Did Coldplay copy Joe Satriani?

[ReCycled]

The 52-year-old guitarist/musician is suing the Grammy-nominated act, accusing them of plagiarizing one of his tracks, Reuters reports.

The copyright infringement suit, filed on Thursday in Los Angeles, claims the Coldplay song "Viva La Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental "If I Could Fly." Listen to the 2 tracks and compare....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

[metaL]

I'm a big Satriani fan so this annoys me.  Of course, I don't know for a fact that it was stolen.

[|iR|Focalor]

Oh no, tell me he didn't go there... I personally think it's a coincidence. Satch heard it, and maybe he really is offended that they could have possibly stolen his tune, but you can't tell me that he didn't also see great big fucking dollar signs at the same time. Being that Coldplay is one of the most popular and richest bands in the entire world right now, I'm sure that has a little to do with it. At this point in the game, there are TONS of artists out there that could have a big fat massive circle-jerk sue session. There's only so many audible notes to the human ear, and tens of thousands of musicians. Statistically speaking, a few of them are going to accidentally "copy" each other from time to time.

...or if you're Creed, you just copy yourself on purpose.

[ReCycled]

Well I think it's plagiarized for 3 reasons:

1) The main chords are exactly the same.
2) The melody line/vocal is virtually identical
3) It's even in the same KEY.

If you're gonna copy a song at least transpose the key 3, 6 or 8 notes away from the original. It's much less obvious.

Now I don't know if the guy did it deliberately. Maybe he was just noodling around on the piano, started with one chord, went to the next and the next, liked what he heard and kept it. When he was searching for a vocal he may have inadvertantly heard Satriani's song somewhere, somehow and it came into his conscious. Regardless - it's a copy. It's way too close.
I realize there is a limited number of mathematical chord combinations that sound musical and someone is bound to repeat something already done, but even with that there's still a great deal of music that is entirely original. And continues to be. Frankly when I listen to any Coldplay song it seems derived from some other song I've heard before.   

[|iR|Focalor]

Frankly when I listen to any Coldplay song it seems derived from some other song I've heard before.   

Hmm... after listening to a few Coldplay songs, you have a very interesting point there.

I change my mind. I hope Satch sues them into the poorhouse. They should also be publicly flogged along with Seals & Crofts for the crime of attempting to turn America gay.

[ReCycled]

I don't remember the name of their first big hit (the opening piano one) but I swear I've heard that before.

Anyway yeah, Satch is angry. It seems that Coldplay song (or the album) is up for a grammy.

[metaL]

From wikipedia:

"Satriani now has the most Grammy Award nominations of anyone (14) without winning"

[ReCycled]

Now Cat Stevens enters the mix. Maybe the time has come that all the good chord progressions/melody have been done. And now they're starting to repeat...

[Chocobo Joe]

I found these videos informing of this whole deal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEGGFJLpbu4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWLfpOecyE

[ReCycled]

These guys don't stop. Three more songs alleged to have been stolen:

[|iR|Focalor]

THEY SHOULD BE PUNISHED TO A LIFE OF VALIUM SUPPOSITORIES!

...just because that's what their music sounds like.

[Th0m@s29]

I used to like Cold Play.