In any case, the documentary used the chorus of Killing Joke's "Eighties" to mark the changing decade and musical styles. When I went back to listen to "Eighties" in full, I noticed an eerie similarity, right from the off:
Yep. That opening guitar riff sounds a whole heckuva lot like this:
In fact, when Nirvana was trying to decide which song to release as the second single off of Nevermind, Kurt Cobain worried that the guitar riff from "Come As You Are" was too similar to "Eighties". As Nirvana biographer Everett True writes, the head of Nirvana's record label Danny Goldberg pushed for the more commercial sound of "Come As You Are" over runner-up "In Bloom".
After "Come As You Are" was released, members of Killing Joke recognized their riff. But they didn't file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. And there are conflicting reports about why: Rolling Stone reported they didn't sue because of "personal and financial reasons" but Kerrang! reported differently.
It didn't take long for the two sides to bury whatever hatchet they might have had. After Cobain's death in 1994, Dave Grohl and his band Foo Fighters recorded a cover of Killing Joke's song "Requiem" as the B-Side for their 1997 single "Everlong". And in 2003, Grohl took a break from Foo Fighters to record drums with Killing Joke.
And yet... both Killing Joke and Nirvana might have been borrowing that guitar riff from an earlier source -- Captain Sensible. Here's "Life Goes On" by the Damned.
