Nick Cave has been accused of plagiarism by a Scottish musician.
Frankie Duffy, who plays in the band Kalel, alleges that Cave copied his song ‘Grey Man’ for Grinderman’s ‘Palaces Of Montezuma’.
Watch videos of both tracks by scrolling down now.
Speaking to Thecourier.co.uk, Duffy explained that he first recorded ‘Grey Man’ in 2005 when in previous band Rising Signs. The song has remained online since then, and Duffy said he thinks Cave could have stumbled across it when looking for inspiration.
“When you hear that track you can totally spot the similarities. I sat down with my guitar and played along with it and it’s exactly the same A, E and B chords, which to be fair anybody could use to write a song at any time. But it’s the chord progression and when the vocal hook comes in with some “ooohs“, it’s exactly the same, you can just hear it’s the same thing.
“It’s been up on our MySpace even after Rising Signs split, and I don’t know, I can’t help thinking that Nick Cave was sitting in his house one night and decided to surf some unsigned bands and saw our site, saw we were split up and thought, ‘I’ll have that track, nobody will ever know.'”
However, Cave seemed to dismiss the comparisons during Grinderman’s show at London‘s Hammersmith Apollo on Friday (October 1).
Speaking before playing ‘Palaces Of Montezuma’, Cave told the crowd he’d been sued by a “17-year-old from Dundee” before jokingly denying the claims and declaring “I wrote it for my wife,” while pointing at bearded drummer Jim Sclavunos.
Duffy added that he would consider taking legal action against Cave over the similarities.
“It could be a really huge, amazing coincidence, but it’s really obvious they sound the same and on the Grinderman album [‘Grinderman 2’] you can hear the band talking and you can hear the words “grey man” being said, so maybe it’s not as much of a coincidence after all,” he said.
“I’m not sure where I want to take it but it will be interesting to see what they’ve got to say. Everybody I’ve played it to agrees it sounds like the same song and you never know, I might have to sue him in court.”
Watch videos of both ‘Grey Man’ by Rising Signs and ‘Palaces Of Montezuma’ by Grinderman below.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/?bctid=618681708001