Musical coincidences # 7

Seventeen seconds into Stone Temple Pilots‘ “Interstate Love Song” (1994) there’s this monster riff…

… and I get a feeling of déjà vu. Where have I heard that before? Right here:

That’s the riff at the end of the chorus of “I Got A Name” (1973) by troubador Jim Croce.

I know next to nothing about the Stone Temple Pilots, but I’m reliably informed by Wikipedia that “Interstate Love Song” was written primarily by STP’s bassist Robert DeLeo. It’s entirely possible that Robert’s parents, Mr and Mrs DeLeo, owned (and occasionally played) a Jim Croce record whilst little Bobby was growing up. Or maybe young Robbo listened quite intently to the radio in 1973.

Either way, here are the full versions of each song to reassure you that the Stoners didn’t pinch anything else from Jim:

Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”

Jim Croce – “I Got A Name” (1973)

Incidentally, I think that the Jim/STP riff is an impressive one to come out of the 90’s, when riffs were pretty thin on the ground in the Grunge era (Grunge wasn’t renowned for riffs, it was known more for very distorted chords and a lot of anger apathy nihilism – er, how do you describe alienated teenagers? Oh, yeah – alienation).

For me, though, the title of Best Riff Of The Nineties goes to the one in Soundgarden‘s “Black Hole Sun” (at 2:53 and then 5:03):

Now, that’s a monster riff.