Copyrighting Riffs

Artrockers,

That Jonah and The Whale single I keep hearing on Radio Ga Ga, isn't that the riff from Bachman Turner Overdrive's 'You aint seen nothing yet'? I'm no expert on Jonah et al, in fact I couldn't give a big one about them, but weren't they supposed to be folky or something? And shouldn't riffs be copyrighted? If they were The Velvet Underground would be the richest band in rock history. And Led Zeppelin would still be paying off the many blues artists they stole their career from. The riff is, of course, the root of all rock music, get those three or four chords in the right order and the melody and lyrics become incidental, unimportant, which leads us back to Led Zep.

I've come up with a list of 20 well known tracks that have simply nicked a great riff from a great record. How about you? What, in your opinion, are the greatest examples of riff plundering? And, since the riff is what matters, how do you feel about them being copyrighted? It makes sense to me.

Tom Artrocker