Billy Corgan Points Out Similarity Between Metallica’s “Fuel” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tales of a Scorched Earth”
Music history is littered with accusations of plagiarism, some more legit than others. Did Ray Parker Jr. really rip off Huey Lewis and the News? Did the Red Hot Chili Peppers really rip off Tom Petty? Did Sam Smith really rip off Tom Petty? Wow, a lot of people accused of stealing from Tom Petty. Did Robin Thicke rip off Marvin Gaye? Well, according to a court of law, yes. Did Jet rip off Iggy Pop? Yes, I will stand by that one to my dying day: “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” is definitely “Lust for Life.” But now the newest question is, did Metallica rip off The Smashing Pumpkins? Maybe, but Billy Corgan is saying that with a lot of caveats.
In a recent interview with Australian podcast Everblack (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth), Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan brought up an eerie similarity between Metallica’s 1997 classic “Fuel” off of Reload and The Smashing Pumpkins “Tales of a Scorched Earth” off Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness:
“ Well, let me caveat this by saying that I love James Hetfield as a person. I love METALLICA; I saw them in 1984 and all that great stuff. And James is probably the greatest riff writer outside of maybe [BLACK SABBATH’s] Tony Iommi. James has written some of the greatest, most amazing riffs, and he’s still writing them. But if you listen to ‘Tales Of A Scorched Earth’ and you listen to that METALLICA song [‘Fuel’ from 1997’s ‘Reload’ album], ‘Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.’ See — a little lightbulb went off in your brain… Now, which song came first?”
Then the interviewer pointed out that “Tales of a Scorched Earth” was released only two years before “Fuel,” to which Corgan said:
“God bless you… Now, I don’t think James would rip anything off from me, but the first time I heard that song, I was, like, ‘That’s awfully close.’ But I love me some James. And I’d love somebody trying to get a troll headline out that, some clickbait out of that.”
Having never dug my way that far into The Smashing Pumpkins’ famous double album that’s so long it actually contains the word “infinite” in the title, I took a listen to “Tales of a Scorched Earth” to write this article and, yeah, it sounds familiar, but not close enough to not be a coincidence. And, as Corgan pointed out later in the interview:
“My father used to say, ‘Look, there’s only 12 notes.’ So, that’s the great thing. We all rip each other off, and if it works, great. I’ve got no problem with that. I mean, I’ve certainly ripped METALLICA off plenty, so…”
So do with that what you will.
