Eighties is one of the first 12" records I ever bought. I must have listened to it like 20 million times, in between listens to SOD , Nurse With Wound and Severed Heads . When Come As You Are was released, I wasn’t the only person who recognized it’s opening riff.
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Wary of the similarity between the main riff of “Come as You Are” and English post-punk band Killing Joke’s 1984 single “Eighties”, Nirvana and its management were unsure about releasing the song as the second single from Nevermind. Danny Goldberg, head of Nirvana’s management Gold Mountain, later revealed that “[w]e couldn’t decide between ‘Come as You Are’ and ‘In Bloom.’ Kurt was nervous about ‘Come as You Are’ because it was too similar to a Killing Joke song . . . but we all thought it was still the better song to go with. And, he was right, Killing Joke later did complain about it.” Nirvana biographer Everett True writes that “Come as You Are” was eventually chosen for release as a single because “Goldberg favoured the more obviously commercial song”.
Although members of Killing Joke claimed the main guitar riff of “Come as You Are” plagiarized the riff of “Eighties”, the band reportedly did not file a copyright infringement lawsuit, which Rolling Stone magazine attributes to “personal and financial reasons”.[7] However, conflicting reports state that Killing Joke did file a lawsuit but that it was either thrown out of court,[14] or that it was dropped following Cobain’s death.[15] Geordie Walker, Killing Joke’s guitar player, said that the band was “very pissed off about that, but it’s obvious to everyone. We had two separate musicologists’ reports saying it was. Our publisher sent their publisher a letter saying it was and they went ‘Boo, never heard of ya!’, but the hysterical thing about Nirvana saying they’d never heard of us was that they’d already sent us a Christmas card!”
](Come as You Are (Nirvana song) - Wikipedia )
I’ve read elsewhere claims that Cobain at some point admitted he’d ripped off the riff, but I can’t find that anywhere online.
I’ve also read that Kiling Joke did file suit but dropped it after Cobain’s death, which makes no sense (and has no cites to back up the contention, either).
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The chords in this song are a slowed down replica of Killing Joke’s 1985 song “Eighties.” The songs were so similar that Nirvana considered holding off releasing this as a single. Killing Joke decided not to sue Nirvana, and in 1992, Dave Grohl helped them out by playing drums for them on an album.
](Come As You Are by Nirvana - Songfacts )
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Also in 2003, Grohl stepped behind the kit to perform on Killing Joke’s second self-titled album. The move surprised some Nirvana fans, given that Nirvana had been accused of stealing the opening riff of “Come as You Are” from Killing Joke’s 1984 song “Eighties”. However, the controversy failed to create a lasting rift between the bands. Foo Fighters covered Killing Joke’s “Requiem” during the late 1990s, and were even joined by Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman for a performance of the song at a show in New Zealand in 2003.
](Dave Grohl - Wikipedia )
So even tho Cobain may have lifted it, the band ultimately didn’t suffer or have lingering resentment because of it.
Mister_Rik:
I never really caught this until both songs came up back-to-back in the shuffle on my iPod:
Accept’s “Flash Rockin’ Man ” (1982)
Iron Maiden’s “2 Minutes to Midnight ” (1984)
Same key and everything!
haha that makes me laugh
My all time favorite example of this tho involves (IMO the greatest rock song of all time) Louie Louie by the KingsmenWild Thing by The Troggs
U2’s City of Blinding Lights plagiarised the Space Harrier battle theme.
LCD Soundsystem’s All I Want rips off Bowie’s Heroes . Both great songs.
I always thought Miley Cyrus’s See You Again ripped a vocal line from Corey Hart’s Sunglasses at Night
Just listened to Kiss on My List *Jump * in there.
Molotok
October 22, 2011, 8:05am
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Powderfinger’s “Passenger”: Powderfinger - Passenger - YouTube
Grinspoon’s “Better Off Alone”: Grinspoon - Better off alone - YouTube
Only vaguely similar to start with…
Whoa, I’d never heard the other three!
