Hmmm, I Hear A Similarity....

I've been listening to the Cars quite a bit the last week or so. Listening to "Touch and Go" last night I came to a realisation. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "You Got Lucky" has some similarities, as you might notice in the Youtube videos posted above. The keyboard part on "You Got Lucky" especially sounds like it was influenced by the Cars song, and some of the guitar sounds show a bit of similarity as well. "You Got Lucky" was released in 1982, so there's no doubt Tom Petty and the boys had a chance to hear "Touch and Go" before writing their tune. Deliberate lift or accidental copying of elements? Somehow I doubt Tom Petty would admit the former if it did happen.



A bit of trivia about the "Touch and Go" vid is that Ric Ocasek is playing a Kawai Moonsault guitar. This guitar with its distinctive crescent moon shape appeared in the late '70s, but since Kawai never put much effort into selling its guitars in North America at the time very few of what was probably a limited run in the first place made it across the Pacific.