It’s trivia time. And this one is related to arguably the greatest Alternative Rock band of the 90s, Nirvana. Now most music lovers would swear by the genius of Kurt Cobain and the band in general. It is less of a matter of opinion and more of a fact. As the Dothraki say, “It is known.” Nevermind and In Utero would probably feature in every ‘Greatest Albums of the 90s’ or similar lists. I, myself am a huge Nirvana fan with due respect to the entire band – the brilliantly talented Krist Novoselic, the outrageously under-rated Dave Grohl and of course Kurt Cobain. Here, I’ll be talking about a very popular Nirvana song, ‘Come As You Are’, a song known for a bassline-mimicking guitar riff, chorus heavy guitar effects, the short and crisp guitar solo and perhaps the line “And I swear that I don’t have a gun.”
For those of you who haven’t heard the song, you might want to check it out.
A great song right? I love it too, honestly speaking. Now here’s the catch. Check out this song called ‘Eighties’ by a band called Killing Joke.
Gasping in Surprise? Swearing at Kurt Cobain? Smirking at his ‘thievery’? Laughing it off? Yep. The similarity between the riffs is unmistakable. Infact Nirvana’s band members and producer were nervous about releasing ‘Come As You Are’ as a single because of the obvious similarity, fearing a backlash and possible legal action. Apparently a lawsuit was filed by Killing Joke but later dismissed either because of financial reasons or Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Nirvana’s management team’s defense was that they had never even heard of Killing Joke when Killing Joke retaliated by talking about a Christmas postcard that Kurt Cobain had sent them way back. Some sources even say that Kurt Cobain went on to admit that he stole the riff because he thought it was a really cool song! However all’s amicable between the two bands now with Dave Grohl having contributed to one of Killing Joke’s albums with his drumming.
Now this is certainly not the first time that a band has been accused of plagiarism. Even biggies like Led Zeppelin, Coldplay, Radiohead and Green Day have been accused of borrowing parts from other songs. This brings into question the ‘Good artists borrow, Genius steals’ claim. Having been brought up in a country where artists unabashedly copy songs beat by beat and tune by tune, I don’t really know how big an offence it is to borrow a part and a lot of times, transform it into something better. And I don’t believe the similarity is always intentional. Being a musician myself, most of my sporadic and feeble attempts at creating music have been characterised by doubt and a subsequent, introspective questioning as to the originality of the tune. I’m always like, “Isn’t this similar to some other song?”, “Is this really an original composition?” and so on. Accusations of plagiarism surfaced during Lootera as well but I’d like to give Amit Trivedi the benefit of doubt. Not only because he is a musical genius but also because it is always a plausible defence that two musicians might come up with similar tunes or that sometimes the subconscious doesn’t really realize that it’s in fact a known tune. Unless of course if you’re Pritam. Or father to a certain Anmol Malik. Or your most recent work, co-starred Yo Yo Honey Singh and had disaster written all over it.
Oh wait. I haven’t even come to the best bit yet. Listen to this track called ‘Life Goes On’ by The Damned released in 1982.
Disbelief Part II? Ha Ha. I don’t know. Both Nirvana and Killing Joke claim to have had no knowledge of this. What can I say? Except perhaps as Kurt Cobain says in ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, “Oh well, whatever, nevermind”.
– Shiraz Hasan
Indie at the Disco 