“Carpetbaggers” (Jenny Lewis, 2008)

“Love is a Rose” (Neil Young, 1974)

When I first heard “Carpetbaggers” it sounded like exactly like “Love is a Rose” to me, and I clearly wasn’t the only one — see here for at least one person who beat me to it. (“Rose” was a hit for Linda Ronstadt, by the way, not for Young himself.) But then I saw some online comments comparing it to Tom Petty’s “Apartment Song,” which is also pretty close:

“The Apartment Song” (Tom Petty, 1989)

Even Neil himself seems to have copied the melody from his own song “Dance, Dance, Dance,” and they both sound a bit like the Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia” from a year earlier. That’s at least five re-workings of the same melody, and I’m sure there have been more, but “Carpetbaggers” is the first one that doesn’t work for me. The others all have simple, bittersweet lyrics that match the wistful tune, but “Carpetbaggers” is just trying too hard to be clever.

“Dance, Dance, Dance” (Neil Young, 1971)

“Sugar Magnolia” (Grateful Dead, 1970)