Nirvana and Killing Joke and... Captain Sensible?

I was watching a great documentary last night about pioneering radio station WLIR on Long Island -- they're the ones who broke plenty of New Wave and Alternative bands in the early 80s and paved the way for MTV and a whole new youth culture. Check it out on Showtime.

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.

Song In My Head

It's "Rip It Up" by the seminal Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice. Check out a youngish Edwyn Collins fronting the band on their highest-charting UK single, a track which lent its name to the classic Simon Reynolds book. "Rip it Up" was released in November of 1982. Years later, Collins would have a solo hit with "A Girl Like You".

It's worth noting that a version of the rhythm guitar riff in this song is reminiscent of Captain Sensible's awful-yet -irresistible "Wot?" which came out the same year -- and both songs pretty much owe their existence to Chic's "Good Times".

Stuck In My Head: Crappy 80s Edition

The 1980s were a great time for music: with Post-Punk and New Wave peaking and Hip Hop dawning. Despite the sheer breadth of genres that boomed during the 80s, the decade has a bad reputation, musically, based on the sheer number of crappy songs from one-hit wonders.

Lately I've come into contact with two such songs, neither of which I knew during their heyday. Both are British (no surprise) and both are pretty dreadful. Except I can't get either out of my head.

First up is "Wot" by Captain Sensible. The first couple of times I was unfortunate to hear this song on Sirius First Wave I thought surely this is the worst song ever recorded. Then I did a little investigating and discovered that Captain Sensible is a founding member of The Damned. I still thought it was awful, but my interest was piqued. Then I watched the admittedly atrocious video and I was hooked. Here it is now for your listening and viewing pleasure -- and pay close attention to how literal the video matches the inane lyrics.

Next up is "Harley David (Son of a Bitch)" by the Bollock Brothers. The incessant chorus of this song will stick in your head, but allow me to count the ways this song is just trash: The song kicks off with the voices of moaning girls -- always a classy touch. How about bad handclaps? Yep. Lyrics like "I like the girls who've got big t**s". A low-fi cheerleader cheer? Check. And to think, this was a Serge Gainsbourg song made popular by Brigitte Bardot.

Give me your thoughts on both songs, and if you know any others like these, please, keep them to yourself so they don't get stuck in my head.