According to Petty himself, he will not go after the band accused of plagiarizing his Mary Jane's Last Dance with Dani California. Even though both songs have similar rhythms, themes, and lyrics, Petty asked his lawyers have to halt their litigation process they had started. In my opinion this shows Petty as the stand-up musician everyone has always said he was. It also saves face for Red Hot Chili Peppers who would have had to explain themselves in court. I believe a full interview will be in the new Rolling Stone.
There definitely are similarities but they aren't THAT apparent. Both "Mary Jane's Last Dance" & "Dani California" are great tracks, that is all that should matter.
Remember the MJLD video? Awesome. I was REALLY young when I first saw it but I loved it since. Kim Bassinger plays the dead well lol.
Well, apparently close enough that they started the suit. There was a thread a while back that had links to both songs being played simultaneously. They are virtual clones, although I think it was a nod or tribute towards Petty instead of flat out stealing. If that were the case, Red Hot Chili Peppers should sue themselves over that song for repeating By The Way (tongue planted).
Basinger played a nice corpse for that classic song.
I am now chalking Dani California up as a cover of Mary Jane's Last Dance, not a tribute. They just adjusted the lyrics to fit their story line. Same song with a different dead chick and a better guitar solo. Kinda like what Puff Daddy did to Led Zeppelin a while back.
The full interview is in the current issue. The Rolling Stone web site has the full conversation posted too. It just sounds like Petty was not interested in going to court.
Well he is either too ignorant to realize the exact similarities of the songs or too shrewd to let anyone in the band know about it. I am not sure how this is going to play out.