As Tone Deaf reported earlier this week, another song plagiarism controversy has erupted in the music world and this time an Australian artist is involved.
The controversy flared up after a shrewd internet commentator noticed the similarities between Guns N’ Roses’ 1988 classic ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Unpublished Critics’, a song by homegrown band Australian Crawl, released in 1982.
Now, James Reyne, co-writer of the track and former frontman for Australian Crawl, has responded to the allegations that Guns N’ Roses heavily borrowed elements of ‘Unpublished Critics’ and used them in their breakthrough single.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Reyne said it was “not inconceivable” there were similarities between the two rock anthems. However, Reyne conceded that it was also “not inconceivable” that GNR were not aware of ‘Unpublished Critics’.
“God forbid I had an active publishing company and they investigated the possibility,” said Reyne, who added that he didn’t notice the similarities between the two songs at the time because he didn’t listen to GNR’s music.
“I didn’t really listen to [‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’],” Reyne told the Daily Mail. “I was more looking at the video thinking, ‘Are they stoned? Or on smack?’ I was probably more interested in their drug habits.”
“I really wasn’t that aware of Guns N’ Roses… It just didn’t cross my radar because I was listening to other things,” he added. “I’m not about to take on the might of the Guns N’ Roses lawyers.”
The controversy can be traced back to one astute Max TV reader, who informed the station of the striking similarities between ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Unpublished Critics’ after they published a story on a potential GNR ‘classic lineup ‘reunion.
[include_post id=”447268″]
As Consequence of Sound noted, ‘Unpublished Critics’ was released six years prior to ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and features a similar chord progression, sweeping lead break, verse melody, and a chorus strikingly similar to the iconic “whoa-oh” of GNR’s tune.
However, it appears Reyne is content to just let the two songs co-exist without bringing the lawyers into it. If so, it would certainly make Reyne an outlier in an industry that’s seeing more and more plagiarism disputes pop up.
In just the last few months, Mark Ronson, Sam Smith, and Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have been involved in highly publicised copyright disputes, with Thicke and Williams forced to give a a multi-million dollar payout to the family of singer Marvin Gaye.
