You know how it was claimed that Red Hot Chili Pepper's recent single 'Dani California' was based on a Tom Petty song (albeit, not claimed by Tom Petty)? Well, now a singer songwriter called Jim Wagner is claiming that Tom Petty essentially ripped off one of his songs. I say 'now' - I think this is a long running dispute, but Wagner has just produced some new evidence, which he's shared with Aussie music website Undercover.
The songs in dispute are Petty's 2002 'The Last DJ', and a song Wagner says he wrote in 2000 called 'The Last Great Radio DJ'. Wagner's song was written about KLOS radio presenter Jim Ladd, who is a friend of Petty, furthering Wagner's claims of unfair play.
Now the singer songwriter has produced a dossier of reports from various academics who all comment on just how similar the two songs are, implying somewhat that they are just "too similar" to have been created independently.
A musicology professor called Katherine Powers says "there are certainly some striking similarities, both on the level of overall artistic design as well as the level of specific events", while Dr Chuck Tumlinson, a director of Jazz Studies, says: "I do suspect that Petty appropriated some of your material". Meanwhile Dr Gerald Eskelin, who calls himself somewhat unwisely methinks, a 'Petty musicologist', has told Wagner: "I agree with you that it would appear that Petty knew of and likely heard your song before he wrote his".
I'm not entirely clear on whether Wagner has ever gone legal on this, and if not what he is seeking from Petty in circulating the dossier. Though Undercover are promising more reports, so perhaps they'll tell us.