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Where Pillar Meets Skid Row
By John Rothra | June 5, 2008
In high school I listened to secular hard rock acts, now known as the 80’s and 90’s metal hair bands. The students in my school, Jacksonville High in Jacksonville, Arkansas, typified the diversity of the early nineties (I was part of the class of 1992). During one special event for the seniors, the class put on a show in the auditorium where pictures were shown from throughout the years together. This pictorial walk down memory lane was set to music selected by the students, allowing them to express themselves in both images and sound. Two of the main songs chosen were Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” and Skid Row’s “Youth Gone Wild,” an interesting, if not eccentric combination; an R&B boy band united with hard rock. I enjoyed both, but favored Skid Row.
To this day, my musical choice is for the hard rock, though I do enjoy a wide variety, including country, contemporary, pop, and others. In some ways, you could say that guys never do grow up. But I digress.
While on vacation in California last week, my wife and I purchased a few CD’s to listen to in the car, including Pillar’s latest release, “For the Love of the Game.” I noticed something interesting about one of the songs, for it’s title seemed familiar to me. The song is called “Reckless Youth.” When the song began to play, even more similarities arose: the chorus used a beat and lyrical meter that seemed to be right off of Skid Row’s “Youth Gone Wild.”
Tonight I decided to compare these two songs and found something interesting: you can fit the chorus of “Youth Gone Wild” into “Reckless Youth” (youth that are reckless can be seen as wild, right?). The meter and beat match almost perfectly.
Below are the lyrics from each chorus.
“Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row
They call us problem child
We spend our lives on trial
We walk and endless mile
We are the youth gone wild
We walk and will not fall
We’re one and one for all
The writing’s on the wall
We are the youth gone wild
“Reckless Youth” by Pillar
We are the fearless ones
We are the loaded guns
With nothing left to lose
We are the reckless youth
We are the chosen ones
We’ll never have to run
There’s nothing left to lose
We are the reckless youth
Analysis of the Songs
Both songs use six syllables in each line. However, the rhyme patter is not the same. Skid Row uses a A-A-A-A / B-B-B-A pattern (the rhymes are not all exact, but they are rhymes nonetheless). Pillar uses an A-A-B-B / A-A-B-B pattern. Overall, the patterns are similar, but not exact copies. However, when heard in the song, this two small differences not readily noticed.
The singing style of the two is also the similar, but not exact. In “Youth Gone Wild,” the lead vocalist sings the first three lines of each four-line section and the backup singers sing the fourth lines. In “Reckless Youth,” based on how I hear it, it sounds like the lead vocalist and one backup vocalist sing the first three lines of each four line section and the other backup vocalists sing the fourth lines.
However, there is a similarity in the singing of the choruses. In both songs, the lines are sung in an overlapping fashion. For Skid Row, the lead singer begins the second four-line section before the backup vocalists complete the fourth line of the first section. In other words, before the first line “We are the youth gone wild” is completed, the lead singer begins singing “We walk and will not fall.” In the Pillar song, the singers begin the fourth line of each section before the preceding line is completed. In other words, both instances have the vocalists singing “We are the reckless youth” before the lines “With nothing left to lose” and “There’s nothing left to lose” are completed.
One more thing about the overlapping lines: in Skid Row’s song, each third and fourth line may have the same overlap seen in Pillar’s song, where the line, “We are the youth gone wild” begins before the preceding line finishes. However, in the version I have, the two end/start so close together, it is hard to tell precisely if there is overlap. But the two seem to end/begin on at least the same beat.
Meaning to All This
Why is this meaningful? To me it’s just something I found interesting. However, there is a major difference in the message of each song: one describes teenage angst the other portrays a young believer with an evangelistic passion.
Now, there may be some who wish to say that Pillar stole Skid Row’s song. Such accusations are unwarranted and unfounded. Consider that when it comes to musical beats, rhythms, and meters, there is only a certain number possible without creating what many will consider chaotic and, thus, pure noise. Also, most rock music uses a 4/4 measure and standard beats. Also, it is possible that Pillar is responding to the message in Skid Row’s anthem. Further, it could just be coincidence (yes, sometimes these happen innocently). Finally, one must consider that the similarities are only in the chorus, and that the verses have no similar comparisons.
Whatever the case may be, I find Pillar’s song fun, energetic, enjoyable, and positive. As much as I enjoyed listening to Skid Row’s “Youth Gone Wild” in high school, I enjoy listening to Pillar’s “Reckless Youth.” The similar choruses are interesting to notice, but do not detract from the song’s quality; instead, the style used makes the chorus catchy and easy to sing along with!
Topics: Music |
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I have been listening to this song on the radio for a few weeks now and there is no denying that this was intentional. Nothing wrong with going back to your roots, just as long as you don’t compromise yourself doing it.
Personally, I thought it was a great song. Takes me back to the good ‘ole days.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Rob,
I must strongly disagree with your statement that “there is no denying that this was intentional.” Such assertions cannot be made, but only speculated. Also, many factors would raise much doubt that it is intentional. Such as:
- The very basic beat and meter used
- The amount of time between the recording of Skid Row’s song and Pillar’s (about twenty years), making it possible the authors were unaware of the older song
- The limited number of beats/meters that are both pleasant to hear and fit within a 2-beat based measure (including 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 beats)
- The vast differences in the verses in both melody, tone, meter, etc.
- The message is quite different
- The basis of both songs (basic blues and 4/4 music)
There’s more, but I think the point is clear. While there are strong similarities and definite commonalities, that absolutely does not mean that Pillar intentionally copied a song. Instead, they may have had a beat in their head, played something that fit it that sounded good, and wrote a song around it.
If we want to delve into songs that are copies of one another, one need not look much further than much country and Southern Gospel music. A few years ago I listened to a special on television that honored the acclaimed musical creativity of a renowned Southern Gospel song writer. As I listened to each song, I noticed that over half were the same melody (with a note or two changed, often only by the ending note going lower instead of going higher), the same meter, the same formula of verse/chorus/bridge, etc. I concluded that the song writer’s acclaimed creativity was limited to about four or five actual songs, just change the lyrics. Many other songs not written by this person also use the same or very similar melody, beat, meter, structure, etc.
Is it intentional song stealing or song copying? Maybe, maybe not. It may be that the song writers are remaining within the bounds of what ‘works’ in that musical genre. The same with Pillar: they may have simply composed a song within the bounds of what ‘works’ within their genre (e.g., you won’t hear a hard rock band playing much polka music or using many 3/4 beats).
Therefore, while commonalities and similarities may exists between two songs (and almost anything deemed melodic will likely have been used before), one cannot say that there was any intentionality to the common threads.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I am not saying that the song was a blatant rip-off. I was stating that it was a clear influence for the song. It is a very different message and clearly a different style, but the likeliness that they just happened to come up with such a similar sound is like saying that we just happened to evolve into humans from a puddle of mud. I believe some undeniable intelligent design was involved in both cases.
Just my 2-cents.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Rob,
Thank you for the clarification and I apologize for any misunderstanding on my part. I agree with you that there is a very likely influence and that God is in control of what happened. I believe, that whether Pillar realizes it or not, that God used them to develop a Christian message, a call to evangelism, that is based on an older, very popular song. It’s wonderful!
John