2015.05.14 - Opie Radio/Blabbermouth - Duff McKagan Says Similarity Between 'Sweet Child O' Mine' And Any Older Song Is 'Complete Happenstance'

Duff McKagan Says Similarity Between 'Sweet Child O' Mine' And Any Older Song Is 'Complete Happenstance'

Australian blog Max TV recently pointed out similarities between "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Unpublished Critics", a song by Australian Crawl.

"Unpublished Critics", which was released in 1981 — six years before "Sweet Child O' Mine" — contains "the same chugging chord progression, a similarly sweeping lead break, the verse melody, and the elongated one-syllable vocal in the chorus," according to the site.

During an appearance on the "Opie Radio" talk show, McKagan stated about the comparison between the two songs: "Any bands I've been in, you do the smell check. You always run into 'Free Fallin''. 'Oh, man, that's 'Free Fallin''.' It's always some Tom Petty song, right?! He's the master… Anything [with only] three chords… 'Oh, crap.' It's a Stones song or a Tom Petty [track]… But that band, Guns, at that point, we would have… We were striving to be so original and different and do our own thing, there's just no way; we would have referenced anything… So if there's any similarity, it's complete happenstance."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/duff-mckagan-says-similarity-between-sweet-child-o-mine-and-any-other-song-is-complete-happenstance

Gilby also commented; 98.7 The Gater, May 13, 2015 (via Blabbermouth):
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[Gilby] Clarke echoed McKagan's sentiments while talking to Andy Preston from 98.7 The Gater in West Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday (May 13). He said: "You know what?! I honesty don't know. I mean, obviously, when I heard them play [the songs back to back], it's definitely a 'wow,' but I don't think there's any connection. In all honesty, there isn't a connection. This band was always about being original, being the first, and not taking no crap from nobody, so it's really not in the DNA to be a part of something like that, I think."

He continued: "Look, there's only 12 notes out there — we haven't been able to create any new ones in this fifty-plus years of rock and roll. And a couple of notes are gonna go together the same on a couple of bands."

The post on Max TV Blog, May 8, 2015:
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Is 'Sweet Child O Mine' stolen from a 1981 Australian Crawl song?

With all the legal battles regarding copyright flying around at the moment, we've been alerted to a more dormant case of alleged plagiarism, regarding an almost-three-decade-old rock classic.

Under an article regarding Slash's recent comments on a possible future band reunion, MAX reader Jimmy Gray pointed out the similarities between Guns N' Roses' most enduring song - 1987's 'Sweet Child O' Mine' - and Australian Crawl's 1981 song 'Unpublished Critics', from their #1 album Sirocco. We checked it out, and Christ does it sound similar: the same chugging chord progression, a similarly-sweeping lead break, the verse melody, and the elongated one-syllable vocal in the chorus.

How didn't this end up in court? We sincerely doubt co-writer James Reyne has never heard of the Gunners track,nor noticed the common themes. Compare the two below.



https://web.archive.org/web/20150510172351/http://www.maxtv.com.au/news/is-sweet-child-o-mine-stolen-from-a-1981-australian-crawl-song.aspx

Daily Mail Australia, May 11, 2015; interview with the singer of the band Australian Crawl:
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Did Guns N' Roses base their classic Sweet Child O' Mine on an Australian Crawl song? Lead singer says there are eerie similarities between the songs (and the Gunners WERE listening to Aussie rock at the time)

By Sarah Dean for Daily Mail Australia

Music fans have pointed out eerie similarities between Guns N' Roses' first and only number-one single and a lesser known Australian Crawl hit released in 1981.

The Melbourne band's Australian song Unpublished Critics, from their number-one album Sirocco, sounds remarkably similar to Guns N' Roses 1986 rock classic Sweet Child O' Mine.

And the Aussie band's lead singer James Reyne, who co-wrote the song told Daily Mail Australia 'it is not inconceivable' that Guns N' Roses heard Unpublished Critics first, but he stopped short of suggesting any foul play.

'I'm not about to take on the might of the Guns N' Roses lawyers,' he added.

The three-decade old debate was reignited when Max TV reader Jimmy Gray highlighted the comparable songs, claiming they both have ‘the same chugging chord progression, a similarly-sweeping lead break, the verse melody, and the elongated one-syllable vocal in the chorus’.

However, not everyone agreed that Guns N’ Roses copied Australian Crawl’s chord progression.

