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.

Sam Smith, Tom Petty Settle Over "Musical Accident"

Take a listen to Sam Smith's Grammy-nominated hit song "Stay With Me" and you'll hear what could legitimately sound -- to some ears -- like a slowed-down replication of Tom Petty's 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down." But Petty downplayed the similarity, saying it was "a musical accident no more no less." Still, Petty and Jeff Lynne are credited as co-writers on Smith's track. And The Sun reported over the weekend that Smith settled a copyright dispute with Petty over the song. But Petty says the agreement was easy to come to, and that Smith's people "were very understanding of [Petty's] predicament." Petty adds that the word lawsuit was never used.

Smith is up for six Grammy Awards, including song of the year.

Did Courtney Love Ever Have an Original Thought?

It's a good question. And even on her best work, it seems the answer is no. Here's why: 1998's Celebrity Skin was Hole's most commercially successful album. And it was probably their most musically accessible as well. Borrowing from 1970s power pop and even Fleetwood Mac, Hole ditched the grittier, Riot Grrl sound of old and produced a pretty clean -- and pretty good -- album that found a welcome home in heavy rotation on alternative radio.

Dig a little deeper, and you learn that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan had a sizable hand in the album's songwriting. Fair enough. But even so, the band's crowning achievement -- at least to me -- is the song "Malibu" and now I realize what a ripoff that track actually is.

The reason? It's basically Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". At least, it's the exact same chords -- in the exact same pattern. Listen for yourself:

I discovered this when I learned "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on the guitar. It's E minor, D, B minor and A. Strum those chords long enough and you start singing "Malibu" -- it's the same song. At least Courtney Love knew what she was doing. She tips her hat to Joy Division at the 2:35 mark of the song when she sings "And I knew love would tear you apart." Credit where credit is due.

Men at Work... Ripping People Off

You don't know his name, but you can instantly sing his riffs. But were they actually his to begin with? Greg Ham, the flautist/saxophonist for Men at Work, died recently. And the obituary in The New York Times included a lengthy re-telling of the legal conflict that stemmed from Ham's flute part in "Down Under". Apparently, Men at Work were found to have ripped off the flute riff from the classic schoolhouse singalong "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" and it absolutely devastated the band. Funny, I always heard the connection between "Down Under" and "Kookaburra" and figured it was intentional -- after all, the Men at Work song essentially stereotypes Australians, and what better Australian song to 'borrow' as a riff but "Kookaburra."

Hear the similarity between "Down Under" and "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" for yourself. And here's a nice report from Sydney 3 News on Australian TV about the dispute..

"Wicked Game" Redux

I'm reading Retromania, the new book by Simon Reynolds, and he references the song "Infinity" by the British band The xx. His reason for mentioning the song is its so obvious derivation from Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Reynolds writes "It really is a study, an exercise in technique, in the sense that the band have written a new song entirely within the very specific and immediately recognizable texture palette and emotional atmosphere of Isaak's original." Listen and hear for yourself.

Old Music, Dudes

We've covered bands that rip off other bands in our first couple of posts. But here's something that may be worse: bands that rip themselves off. In the case of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, who have released a new record recently, it may be an attempt to re-capture the glory days.

Take a listen to the lead-off track "New Babies, New Toys." Tell me if you don't hear the resemblence to "If You Leave." The chord structure and the chorus are nearly identical. Check out the chorus at 1:19

Here's "If You Leave" for comparison:

Anyway, the new record is called History of Modern. And sadly for OMD, the first word -- history -- may be the operative one. Having said that, the cover artwork is very cool and is unmistakably Peter Saville -- who designed all those great Factory covers back in the day.

The Queen is Dead - Long Live the Queen

Funny, this topic was heavily under debate after last night's Grammy awards. The battle pits the reigning female of pop royalty, Madonna against the challenger, Lady Gaga. Gaga's new song, Born This Way appears to be a sound alike to Madonna's Express Yourself. It was only a matter of time before these two would start to spar. I'll let you be the judge:

Truthfully, does this battle really matter anyway?

When thinking off of the top of my head, the two most obvious ones are the ones that went to court: The Chiffons, She's So Fine & George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, and Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters & Huey Lewis' I Want a New Drug. Both lost, so I offer these three. You be the judge.


Imagine by John Lennon vs. Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis (Listen to the Intros!)

Lust for Life by Iggy Pop vs. Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet

American Girl by Tom Petty vs. Last Night by The Strokes.

Song of the Year?

OK, so no one's ever gonna mistake the Grammy Awards for an actual merit-based music contest. But when the song of the year -- Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" goes beyond the usual derivative dreck and into total rip-off territory, you have to wonder.

There's no question in my mind that the Song of the Year is actually a rip-off of "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project. See for yourself. Here's the Lady Antebellum song:

And now "Eye in the Sky". Pay close attention to the chorus, which hits at 3:20:

They're practically interchangeable. I'm just glad LA is giving APP some props. Now how about some songwriting credit?

That got me thinking about who else deserves a Grammy based on this sort of criteria. I offer Elastica's fine 1995 song "Waking Up", for which they were sued by the Stranglers for appropriating the unique guitar riff. Take a listen:

 

How about giving a Grammy to the ultimate rip-off artists -- Milli Vanilli? Oh, nevermind.