Guitar hero Joe Satriani sues Coldplay for plagiarism (1 Viewer)

[blue_chameleon]

Guitar hero Joe Satriani sues Coldplay for plagiarism.

• Coldplay's Viva La Vida queried
• Satriani launches legal action

IT has all the hallmarks of a great musical stoush: guitar legend Joe Satriani is suing the world's biggest band, Coldplay, for plagiarism.

He claims the British band, fronted by Chris Martin, ripped off one of his tunes for their Grammy-nominated hit Viva La Vida.

Satriani is seeking a jury trial, damages and "any and all profits" attributed to the single, which he believes incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly.

The suit was filed the day after Coldplay bagged seven Grammy Award nominations, including Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year for Viva La Vida.

The single, and the album of the same name, have achieved huge international popularity since their June release, topping the US, European and Australian charts.

Viva La Vida was written by singer Chris Martin, bassist Guy Berryman, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion.

Satriani, 52, is one of the world's most respected guitarists. He released If I Could Fly on his 10th studio album, Is There Love In Space?
Satriani is not the first musician to question the originality of Viva La Vida. Soon after the single's release, little-known New York outfit Creaky Boards claimed it bore a similarity to their tune The Songs I Didn't Write.

Martin denied this claim, stating his band had written Viva before hearing the Creaky Boards perform for the first time.

The case has echoes of other famous musical plagiarism fights.

During the 1970s, former Beatle George Harrison had to pay a hefty sum after a court found key parts of his hit song My Sweet Lord had been lifted from The Chiffons' 1963 hit He's So Fine.

Viva La Vida is Coldplay's most successful song in Britain, going straight to No.1 on the UK charts.

Listen to a comparison here.

Sounds very, very..........very similar.
Will be interested to see what happens in court.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24764327-7484,00.html

 

[goony]

I do find this mashup quite interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3kytzHrKpo

Doesn't sound like Satch to do something like this, i reckon there's been some prodding from the music label and their legal team. It would benefit Satriani alot more to collaborate on a mashup like above though. Satch gets his stuff exposed to a whole heap of new listeners and coldplay gets a decent guitarist for once. They could call the project Satchplay or Coldtriani.

That original video is a bit misleading though. The two songs are actually written in different keys. The video author has shifted the pitch of Satch's song. The melody line, chord progression, tempo and everything else is pretty similar though.

I'm curious about the whole music plagarism thing, i thought you can copyright a melody of more than 7 notes or something but you can't copyright a chord progression...what's the deal there? Also, i'm assuming you can be done in for plagarism by negligence? (making a similar melody without knowing it). All that said, i would be pretty peeved off if someone took my ideas (whether it be on purpose or accidently) and got nominated for 7 grammies.

 

[rasengan90]

I'm curious about the whole music plagarism thing, i thought you can copyright a melody of more than 7 notes or something but you can't copyright a chord progression...what's the deal there? Also, i'm assuming you can be done in for plagarism by negligence? (making a similar melody without knowing it). All that said, i would be pretty peeved off if someone took my ideas (whether it be on purpose or accidently) and got nominated for 7 grammies.

What you are talking about there is called cryptomnesia. I wouldn't have a clue what the legal guide lines surrounding it are. It doesn't seem likely that Coldplay deliberately did it but it does as you say, sounds very similar. I think this same kind of thing happened when Tom Petty sued the Red Hot Chili Peppers because 'Dani California' sounded too much like one of his old songs.

 

[shinji]

How about the song "Clocks" by coldplay?

Melody is ripped from the song:
"Clockx - Clocks"
Shows their ingenuinity.

 

[Rafy]

How about the song "Clocks" by coldplay?

Melody is ripped from the song:
"Clockx - Clocks"
Shows their ingenuinity.

What? The Clockx song is a remix of Coldplay's Clocks.

 

[historykidd]

coldplay lift tons of their material from other bands, this comes as no suprise.

 

[katietheskatie]

more like cantplay lol amirite

 

[iwannarock]

i always thought clocks sounded like the truman show piano theme in reverse.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=RzoXZcxq2e8&feature=related

 

[jb_nc]

joe satriani is for 50 y.o. men anyway

 

[amisha_amisha]

So there's like one chord progression which is SIMILAR. I don't believe Coldplay vindictively and deliberately said one day, "Oh lets go steal a guitar riff from Satriani!" As if. It was obviously negligence. I mean, when Coldplay used bits from Kraftwerk's Computer Love in thier song, Talk, they acknowledged it! If they knowingly used parts of If I Could Fly, I'm sure they would acknowlege it in the same way as they did for Talk.

And more interestingly.... why doesn't Satriani sue Creaky Boards as well? If Creaky Boards reckon Coldplay stole their music, then Creaky Boards must've stolen it from Satriani!
Satriani > Creaky Boards > Coldplay?
Why miss Creaky Boards? Obvious answer really: they've no money. Satriani just wants some publicity and cash from Viva La Vida.

Satriani stole the riff himself, anyway! Check out "Hearts" by Marty Balin. If anyone should sue, it should be Balin! I mean, talk about hypocrisy! Seriously, what a loser.

Ridiculous. Absolutely RIDICULOUS. Satriani obviously is just jealous that Coldplay could borrow a teeeny section (riff) of his otherwise stupid song and transform that into an ingenious, ORIGINAL track. Music is influenced by other music. It's that simple. Coldplay are geniuses. Even if Satriani wins this case, it doesn't change the fact that Coldplay have made about 100 other tracks which topple Viva La Vida ANY DAY.