Dragan Tubonjic said: ‘I can see a little similarity, but there are huge differences between this and Sweet Child. Sweet Child is much better than this!!!’

‘Give me an 'effin break. You can't copyright a damn chord progression. I'm tired of hearing about this c**p,’ Baron Griffith wrote.

And Chris Jordan commented: ‘It's similar but all the lead work Slash did on Sweet Child separates the two.

‘Most people know that iconic intro to Sweet Child and the "wah" part of the solo later on which isn't present here. Slash made Sweet Child unique. Sure the chord progression and vocal accompaniment is similar but many songs sounds similar because of the progression.’

Despite the continued debate about whether Unpublished Critics was sampled by Guns N’ Roses, Australian Crawl have never tried to sue.

Reyne said he didn’t ‘pay that much attention’ to the Guns N’ Roses song when it was released in 1986.

‘I didn’t think “oh my god”… I didn’t really listen to the song, I was more looking at the video thinking “are they stoned? Or on smack?”,’ Reyne told Daily Mail Australia.

‘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.’

The 57-year-old, who is preparing to embark on greatest hits tour and release a new album, said he is ‘not a big social media person’ but has been made aware of the two song’s similarities.

He said if Australian Crawl’s publishing company got some sound legal advice and wanted to take on Guns N’ Roses he’d say ‘go for your lives’.

‘As the song's co-writer I might stand to benefit,’ he laughed.

‘It is not inconceivable that there are similarities between the two songs. It’s also not inconceivable that there may be vaguely legs in something,' he explained.

‘It’s also not inconceivable that when they came out they were quite open in interviews that they liked a lot of Australian bands.

‘It’s also not inconceivable that they wouldn’t have been aware of certain Australian songs. God forbid I had an active publishing company and they investigated the possibility.

‘I’m not about to take on the might of the Guns N’ Roses lawyers.’

Although they may sound similar, Australian Crawl's song doesn't have lead guitarist Slash‘s defining riff or the ‘Where do we go?’ section which reportedly originated during a demo recording.

Singer Axl Rose wasn’t sure what to do for the breakdown at the song’s end and simply started saying ‘Where do we go? Where do we go now?’ out loud.

During an interview with Q magazine in 2005, Slash said they first came up with the song during a jamming session at home in 1986.

‘I was f**king around with this stupid little riff. Axl said, Hold the f**king phones! That's amazing!,’ Slash said.

Although they’d mastered the riff in five minutes, completing the song wasn’t so simple.

‘Writing and rehearsing it to make it a complete song was like pulling teeth,’ said Slash. ‘For me, at the time, it was a very sappy ballad.’

Axl came up with the lyrics based on a poem he’d written for his girlfriend of the time, Erin Everly, and got the ‘heartfelt’ feeling from listening to some popular southern hard-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd tapes.

‘It was like a joke. We thought, What is this song? Its gonna be nothing,’ said bassist Duff McKagan.

While Guns N’ Roses went on to become one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time after selling more than 100 million records worldwide since forming in Los Angeles in 1985, Australian Crawl broke up in 1986.

The band’s original line-up formed in Morning Peninsula, in Melbourne, and consisted of James Reyne as vocalist, Simon Binks on lead guitar, Paul Williams on bass guitar, along with Reyne's younger brother David on drums and schoolmate Brad Robinson on rhythm guitar.

After they started performing live in 1978, David Reyne left the group in 1979 and was replaced by Bill McDonough.

By the time they released their 1981 song 'Unpublished Critics', Guy McDonough (Bill's younger brother) had joined the group in October 1980.

In 1983, Bill left the group and a year later his brother and fellow band member Guy died from viral pneumonia.

The band recorded their last studio album in 1985 and Australian Crawl disbanded in 1986.

Guitarist Brad Robinson later died from lymphoma aged 38, in October 1996, two weeks after Australian Crawl were inducted into the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.

Reyne, who will begin his All The Hits tour this August around Australia, says he hasn't spoken to his other band mates in over 25 years but is enjoying making and playing music more than ever.

'The longer you do the craft the better you get at it,' he reasoned.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3076247/Did-Guns-N-Roses-base-classic-Sweet-Child-O-Australian-Crawl-song-Australian-band-s-lead-singer-admits-similarities-two-songs-Gunners-listening-Aussie-rock-time.html

(Note: The referenced Q Magazine article from 2005 is this one:
https://www.a-4-d.com/t80-sweet-child-o-mine#13275)