I heard a long time ago that the main riff from Offspring - Self Esteem was lifted from Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, and after listening, it did sound pretty similar to me. I was telling this to a few friends (Yono and Sunny) who didn't believe me, so here's 'proof.' Again all this shows is that they are very similar riffs, not that one actually copied the other, because it is of course possible that two bands could come up with the same riff...
While searching the web for info on this, I ran into a page that said Bush also lifted the main riff in Little Things. Also Noe said that another guitar player had told him that the Nirvana riff is actually very similar to Boston's More Than a Feeling, which really suprised me, but I listened to it, and it was. So here are short clips from each songs (just the riff) and a few overlays for you to listen to, so you can decide for yourself, if you don't believe me.
Since all the songs aren't the same tempo, I timed the riff for each song. 4.072 seconds for Nirvana, 4.319 for Boston, and 4.477 for Offspring. Then I increased the tempo (preserving pitch) on the Boston and Offspring songs, and then overlaid each on top of the Nirvana, so you could hear the similarites. It's a little hard to listen to, and the beats aren't exactly on top of each other, but I'm no recording wizard, so it'll take a little imagination on your part. It's kind of neat to hear Boston singing over Nirvana's rough guitar. (I didn't do Bush, because I was getting lazy.)
Nirvana and Boston
Nirvana and Offspring
As a side note, I don't see anything wrong with 'lifting' riffs. A good riff is a good riff. It's just good to know where the music came from. It's cool that the riff was a part of 4 hit songs. Objections, comments, and insights from more knowledgeable people are requested, since I don't know much more than my ear tells me, which isn't much. Some tab/sheet music comparisons would be better than what I did...if anyone is up for it.
Posted by ramk at June 3, 2003 05:03 PMThats some good investigative work there captain. I like the Nirvana riff the best and Boston is a close second.
Posted by: Keyur at June 3, 2003 07:22 PMjust goes to show that hip-hoppers are not the only samplers out there
Posted by: sheelpi at June 4, 2003 11:40 AM