Wish You Were Here and Silver Springs???

golddustwoman77 · #1 06-28-2004, 09:54 PM

Today, I thought I would give Mirage "a listen," because I hadn't listened to it in a good while in its entirety. I noticed something that I haven't really noticed before. I noticed that the beginning of "Wish You Were Here" (the musical intro, not the lyrics) bares a striking resemblance to the musical beginning of "Silver Springs." They sound almost exactly the same at the beginning!

Has anyone else noticed this? Was "Wish You Were Here's" intro inspired by "Silver Springs's intro?" As we know, Christine wrote the music for "Wish You Were Here," and Stevie wrote "Silver Springs." They were written at totally different times with "Silver Springs" coming first on the b-side to "Go Your Own Way," and "Wish You Were Here" coming out on Mirage. So, that might lead me to believe that "Silver Springs" inspired Christine to use almost the same musical intro for "Wish You Were Here," or did Christine contribute that intro to "Silver Springs" and use it again later? If she did, it hasn't been mentioned, as far as I know. I just thought it was interesting, and I thought it would be something interesting to discuss. Thoughts? Ideas?

diamondsnake · #2 06-28-2004, 10:13 PM

Well, it really doesn't sound similar to the B side version of SS if you ask me. However, it is exactly the same as the Dance version. So maybe Christine was asked to open SS with a piano verse and decided that her WYWH verse was appropriate?

hayley · #3 06-28-2004, 10:18 PM

I remember watching The Dance premiere on MTV, and having not read any of the articles or anything where they talked about the re-emergence of Silver Springs- and being very confused (momentarily) when I thought they were playing Wish You Were Here.

darklinensuit · #4 06-28-2004, 10:18 PM

You're right, they do sound alike. We discussed this some time ago and most people said they heard the similarity. And BTW, I love both songs.

golddustwoman77 · #5 06-28-2004, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darklinensuit

You're right, they do sound alike. We discussed this some time ago and most people said they heard the similarity. And BTW, I love both songs.

Oops! I didn't realize that we had discussed this before. Didn't mean to rehash.

Well, I guess it will be kinda fun to revisit the topic. At least, I hope so.

Also, thanks guys for the thoughts so far.

pianogirl04 · #6 06-28-2004, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondsnake

Well, it really doesn't sound similar to the B side version of SS if you ask me. However, it is exactly the same as the Dance version. So maybe Christine was asked to open SS with a piano verse and decided that her WYWH verse was appropriate?

It isn't *exactly* the same -- WYWH is all in what, C major I think? (It's been a while since I've heard it.) I know there's some chords in the intro to SS that are a little more colorful, if you will, ie: at the end of the intro there's a right hand GCE and then it goes to ACF and back again, while WYWH stays in that straight C major sound. But the very first thing I noticed about WYWH was that the intro was incredibly similar.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it say somewhere in the liner notes that WYWH was a collaborated song? I can't remember if the lyrics were written by someone else or if it was a joint effort with someone whose name I didn't recognize... makes me wonder if that intro was Chris's idea, although it does seem too similar to be purely coincidence.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. But I'm glad I'm not the only one who picked up on this.

golddustwoman77 · #7 06-28-2004, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pianogirl04

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it say somewhere in the liner notes that WYWH was a collaborated song? I can't remember if the lyrics were written by someone else or if it was a joint effort with someone whose name I didn't recognize... makes me wonder if that intro was Chris's idea, although it does seem too similar to be purely coincidence.

Christine wrote the music for "Wish You Were Here," and Colin Allen wrote the lyrics.

David · #8 06-28-2004, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darklinensuit

You're right, they do sound alike. We discussed this some time ago and most people said they heard the similarity.

They're quite similar, but they're very simple patterns that are used in hundreds of songs. The technical term is arpeggio. The pattern is even a tiny bit like Believe Me. A difference is that Wish You Were Here arpeggios are chordal inversions in a single chord (I-I-I-I) whereas the Silver Springs intro is a I-I-IV-I pattern of inversions. But it's the warm air mass inversion that really cooks that tune & launches it into the stratosphere.

earthdreamer · #9 06-28-2004, 11:07 PM

I haven't listened to Mirage in yeaarsssss, simply because I only have it on vinyl, I need to get it on cd!

After listening to it, does it still hold up to the test of time?

HomerMcvie · #10 06-29-2004, 12:21 PM

Quote:

I only have it on vinyl, I need to get it on cd!

WAIT until they remaster it. You won't be sorry.

darklinensuit · #11 06-29-2004, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by golddustwoman77

Oops! I didn't realize that we had discussed this before. Didn't mean to rehash.

Well, I guess it will be kinda fun to revisit the topic. At least, I hope so.

Also, thanks guys for the thoughts so far.

Not a problem at all. We all re-hash without knowing it. I was just letting you know what was said last time.

- Jake

diamondsnake · #12 06-29-2004, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pianogirl04

It isn't *exactly* the same -- WYWH is all in what, C major I think? (It's been a while since I've heard it.) I know there's some chords in the intro to SS that are a little more colorful, if you will, ie: at the end of the intro there's a right hand GCE and then it goes to ACF and back again, while WYWH stays in that straight C major sound. But the very first thing I noticed about WYWH was that the intro was incredibly similar.

They don't call you pianogirl for nothing!