The Birth of Rock & Roll

I guess the most famous, yet the least egregious, case was "My Sweet Lord." Harrison was sued for ripping off "He's So Fine." He was found guilty of “'subconsciously'” plagiarizing the 1962 John Mack tune." But the damage part of the case was a Gordian Knot. I think Harrison had to eventually shell out about 600k.  

One of my favorite Johnny Rivers songs, Summer Rain, contains a few bars of Sgt. Peppers. It wasn't done to copy their music but to provide a social reference for a particular point in time. I don't think anybody should have a problem with that. On the other hand I consider Led Zeppelin's Black Mountain Side a shameful copy of Bert Jansch's Black Waterside. It all depends on how and why the music is copied.

I agree. If I write a song and include the phrase, "Her face, at first just ghostly" just to allude to a famous song for some reason, I don't think there's any problem. Take Paul Simon's "Simple Desultory Philippic" which had the phrase, "But it's alright, ma, everybody must get stoned," semi-mocking Dylan - it survived unscathed.
Now if I write a song that goes, "Hello Bobby, my old friend/I've come to speak with you again," there's a problem.

@batgirl, I'm going a little off topic here. I don't know where you are in your guitar studies but have you ever hear of a book called The Guitar Handbook? I bought one years ago and I don't think any book has impressed me so much. It covers just about every basic a guitarist, and even other musicians, would need. I've found it easy to read and understand and it's my go-to book for anything related to guitar music. It looks like there are updated versions of the one I have on Amazon. The Guitar Handbook
A short list of it's innards:
Guitar types and construction
Beginner guitar, rhythm guitar, melodic guitar, harmonic guitar, improvisation
Scales, modes, chord theory
Guitar care
Short bio's of some prominent guitarists
and of course a chord dictionary.

My version was printed in 1988

Well, first, yes I do have that book. I guess  bought it 20 years ago. I've been playing since I was maybe 10 or 11 and how I learned was to listen to records --actual vinyl records because my mom had a turntable and she bought albums obsessively at yard sales, so we had eventually about a 2000 eclectic collection of albums. I've been meaning to catalogue them for 25 years and have never gotten around to it. Anyway, I learned to play by trying to reproduce the songs. This was, it unsurprisingly, a long tedious process. and figuring out just one song might take weeks, especially when you don't know what your doing.  I did get a book from the library when I was still little called "1001 Guitar Chords." I can still visualize it. I practiced and learned every chord in that book during the summer before my 13th birthday.  I also took out some books of music theory, but never got too deep into it. It wasn't until I was an adult that I tried playing with other musicians. and I learned a good bit from them, especially finger picking styles. 

But my point is, I think, that what I do is play, not really study. I originally bought the book because it discussed great guitarists and gave some info about acoustical guitars but reading a section called "Ascending runs with 4th finger slides" make my eyes glaze over.  I can't follow a text and diagrams trying to show me how to play. I've actually learned a bit from youtube. I guess hearing the sounds and watching someone create them is more how I learn. 

But it's indeed a comprehensive book. It even tell you how to refinish a guitar (not that I'd ever attempt that). It does put most its emphasis on electric guitars. I used to own one but got rid of it.  

Mine is "The new, fully revised edition" 1992.  It says it was first published in 1982. 

You're far ahead of me then. I didn't start really working at guitar until I was almost thirty in the later 1980s. I learned some songs from chord charts. I guess that's what somebody around here called "cowboy chords" because they usually just sound pretty good but aren't technically accurate. I learned a number more from guitar tabulatures in various books and magazines.
 What I most liked about The Guitar Handbook was the parts not related to any instrument. More of the music theory parts about scales, modes, rhythms, chord structure and progressions, and things like that.

That's where my eyes start glazing over 

  dashkee brought up the I IV V structure, but here's a comparison.....  the tune is...."Save The Last Dance For Me". Back in the 60's it was done by The Drifters and it sounded like this.....                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Here's the same tune played 45 yrs later by Michael Buble with a Spanish arrangement of 3/2 Clave...                                                                                                 

Unless I'm missing something, I think you're comparing a I-IV-V (in the key of C:  C-F-G) chord progression (the most common blues and later rock song structure) with a clave rhythm which I don't understand. 

CCR did a great cover of this R&B song 12 years later.

   I didn't mean to confuse you. dashkee pointed out the harmonic structure of rock.....I'm pointing out the rhymical structure in rock can change. 

OIC.   
I agree. Between early Rock and Roll and later Rock, a great sophistication occurred. Early stuff was mainly blues and R&B for White people and employed the same simplistic (in theory, not necessarily in execution) styles.  Starting in the latter part of the 1960 decade, in was an entirely different animal.  I think that might be something to note about the 1950s... there were variations in how rock and roll was delivered but the basic structure pretty much stayed intact. Even during the British Invasion, there was innovation but the basic structures, rhythmic and chordal, seems to have remained pretty solid. 

   I'll give you 1 more example. Dean Martin & many others sang "Sway With Me".  THIS all girl group.....which I can't name because I'll get the red bar...  they do it as a cha cha.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Years earlier, Bobby Rydell did it as a Disco tune....                                       

I also like Larry Williams, who is somewhat lesser known even though the Beatles covered several of his songs.

The Beatles did a nice cover, but my favorite cover of this song is by The Young Rascals

Wings of Pegasus analyses a live performance of Gene Vincent doing Be Bop a Lula.

John Lennon did a cover on his "Rock 'n' Roll" album. The album is a tribute to early rock and roll songs that inspired him.