I saw “Moneyball” this weekend. It’s an excellent movie, but I still think Michael Lewis’ book is even better. My suggestion: Go read the book. Then go see the movie.
But one thing the movie has, which the book doesn’t, is a subplot involving Beane’s 12-year-old daughter. In the movie the daughter sings and plays guitar, and the song she writes becomes kind of an anthem for her father.
The song, called “The Show,” was actually written by a singer-songwriter named Lenka and released in 2008. Here’s Kerris Dorsey’s cover (she’s the actress who plays the daughter), in a video that looks like a trailer for the movie:
Lovely song, eh? But since I’m a hobbyist musician, I spend a lot of time listening to music, and I thought it sounded familiar. Like, really familiar. Like, substitute-other-lyrics-on-top-of-existing-song familiar.
Which existing song? “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz (first released in 2005):
I took a look at the chords, and they’re not the same (though I think they’re both using variations on the I-IV-V chord progressions). Then I compared the first two lines:
“The Show”:
I’m just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
“I’m Yours””
Well uh you dawned on me and you bet I felt it,
I tried to be chill but you’re so hot that I melted,
Similar number of syllables, similar meter. You could easily sing those four lines as a single verse.
Hmm.
First Person Irregular 