In the middle of this facinating New Yorker article about copyright and the limits thereof, the author mentions the fact that the guitar riff from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was lifted virtually note-for-note from “More Than a Feeling.” The web being what it is, it wasn’t long before a guy put the two riffs back-to-back so everyone could hear it.
Check it out.
Sweet.
Nonsense. In musical terms they aren't even close, though I like the mp3 well enough.
If you want to hear why the court slammed George Harrison, though, try to run down an mp3 of "My Sweet Lord/He's So Fine" by a fantastic band called Brainpool (1997). They're probably defunct, and were out of Norway or Sweden or someplace chilly like that. It's a great cover.
The riff from "Come as You are" also appears in Killing Joke's "Eighties," and spawned a suit from that band against Nirvana. I found it odd that this was not mentioned in the article, but maybe that's the point, to only bring the new.
I thought this was a fascinating piece, too.