Thanks to Ari for this one.
Nirvana‘s second hit single off Nevermind might have seemed a bit familiar to many of those who grew up in the eighties. That haunting riff complete with chorus effect has a striking resemblance to Killing Joke‘s 1984 hit Eighties. According to Rolling Stone Kurt Cobain was apparently nervous about the release of this track as a single. Killing Joke sued Nirvana and eventually dropped the lawsuit.
Have a listen for yourself:
Nirvana - "Come as You Are" (1992)
Killing Joke - "Eighties" (1984)
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Here’s a little bit of interesting trivia on that one. Killing Joke’s 2003 self titled album featured Dave Grohl formerly of Nirvana.
Kurt also used to mention quiet often that the riff on ‘Smells like teen spirit’ was ripped off Bostons ‘More than a Feeling’……I have always found it also very similar to the riff in transvision vamps ‘Baby I don’t Care’ which came out about 3 years before ‘Teen spirt’
@Phil: Strange that Cobain would feel that way about “More than a Feeling”. To me it’s more of the guitar rhythm than anything. The verse of the Transvision Vamp track (1989) on the other hand bears a striking resemblance to The Bangles’ “Manic Monday” (1986).
Even before that, there was “Life Goes On” by The Damned, which I believe came out in 1980. While not as similar as these two are to each other, with a much different rhythm, it’s still fairly close.
Thanks Melanie! I just posted this:
https://www.thatsongsoundslike.com/2009/12/02/the-damned-vs-nirvana-vs-killing-joke
All Day And All Of The Nights (The Kinks, round Nov. 1964) stolen by The Doors as “Hello I Love You” round July 1968. The latter can’t be considered as a plagiarism…