10 Shameless Rock Ripoffs That Are Great
1. Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam (1992)
Pearl Jam guitarist, Mike McCready, has made no secret about the fact he's a massive Jimi Hendrix fan. All you need to do is listen to one or two tracks by the guy, to see where his influences are coming from. But there's one Pearl Jam song, in particular, that leaves any misgivings unwarranted.
Yellow Ledbetter sounds like an amalgamation of a number of Hendrix tracks all rolled into one. It's less of a blatant ripoff and more like the ultimate homage to McCready's guitar messiah. But the obvious track to point to is Little Wing. The licks aren't exact, but they're approximations of what Hendrix was doing.
Who can blame him? Hendrix changed the face of modern rock, and McCready certainly isn't the only guy to flaunt his admiration for him... , that's been John Frusciante's whole shtick.
If you've going to ripoff Hendrix, this is the way to do it... Besides, once Eddie Vedder starts singing, all thoughts of Hendrix go out the window when you focus on his inability to pronounce any of the lyrics, with any degree of audible discernibility - it's remarkable how much he commits to not being understood.