A while ago, I mentioned that the riff to the Doors' "Hello, I Love You" was based on the Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night". I've found another potential reworking of a Kinks riff: listen to the riff from their song "Brainwashed" and I'm pretty sure you'll notice a similarity to the one Joy Divison used in "She's Lost Control". I've read that Joy Division sometimes borrowed riffs from Black Sabbath (!!), so it wouldn't be so surprising if the riff is indeed a reworking of the Kinks' song. This just makes me feel sorry for the Kinks: although to the public they're nowhere near as famous as their peers, it seems that other musicians were really quite enamoured with their work! (Then again, don't tell me that the bridge in the middle of "Mr. Churchill Says" doesn't sound awfully close to "It's Alright Ma"...)

While I'm on the subject of music, I was quite excited to see that a biography of Neil Young was on TV today, but I ended up being quite disappointed. I guess it's wrong to expect much from a one hour show - there really isn't adequate time to send across any sort of comprehensive message. But I found myself wondering who the biography was aimed at; fans (like me!) would be disappointed that there was virtually no talk about any of the albums, and not a single song clip!! People not really acquainted with Young's work wouldn't have gotten a lot out of it either, because the first half was spent talking about his roots and his early days. Such things are important, but there was a disproportional amount of time devoted to it; if it were used as a base for the rest of the program, I could understand it, but it was just sort of...there, and didn't do anything. I was so disappointed that I didn't even bother to see the Paul Simon biography that immediately followed. Once it was over though, I was told it was quite excellent actually. Don't I just have all the luck?!