<p>Steve Miller also rhymed the word Texas with the phrase, “what the facts is”!
So bad but so good…</p>
<p>Re: Pompatus. That WAS what he was singing. The estimable Cecil Adams talks about it here: <a href=“http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html[/url]”>http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html</a>.</p>
<p>And PJ O’Rourke is just about the funniest columnist writing today. I can still remember his comments about driving someone else’s Aston Martin (paraphrased): “You don’t drive a $250,000 car at the ragged edge – tires screaming, tail hanging out. You drive someone else’s $250,000 car exactly like you were transporting a trunk full of live babies.” His “Holidays in Hell” is another classic.</p>
<p>Speaking of Stealer’s Wheel and ‘Stuck in the Middle’…does anyone think Sheryl Crow asked Gerry Rafferty’s permission before lifting that catchy riff from ‘Stuck in the Middle’ for her song 'All I Wanna Do"? </p>
<p>That one has bugged me for years.</p>
<p>Idmom06: It bugged me too! Every time it came on the radio my kids said: " We know Dad, she ripped it off from some old group, you’ve told us a thousand times already".</p>
<p>lol barno - sounds exactly like what my kids said to me…but I HAD to say it a thousand times because I don’t think they belieeeeved me!!</p>
<p>“does anyone think Sheryl Crow asked Gerry Rafferty’s permission before lifting that catchy riff from ‘Stuck in the Middle’ for her song 'All I Wanna Do”? "</p>
<p>No, but he probably thanks her for the check. A few years back Don Mclean was asked how he felt about Maddona’s cover of American Pie. “Grateful, I get a check every month.” </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Opie- I read somewhere Stealer’s Wheel/Gerry Rafferty are getting nothing from the Sheryl Crow song since it wasn’t a cover. She just lifted a guitar section from the Stealer’s Wheel song and built her song around it. I assume a lawsuit would have to occur before she would be required to pay.</p>
<p>That’s too bad. Honestly, it will take me a few seconds longer when I look at her to go… “wow”. 
From this day on, dirty thoughts about Cheryl Crow will not enter my head when I see her videos, at least not for 5 seconds.</p>
<p>It really is too bad, maybe her legal has told her not to give credit to avoid royalities. How long’s the riff? I have been hearing you can “sample” up to 20 seconds without paying. Not sure though.</p>
<p>I actually like Sheryl Crow alot…and think she doesn’t get the respect she deserves. Apparently, she has ‘sampled’ quite a bit and many hard core rock aficianados consider her derivative. But her music just makes me happy, so that’s all that counts for me.</p>
<p>About the 20 seconds. What is duplicated it is that powerfully addictive refrain that gets ‘stuck’ in your head when you listen to both songs. It it is the backbone of both songs. In listening to them both ‘side by side’, I think her slide guitarist altered just (barely) enough notes and counts to avoid litigation though. (I doubt those big ol’ hippies in Stealer’s Wheel are the litigatin’ types anyway… ;))</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6eNvnuehYw[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6eNvnuehYw</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SabZUGTGY_4[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SabZUGTGY_4</a></p>
<p>“(I doubt those big ol’ hippies in Stealer’s Wheel are the litigatin’ types anyway… )”</p>
<p>I dunno middle age changes alot beside waistlines… </p>
<p>Alot of us become our parents.</p>