In January 1973 at the height of the glam rock craze, two singles with instantly memorable but remarkably similar riffs were both enjoying chart success: The Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster!’ and David Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’, each released by RCA records. Which came first? Were they both dreamt up independently? Did one copy off the other? Or did they both draw on influences from somewhere else?
In the folk world songs have always been adapted, evolved and passed on. In the rock world that sort of behaviour is more likely to get you involved in lengthy court cases and costly lawsuits. But in folk there has been over a century of legitimate and rigorous study looking into the often murky origins of traditional songs and tunes. A simple question therefore is: can the principles of studying folk in determining song origins also be applied to glam rock?
We start with the song ‘Blockbuster!’ written by The Sweet’s then songwriting team of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, recorded on 1st November 1972 in London and released in January 1973. In Dave Thompson’s Sweet biography ‘Block Buster’, The Sweet’s Steve Priest recalls Chapman playing his idea for a new song on an acoustic guitar while they were backstage at the BBC waiting to go on Top Of The Pops to perform ‘Wig Wam Bam’ (most likely their appearance on 14th September 1972).
The riff was remarkably similar to David Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’ recorded on 6th October 1972, released in November 1972 and in the charts at the same time. “While en route to Tennessee, ‘The Jean Genie’ was developed from an impromptu tour bus jam,” in September 1972 recounts the Mick Ronson biography, ‘The Spider With The Platinum Hair’ by Weird & Gilly. This would have been just prior to the band’s gig in Memphis which is recorded as taking place on 24th September 1972, several days after Mike Chapman strummed the riff for Blockbuster to Steve Priest on the other side of the Atlantic.
Both sides have always denied copying one another and given both ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘The Jean Genie’ were recorded and released around the same time it seems unlikely that either would have had time to secretly copy the other, then get it recorded and released, all within the confines of the same record company, RCA.
What is far more likely is that they were both influenced by the Yardbirds’ 1965 hit ‘I’m a Man’.
Alwyn Turner’s website Glitter Suits & Platform Boots quotes The Sweet’s Andy Scott as follows: “And then, you wouldn’t believe this, before our release we were in the office of the guy who was our contact at RCA and he played us the new David Bowie record, he played us ‘Jean Genie’. And I went, ‘That’s the same guitar riff,’ and he went, ‘Is it?’ This is a record company guy and I’m saying, ‘Haven’t you noticed?’ And he went, ‘No.’ I was horrified, I was thinking: that’s coming out first, and we’re coming out a week behind it, on the same label, it’s got the same guitar riff. I said: well, we don’t stand a chance of being #1. That was my thought. And within three weeks we were #1 and he was #2. I’ve since spoken to Trevor Bolder, the bass-player, and he said, ‘Remember “I’m A Man”?”
Here is that Yardbirds’ version of ‘I’m A Man’.
Interestingly, Iggy Pop and The Stooges also recorded a version of ‘I’m A Man’ during the sessions for the Raw Power album in early 1972. Bowie was involved in remixing this album and although ‘I’m A Man’ doesn’t appear on the album, he would certainly have been familiar with the Stooges cover version. Could this have had an influence on Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’ later that year?
We can hear Iggy & The Stooges version of ‘I’m A Man’ here.
Both recordings are, of course, cover versions of a 1955 original version of ‘I’m A Man’ by Bo Didley.
Bo Didley’s song is itself influenced by a song Willie Dixon wrote for Muddy Waters ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ recorded in 1954
The blues of Bo Didley, Muddy Waters et al can be traced back through the early electric blues of the 1940s to the acoustic blues of the 1920s, through the slave trade, plantations and back to African origins, where a number of the elements that would come to define key features of the blues could be traced back to.
But it’s worth specifically going back to that Bo Didley tune. The riff in ‘I’m a Man’ is significantly changed from that played by Muddy Waters in Dixon’s ‘I’m A Man’. Didley has adapted the tune as a simple repetitive four note riff repeated throughout the entire song, making it notably different.
So although it was influenced by an earlier blues song I think we can safely say that the riff that appears in ‘Blockbuster!’ and ‘Jean Genie’ first emerged in a Bo Didley song in 1955.
Book: The Sweet in the 1970s
If you enjoyed reading this my book ‘The Sweet In The 1970s’ is out on 30th July 2021.
