Quote:
Even the riff itself is played in a different key and with a different rhythmic pattern.
Whether or not the Rush version is the original, the different rhythmic pattern should be enough to make you legal- though there will always be someone claiming you ripped off the song. That particular riff is almost just a pentatonic scale anyway (or at least, in my head right now that's what it sounds like), and you're using it in a different manner (riffing instead of the melodic basis for the song) so I seriously doubt anyone would even think of WYD except for die hard Rush fans like you

A similar experience for me: when we put our songs up for public review on garageband, one listener gave us a bunch of crap for one of our intros sounding like "Momma I'm Comming Home" because it used a similar chord structure with a picked descending line- but I didn't lose any sleep over it- though I see what he was saying, it's pretty obvious I didn't take an Ozzy riff and make a peppy Christian folk song out of it. And Ozzy certainly didn't invent a descending melody line or picking chords on an acoustic guitar.

Anwyay, unless the rhythm and intervals are both exactly the same, I doubt you have much to worry about.

As far as actually answering your question, I've got nothing
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.