The lines seem a lot less blurred with this one.

Guns N’ Roses have been accused of ripping off another band’s song on their biggest hit. Australian music website Max TV pointed out the similarities between ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Unpublished Critics’, a 1981 song by rock band Australian Crawl. As well as sharing the same chord progression and rhythm, the songs make use of similar melodies in the verse and an “ahh” to start each line in the chorus. There’s nothing in there that resembles Slash’s iconic riff, but overall the songs sound much more closely related than, say, ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got To Give It Up’.

‘Unpublished Critics’ is from Australian Crawl’s album Sirocco, a number one hit in their home country but little-known outside of Oz. However, as Ultimate Classic Rock points out, the song later appeared on the band’s only US album, a 1984 compilation on Geffen – the label that GN’R signed to in 1986.

According to the annals of GN’R, Slash came up with the ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ riff and the band wrote the rest of the song around it, with Axl Rose citing Lynyrd Skynryd as his chief influence. James Reyne of Australian Crawl has obviously noticed the similarities – he even adds a bit of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ to the song in his own sets, according to fans – but doesn’t seem interested in litigation.

“It is not inconceivable” that Guns N’ Roses heard ‘Unpublished Critics’ first, he told Daily Mail Australia, but added: “I’m not about to take on the might of the Guns N’ Roses lawyers.”

Listen for yourself. Meanwhile, a Guns N’ Roses feature film is in the works.