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U2 album "rip-off"

Posted Wed 21 Jan 2009 5:29PM GMT by Mitch Carter in The Guestlist

US musician Taylor Deupree has alleged that the cover of U2’s forthcoming album is "an exact rip-off" of his own disc, ‘Specification. Fifteen’

The Irish rockers recently revealed the sleeve for "No Line On The Horizon", which is based on a photo by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

U2
Spec 15
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
Taylor Deupree - Specification. Fifteen

 

In a online posting under the headline "U2 Album Cover…Have I Seen This Before?", Deupree admitted there was little chance of legal action saying "In the end, we all know who wins".

This isn’t the first time that accusations of plagiarism have been levelled at album covers and to prove the point, we’ve listed our favourite rip-offs below.

 

U2
Spec 15
Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
The Clash - London Calling

 

Few record covers can have been as influential as Elvis’s eponymous debut. We’ve counted over 20 albums that have featured strikingly similar imagery but the Clash’s seminal disc London Calling is undoubtedly the most famous.

 

U2
Spec 15
The Beatles - Abbey Rd
Tribute to the Beatles Reggae Style - Various Artists

 

Well, what else would you expect from an album full of Beatles covers? Reggae legends John Holt, Ken Boothe and Phylis Dillon feature on this smashing Beatles tribute.

U2
Spec 15
X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
Girls Aloud - Biology

 

How could Girls Aloud have realised that they’d been beaten to the pinch by 70s punk band X-Ray Spex? Their debut album Germ Free Adolescents was released in 1978, preceding Girls Aloud’s Biology by 27 years.

U2
Spec 15
Dalbello - Whomanfoursays
David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em And Smile

 

Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth was piped to the post by Canadian singer songwriter Dalbello who preceded his 1986 album by two years. We'll assume the similarities are accidental on this record though.

U2
Spec 15
Michael Jackson - Bad
Weird Al Yankovic - Even Worse

 

Someone had to do it and that someone turned out to be American pop parodist Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al got into trouble a few years ago when he attempted to take off  James Blunt. An injunction was issued by Blunt’s record label leaving Yankovic’s masterpiece You’re Pitiful sadly unreleased.

 

 

 

 

 

221 Comments

1. Karen S -
U2 are [profane]e anyway.

2. Yahoo! Music User -
Imagine if you could bottle the very essence of Girls Aloud.

I'll have Sarah Harding please.

3. Machine -
I aggree with the above comment....Bono is a tit.

4. Nellie -
Yer, U2 suck!
They are Rubbish!

5. One Durkstar -
U2 suck!

6. Janey -
What a bunch of saddos you lot are. So the photos are very similar but U2 never claimed the picture was their own so how can it be plagiurism?

7. Mike -
whoopee freekin do - like it is really going to affect his sales!..get a life Taylor..or better still on your next album take some influence from 1 of their album covers - how about Joshua Tree,- And call your album 'Little Bush'

8. PIAZZACAVOURWHATSMYLIFEFOR -
oh what are you all saying bono is a saint, ST BONO WE LOVE YOU!!

9. Sam ! -
U2 are amazing, if you think they suck you have probably just heard a few of their worse songs, or just have strange musical standards, they have some excellent songs unrivalled by any other band. You cant argue with statistics, they have made millions.

10. Yahoo! Music User -
I also felt that U2 'borrowed' ideas for their previous album - 'How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb' - not a lot of people will be familiar with a very underground indie band, back in the early 1980's (filed under Punk usually) called Flux Of Pink Indians (former bass player Derek Birkett has a record label called One Little Indian that shot Bjork to fame), anyway they had an album called 'Strive To Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible' - the layout of the gatefold sleeve and the style of the font etc. is a dead ringer for that album - more than 20 years before U2, and deals with much the same issues, more than 20 years before, but without making as many millions of whatever currency as U2, and so I lose respect time and again for U2, especially Bono, seeming hypocritical, nonetheless still great music they make...

11. Sam ! -
U2 are awesome, they have made some fantastic music, if you think they suck then you must have strange musical standards.

12. Craig Jones -
Fair enough, but some of the examples are wrong. Take the Weird Al one, he takes the mick out of music... obviously taking the mick out of his album too. And the beatles one, a tribute band...

13. Radge -
Congratulations on the maturity of this debate.

I reckon the U2 cover perfectly reflcts their music - grey, dull, derivative, with a couple of squares things in the middle

14. aliencowman -
So U2 never write there (sic) own songs and support the ira? It may surprise U2 know that quite a lot of people, and not only Irish, supported the (now defunct) "freedom fighters/terrorist gang" (delete as appropriate. Get a life, and more importantly, learn to spell.

15. Sarah -
i tottally do not agree wiv wat u ppl r sayin bono is an amazing artist jus bcuz u2 ripped off a cd cover doesnt make em bad

16. ALAN -
it's Reminiscent of a NIN album art work..check them out & enjoy forget about u2

17. David S -
i think there are more importaint things going on in the world, why is yahoo news bothering with such trivia... get a f ing life yahoo news.

18. Del -
Back on to bottled Girls Aloud.......... Can I have Nicola Please ?

19. Yahoo! Music User -
get over yourselves,it's only an album cover......and no i'm not a U2 fan.

20. gerard -
4. amandaandgibby - 5 minutes ago
U2 are [profane] anyways never write there own songs and support the ira

You silly woman Bono is Church of Ireland (protestant)along with Adam Clayton . Larry Mullen is the only Catholic
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