“Following the Hollies the melody line was used by The Bee Gees, Olivia Newton John copied it, Judy Collins, Julio Iglesias and by the Beach Boys, Marty Robbins, Hank Williams Jr, “

This is an awesome response, thanks. It’s super late here so I can’t really deal with it in total (for instance, I have a bit to say about the last paragraph) but let me just make one request:

“Of note are the red sections, where I tried to call out spots where the same pitch started at the same time in both songs... of which there are very few.”

Sorry, I should have written that out, probably. I = “the one chord,” the home chord for the tune. In Creep, that’s G major.

“I think we both know that there’s frequent chord progressions that are used widely within the music community.”

“You seem to be a really pretentious dick. Do you have a counterpoint to that?”

Oh yeah, you are right. That’s 1:21 in the Hollies song.

Yeah, from my own (very shitty) guitar playing that move reminds me of songs that go I-III-vi-IV, like “Sink to the Bottom” (by Fountains of Wayne). (“When I Come Around” and “Where Is My Mind” have similar patterns but they are each slightly different, I’m editing my claim here before somebody jumps on my shit.)

It’s got the same first move, but they do something very different with it.

“I bet you hate that.”

“There are about a million songs with this underlying structure.”

I really liked “Peanut Butter Jones.”

Do youtubes not show here now? Anyway, imagine a clip of Dr. Evil confusing “trillions” and “billions.”

My theory is that he thinks it sounds more humble and down-to-earth that way. He’s saying he’s smart but not that kind of smart (i.e. the annoying kind of smart that he went to Washington to battle.)

I’m actually a little sad that we don’t get the “don’t underestimate Trump” line of argument here anymore. “He won an election when he was predicted to lose, therefore he must be smart.” Coupled with “do you think you are smarter than millions of Americans?” (Uh, yes I do, actually.)  It was so fun to stomp on.

If there is anything we’ve learned from 2016 and 7, it’s that rich people are actually dumber than regular people.

“It is infuriating because I’d rather not talk to him about politics.”

Jeez Dave who died and made you Barbara Walters.

Well, you see, when people get to a certain age they are required to participate in a ceremony called Carousel, where they are all euthanized. There is a theoretical chance to win an exemption but nobody ever does.