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Originally Posted by HejiraNYC
I disagree. I think this brings up the issue of what is considered a "riff" vs. a "chord progression." While I do agree that Stevie wrote the basic chords of "Illume," I believe it was LB who came up with that sliding acoustic guitar riff that is the trademark for this song- and whether or not he copped it from Richard Ashcroft is debatable. This is not unlike "Edge of Seventeen" where Stevie wrote the basic chords (which were not unlike "Call Me" or "Rhiannon" or "Gold"), but Waddy and/or Jimmy Iovine came up with the iconic guitar riff and the syncopating drum beat that seems to mimic "Bring on the Night."
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Maybe it was Jimmy because Waddy claims they told him what to do, described what was needed and he obliged and then afterwards when he heard the Police on the radio is when he first realized it was so similar to
Bring on the Night and he was shocked and said to them not to ever do that to him again. He said that they completely ripped off the police and when asked if he'd call it "sampling" he said no. It was just stealing. But then in his Q & A he elaborated.
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But let me say in my own defense, being a respectable thief anyway— if you listen to the Police's song, Andy Summers performs it with some sort of echo unit. There is some sort of artificial "repeating" mechanism going on. And when I heard that, I just said, "I'm not going to do it like that. I don't like that kind of crap. I'll just play the thing." So I just did it the way I still do it, with the hand, as opposed to falsifying it with an echo machine. So it's all dig-a-dig-a-digga. The chords, and everything totally start to move differently. And that drum feel is that same thing. It's that off-off bass drum, against the guitar. So that is what I said. "What? We're doing what? Well, I ain't gonna do that. I'm doing it my own way." And that's how we did it.
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Michele