Details here
Links and thanks:
Some great background info and quotes here http://www.alwynwturner.com/glitter/sweet.html
Thanks also to Michael Duthie for pointing me towards the Mickie Most video (below) and to Josh Beeson for pointing me to the Iggy & The Stooges version of ‘I’m A Man’.
Another fascinating release from the 60s that could have played an influential role in the later 70s glam releases was Mickie Most’s 1964 version of ‘Money Honey’.
Unlike earlier versions of Money Honey by Elvis and previously The Drifters, the Mickie Most version utilises that same Bo Didley riff. Most would go on to be a towering figure in glam rock as mentor and producer for Suzi Quatro and as RAK Records boss, home to the likes of Quatro and Mud. He knew Mike Chapman very well and could have helped plant some of the creative seeds for that Blockbuster riff, further strengthening those glam rock links back to blues history.
Related posts:
‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published 30th July 2021
Before glam: the debut 60s singles of Bowie, Bolan, Slade, Mud and Sweet
From AC/DC to ABBA: five classic glam rock singles by non-glam bands
Slade, strikes and the three-day week: the story of the greatest Christmas record ever made
Lost In Space: interview with former Slade legend Jim Lea
Interview with Andy Scott ahead of Sweet’s 2019 UK winter tour
Firstly I confess I never heard the Sweet song. Perhaps a bigger hit in UK than US. Ballroom Blitz was much more popular here. As to that riff’s derivation, your analysis makes sense. Everything always goes back to the blues anyway. It’s such a basic, simple riff that one can suspect Muddy may well have heard it played acoustically, years prior in the South.
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Thanks Jim. Yes Blockbuster was massive over here (the band’s only number 1 single) but I know only a few UK glam rock tunes worked their way into US popular culture, some of them via being played at big sporting events I believe!
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Also huge thanks to Michael Duthie for unearthing the fascinating Mickie Most video – which I have now added in via the postscript.
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Or, in 1968, this Honeybus single (which picked up airplay but didn’t chart) also took a very similar riff. It really did get around, it seems. https://youtu.be/qvpgaFiLazw
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I suppose that brings the blues to the pre-glam bubblegum era (which Sweet were part of for a brief period), so that’s another link..
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Great write-up, Darren. I think we can at least say that both songs were inspired unconsciously by I’m a Man or the many bands (like the Yardbirds) who either did a cover or their own version with a new name. One band that was definitely played on the radio, especially with this ’66 single I’ll mention, is the Shadows of Knight. Check out their followup to their smash Gloria, which was Oh Yeah. Listen also to the “rave-up” they do twice in the song … then listen to Jean Genie. Mere coincidence? Possible …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD_HZ_hrd0o
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thanks – interesting band too – just read up on them
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Interesting artilcle
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Well researched mate. Didn’t make the connection back then
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Thanks for the research. Seems most of the glam riffs were vintage based and Bowie is arguable the ‘serious artist’ in comparison w/ Sweet, but also more likely to have syphoned ideas from contemporaries. In those days, everyone was wary that Bowie’s highly calculated image was an amalgam absorption of his environment. I remember reading that his music was a ‘carefully contrived blend of Dylan, T-Rex and the Stones and very unoriginal'(!). Remember, Bowie painstakingly ‘followed’ before he ran ahead of everyone else…
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Yes I think that’s a fair analysis of Bowie. Partly trend-setter, partly a good ear to the ground on what’s coming next.
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Very interesting and informative.Thank you Darren!
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Thanks Lynn!
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Was the riff Bowie, or Ronson?
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There was a BBC documentary series about the history of Rock and Mick Ronson explained how he came up with the riff. If memory serves he said he was just messing around with a basic blues riff
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On a personal note: it’s about the simplest riff you can play as a beginner.
Always popular with me back in the day!
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I think Bowie Rippt of the intro
to The Honeybus song
Girl of independent Means (1968)
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Nice article. Unfortunately you stopped just before you get to Mickie Most producing The Nashville Teens’ ‘Tobacco Road’, which was acknowledged as the chief influence by Chinn & Chapman as the spark for ‘Block Buster’. 😉
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Yes I’ve used a direct quote from Chapman on that in something else I’m currently writing for a book I’m doing. I should update the blog really to put it in here, too. Thanks!
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Everything I’ve been reading up on lately while discovering the origins of my favourites seems to always be leading me back to Bo Diddley. He’s the man!
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Rock and roll owes so much to him!
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Great reading your posst
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Glad you enjoyed Sean – and thanks so much for commenting
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thank you!
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