Writing Blog Number 2

20250423 Two Songs, One Meaning (Using Similar Story Ideas)

Two Songs, One Meaning

Some time ago, I did a quick blog post about how different writers write about the same thing: "20250324 One Situation, Many Writers" .
         This got me thinking, and I decided to look at two songs.

’Born To Run’ by Bruce Springsteen (1975)

’Come On Eileen’ by Dexy’s Midnight Runners (1982)

You picked it, right? These songs are almost identical.
         Seriously.
         A guy is talking to a girl – Wendy & Eileen – and telling them that it’s time the two of them got away from it all before they ended up as downtrodden as those around them. Sure, Bruce is escaping working class drudgery and Rowland (the song-writer and lead singer for Dexy’s) is fleeing Catholic repression, but escape with a loved one right bloody now is the whole story of both songs.
         Both songs are classics – Bruce probably more so in the USA, Rowland in the UK and Australia – but the fact this theme ran through both songs 8 years, two different countries and a whole cultural shift apart says something about that desire in young people.
         And here’s the thing – can you think of a recent song about taking your partner and just getting away from a life of drudgery? I mean, released recently, say, last 20 years? I can’t, and I am a music nerd. Why? Maybe we realise there is no escape. Maybe the world has beaten us down too hard.
         Maybe these two songs were our last hurrah at trying to get away from it all, and we failed.

Or maybe I overthink these things…

Anyway, the purpose of this is that it is another example of why ideas cannot be copyrighted. This is the same idea, and yet the delivery, the words, the mood of each is different. No two writers approach the same topic the same, even when they are working in the same genre.
         Don’t be concerned if you have an idea that someone else has used before; you are a different person with different personal experiences, different cultural baggage, and a different time frame. Just write it your way.
         ’Born To Run’ and ‘Come On Eileen’ show that both interpretations of the same idea can work incredibly well.