Musical coincidences # 269

My friend Steve (Hi, Steve!) suggested this coincidence, but expressed some doubt as to the strength of the similarities the two songs possess.

(Sorry about the second half of that previous sentence. It looks way too pretentious to me.)

Well, I’m here to tell Steve and you that because this coincidence contains one of my all-time favourite XTC songs I have no absolutely hesitation whatsoever in puttin’ this coincidence on the blog.

Steve noticed a few little things (things the guitars were doing, the backing vocals), but for me there is one major, unmistakeable coincidence: both songs have the same chord progression in the verses. Although they’re in different keys, it’s the same progression. (Santigold‘s chord progression is C sharp major / B flat minor / F minor, whereas XTC’s is G major / E minor / B minor – but they’re the same progression.) In the case of the non-XTC song, its chord progression is also used for the chorus. Unfortunately, like every other dance track I’ve heard in the last few years, the same chord progression is used throughout the entire song.

Update: It looks like Blogger didn’t appreciate me putting the Santigold song on this here blog, because it just sent me a Blogger Takedown Notice, whereby they converted this post into you-can’t-see-it mode (“you” being the reader) and left it up to me to decide which of the tracks I’ve posted here is a no-no to post. Blogger told me that if I don’t removing the offending content – and I’m guessing it’s the newish Santigold track that is doing the offending – you’ll keep on not seeing this post. So I’ll remove the Santigold thing and leave you with the video for it. (That seems to have no problem being on the Internet, being as it’s on YouTube an all.)

If you still don’t see this post, then you’ll know it’s the XTC song that’s causing conniptions.

Typing-fingers crossed…

Santigold – “Disparate Youth” (2012)

XTC – “Making Plans For Nigel“ (1979)

Link

Thanks, Steve, for letting me know about that coincidence. I don’t listen to dance music, so it’s extremely likely I would never have known about Santigolid’s apparent fondness for “Making Plans For Nigel”.