“Eighties" is the lead single from English post-punk band Killing Joke's fifth studio album, Night Time. Claims were made that Nirvana had copied the guitar riff on their 1991 hit "Come As You Are." The band considered legal action, but after Kurt Cobain's death, they dismissed thoughts of a lawsuit. Nirvana's Dave Grohl and Jaz Coleman later became good friends, and Grohl played drums on the 2003 self-titled Killing Joke album.
The official 1984 music video to "Eighties" was a snapshot of the times. It shows the band performing the song while frontman Jaz Coleman stands behind a U.S. flag-draped podium. Behind him is the flag of the Soviet Union. Their performance is intercut with footage of political and religious figures including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev (with the footage deliberately skipping), Anwar Sadat, Pope John Paul II, Ruhollah Khomeini, Konstantin Chernenk. Other footage shows a space shuttle launch, nuclear bomb explosion, book burnings, and Beatles albums being burned after John Lennon’s "bigger than Jesus comment,"(but that was the Sixties, guys.)
Killing Joke's "Eighties" is today's ear X-tacy. Compare it to Nirvana's "Come As You Are."