Viva La Vida is the worst song off the album, anyway. Who cares! Ahhh!

 

[blue_chameleon]

So there's like one chord progression which is SIMILAR. I don't believe Coldplay vindictively and deliberately said one day, "Oh lets go steal a guitar riff from Satriani!" As if. It was obviously negligence. I mean, when Coldplay used bits from Kraftwerk's Computer Love in thier song, Talk, they acknowledged it! If they knowingly used parts of If I Could Fly, I'm sure they would acknowlege it in the same way as they did for Talk.

And more interestingly.... why doesn't Satriani sue Creaky Boards as well? If Creaky Boards reckon Coldplay stole their music, then Creaky Boards must've stolen it from Satriani!
Satriani > Creaky Boards > Coldplay?
Why miss Creaky Boards? Obvious answer really: they've no money. Satriani just wants some publicity and cash from Viva La Vida.

Satriani stole the riff himself, anyway! Check out "Hearts" by Marty Balin. If anyone should sue, it should be Balin! I mean, talk about hypocrisy! Seriously, what a loser.

Ridiculous. Absolutely RIDICULOUS. Satriani obviously is just jealous that Coldplay could borrow a teeeny section (riff) of his otherwise stupid song and transform that into an ingenious, ORIGINAL track. Music is influenced by other music. It's that simple. Coldplay are geniuses. Even if Satriani wins this case, it doesn't change the fact that Coldplay have made about 100 other tracks which topple Viva La Vida ANY DAY.

Viva La Vida is the worst song off the album, anyway. Who cares! Ahhh!

Please leave the thread now, thanks.

 

[bazookajoe]

Ridiculous. Absolutely RIDICULOUS. Satriani obviously is just jealous that Coldplay could borrow a teeeny section (riff) of his otherwise stupid song and transform that into an ingenious, ORIGINAL track.Coldplay are geniuses. Even if Satriani wins this case, it doesn't change the fact that Coldplay have made about 100 other tracks which topple Viva La Vida ANY DAY.

Borrowing from others doesn't really make something original. I'll let you figure out why. As for the other stuff..ur funny

 

[runtlocks]

whatta shame viva la vida is the best song they've ever done imo

 

[veloc1ty]

So there's like one chord progression which is SIMILAR. I don't believe Coldplay vindictively and deliberately said one day, "Oh lets go steal a guitar riff from Satriani!" As if. It was obviously negligence. I mean, when Coldplay used bits from Kraftwerk's Computer Love in thier song, Talk, they acknowledged it! If they knowingly used parts of If I Could Fly, I'm sure they would acknowlege it in the same way as they did for Talk.

And more interestingly.... why doesn't Satriani sue Creaky Boards as well? If Creaky Boards reckon Coldplay stole their music, then Creaky Boards must've stolen it from Satriani!
Satriani > Creaky Boards > Coldplay?
Why miss Creaky Boards? Obvious answer really: they've no money. Satriani just wants some publicity and cash from Viva La Vida.

Satriani stole the riff himself, anyway! Check out "Hearts" by Marty Balin. If anyone should sue, it should be Balin! I mean, talk about hypocrisy! Seriously, what a loser.

Ridiculous. Absolutely RIDICULOUS. Satriani obviously is just jealous that Coldplay could borrow a teeeny section (riff) of his otherwise stupid song and transform that into an ingenious, ORIGINAL track. Music is influenced by other music. It's that simple. Coldplay are geniuses. Even if Satriani wins this case, it doesn't change the fact that Coldplay have made about 100 other tracks which topple Viva La Vida ANY DAY.

Viva La Vida is the worst song off the album, anyway. Who cares! Ahhh!

Hahahaha oh god, I can't believe you're being serious. I disagree with virtually everything you said. Satriani jealous? Needs publicity? Viva La Vida the worst on the album? XD

 

[mitch179]

Sounds very similar to me as well.
Although in my opinion, Satriani's sounds WAY BETERRRRRR.

 

[PC]

OMG I saw Satch live in Sydney earlier this year. Great show.

Coldplay? Not even interested.

 

[Isolated]

I never thought Joe Satriani would do such a thing. Thousands of artists ripped off Chuck Berry's riffs (Including huge artists such as Elvis and The Beatles), yet he never sued. Offcourse people knew the music was Berry's, and he still received credit and praise from the artists themselves. Joe's case is a different since the song is in a different style, different key, has vocals. It isn't that obvious, you would have to look for it. Kurt Cobain claimed that when writing Smells Like Teen Spirit, he was trying to rip them off. Many of their songs share very similar elements of music. Pixies, could have or still could sue, but don't because I believe he (Kurt) did mention them as one of his main influences, and by that they get reputation. Same applies to the RHCP case. John Frusciante does play music reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix and Joy division, but openly claims them among his huge array of influences. Coldplay never claimed Joe Satriani as an influence on the album, and it's clear he never was. I say It's jealously.

 

[Enteebee]

hahah it's one of their only songs i like

 

[newmz89]

on youtube they have like removed all the comparison videos lol.

 

[iwannarock]

maybe they stole it from her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC6wEFZYbpM&eurl=http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2180505&feature=player_embedded