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Come Out and Play (song)

"Come Out and Play"
TheOffspringcomeoutnplay.jpg
Single by The Offspring
from the album Smash
B-side "Session"
"Come Out and Play (acoustic)
Released March 10, 1994
Format Vinyl, Cassette and CD
Recorded 1994
Genre Punk rock
Length 3:17
Label Epitaph
Writer(s) Dexter Holland
Producer(s) Thom Wilson
The Offspring singles chronology
"I'll Be Waiting"
(1986)
"Come Out and Play"
(1994)
"Self Esteem"
(1994)

"Come Out and Play" is a song by the Californian punk rock group The Offspring. It is the seventh track on their third album Smash (1994) and was released as the first single from that album. Written by frontman Dexter Holland, the song was the second single to be released by the band, after "I'll Be Waiting" (1986). It is considered to be The Offspring's breakthrough song, as it received widespread radio play, and reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, bringing both the band and the punk rock genre to widespread attention. Inspiration for the "keep 'em separated" lyric came from Dexter Holland's experience in a laboratory cooling Erlenmeyer flasks full of hot liquids.

"Come Out and Play" was the first Offspring song for which a music video was created. The music video, directed by Darren Lavett, was shot in May 1994 and debuted on MTV in the summer of that year. The video is almost entirely in black-and-white with sepia tone segments, and features the band performing the song in the garage of a house with tinfoil covering the walls. There is also footage involving dogs fighting over a chew toy with a crowd watching, as well as a horse race, sword fight and some clips of several snakes and snake charmers, as well as some fencing scenes.

In 1994, Posh Boy Records owner Robbie Fields submitted a written claim to Epitaph Records via the Harry Fox Agency, alleging that the two-bar Arabian guitar phrase repeated throughout "Come Out and Play" copied the guitar solo from "Bloodstains", a song by the Fullerton, California punk rock band Agent Orange written in 1979 to which Fields, as the song's publisher, owned the copyright. Offspring lead vocalist and primary songwriter Dexter Holland had cited "Bloodstains" as one of the songs that sparked his interest in punk rock, saying it "really influenced me, especially that Arabian-sounding lead. I've written a lot of stuff like that", and The Offspring's public admiration had brought Agent Orange increased attention. Fields contended that the similarity between the two guitar parts amounted to The Offspring sampling Agent Orange, and requested that Epitaph pay a licensing fee of US$0.01 for each copy of Smash sold—equating to $60,000 or more at the time—which he would split evenly with Agent Orange frontman and "Bloodstains" writer Mike Palm. A lawsuit was not filed, as Fields said "Nobody wants to pillory anybody. But I feel I have a fiduciary duty to represent Mike Palm's interests." Palm declined to give an opinion on the matter, later noting that he was not involved in filing the claim but did not disagree with it, and invited listeners to compare the two songs, saying "Anyone who listens will know what the issue is."


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