Did Billie Eilish rip off The Doors?
Naturally, given the vast history, there are often crossovers between songs. That doesn’t necessarily mean a deliberate act of plagiarism has taken place, of course. Undeniably, the hit Billie Eilish track ‘Bury A Friend’ bears a staggering resemblance to The Doors’ ‘People Are Strange’ – but is it a rip-off?
Plagiarism is a murky subject in the music industry, and it remains extremely difficult to decipher whether an act of creative borrowing has genuinely occurred or, instead, it is merely coincidental. Interestingly, it doesn’t even matter whether an artist has consciously decided to take inspiration from another track or not – they can still be successfully sued if it happened accidentally.
George Harrison discovered the music industry’s dark side after being accused of plagiarising The Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ for his song ‘My Sweet Lord’. After the case rumbled on for years, eventually, Harrison was found guilty of committing “subconscious plagiarism” in 1976 and ordered to pay around $1.6 million in damages. The ruling had a crippling effect on Harrison, who fell out of love with music following the tough trial, which reevaluated The Beatle’s opinion on the industry.
In Eilish’s case, the melody in ‘Bury A Friend’ is almost identical to ‘People Are Strange’. On Spotify, it’s the most popular track by The Doors, and it’d be remarkable if Eilish or her collaborator Finneas had never heard the song before.
If the track in question was created by an obscure 1960s band rather than The Doors, Eilish and Finneas could plausibly claim they’ve never heard ‘People Are Strange’. However, they are also authentic artists to their core, and surely, they wouldn’t deliberately try to reinterpret the classic track without crediting The Doors.
According to SongFacts, Eilish revealed ‘Bury A Friend’ is “literally from the perspective of the monster under my bed. If you put yourself in that mindset, what is this creature doing or feeling?”
Meanwhile, in another interview with OK! Magazine, Eilish revealed how her battle with sleep paralysis inspired ‘Bury A Friend’. “I have these terrifying dreams,” she said. “Sleep paralysis, night terrors. It’s like the whole night is terrifying, and then I wake up. I probably wouldn’t have made that song the way it is if I hadn’t had sleep paralysis and nightmares.”
When Jim Morrison wrote ‘People Are Strange’, he was also distressed as he felt isolated from others because of his battle with depression. In some ways, ‘Bury A Friend’ can be seen as a modern sequel to The Doors classic by making it Gen-Z friendly.
While the melody between the two tracks is almost indistinguishable, as are the themes of each track, it is highly doubtful that Eilish and Finneas intentionally pinched parts of ‘People Are Strange’. However, if the surviving members of The Doors wanted to lodge a plagiarism case, there’d likely be grounds for a significant payout.
