Free is around 102BPM).
- They both have a similar rhythmic feel – straight 8s 4/4 time, in 8-bar sections (this is a similarity but an unremarkable one, given that it applies to a huge number of songs).
…and some history…
- Creep is part-borrowed from Albert Hammond’s The Air That I Breathe (1972) – later a hit for The Hollies. According to The Guardian, Radiohead gave Hammond and his co-writer Mike Hazlewood a credit in the Pablo Honey album liner notes.
Here are the three songs in reverse order of release:
