It’s been over six months since guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay, claiming the verse melody of “Viva La Vida” copies a guitar lick in his 2004 song “If I Could Fly.” Coldplay still haven’t apologized. Chris Martin says that while the whole ordeal is “inspiring” (?) the similarities are a coincidence. CNN braved a Chickenfoot show to get an update from Satriani. (He jokes about it, but also he wants all the money.) The news network also talked to the guitarist’s lawyer, who says YouTube users will be vital to his case. Because YouTube users are known for their good judgment.
No word if Joe’s gonna sue Creaky Boards too.
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The harmony and melody of both songs is so generic, how could Satriani possibly think that Coldplay is plagiarizing him? Honestly. It’s doing a great for his publicity though.
Why are we still talking about this?
This is so pathetic. Even if Satriani were to win any settlement at all he’ll have to turn that over to Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens) who used the same Chord structure as part of his Foreigner Suite in the early seventies. (Who in turn may have to hand it over to someone else.) Bottom line; ther are only a limited number of chord structures that are appealing to the ear. They will get used over and over. No one on this planet is going to confuse Coldplay’s song with Satriani’s. Maybe if we stop talking about this BS, it will go away.
True, I agree with what you said.
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Satriani’s first witness… mr chi city? the kid who sings chocolate rain? is this lawyer serious? i guess he really does need the money otherwise he would have hired someone a bit more competant
If he really needs the money, why did he form a band with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony?
He’s doing it for the tequila.
Did you mean: competent
“Well-respected rock guitarist” …debatable.
what a fuckface. yoúr mum’s gender is debatable
chickenfoot. now there’s a great game.
Wow, that guy mashed up Twist and Shout and La Bamba. That’s incredibly innovative!!! Almost as much as when Cheech Marin did it in Born In East L.A. Top notch reporting CNN. By the way, no matter what the outcome, Satriani is still the worst.
This sounds more like a promo for Chickenfoot
This sounds more like a no one gives a fuck. Never did.
vai is way cooler anyway
Wait a second here. If I had decided to become a lawyer, spending six to eight years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the best schools. When I joined the practice I could have been paid $500 dollars an hour to watch Youtube videos claiming that they help me know how to do my job?
What a joke. Douchebag McGee on creativeguitar talks about the VI-VII-III-i like no one’s ever used it before… as someone who’s studied music (particularly jazz) theory, it’s impossible to find a relatively recent song (i.e. post-1970) that doesn’t mimic an older song’s chord changes. For example, Ben Folds’ Not the Same has the same chord progression as RHCP’s Otherside. Sure, the melody’s kinda similar, but you don’t see Elton John suing Imogen Heap just because Hide and Seek sounds like Can You Feel the Love Tonight (from the Lion King). And you can mash anything with anything… I;ve mashed Muse’s Starlight with T.I.’s What You Know, and Seven Nation Army with Bloc Party’s Banquet. To claim they’re the same song because they can be mashed is horse***t.
Plus, the Santriani song is awful. Sure, it sounds very similar, but s**t happens like that all the time. If Chris Martin is running out of song ideas, somehow I doubt that he’s listening to Santriani to rip off ideas.
i guess wilco ripped off jack johnson then. “jesus, etc.” has the exact same chord progression as “flake”. he should totally sue.
did flake really come first?
hmm, probably not. it was released before yankee hotel foxtrot, but i bet jesus, etc. was recorded first, what with all that warner brothers drama they had to go through to get it released.
I am a high school music teacher and for fun I had my music class compare the Coldplay & Satriani songs as an assignment. We looked at how the Harmonies, Rhythms and Melodies lined up. Our conclusion in the end was that the two songs are virtually identical in every way. In almost 20 years of teaching, I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this between two songs. Mr. Satriani has a very good case, and I’d say Coldplay has some explaining to do!
You class must suck if you’re making your kids listen to Coldplay and Chickenfeet.
TonyB, you couldn’t have possibly found that “Viva” is similiar to Satch’s “If I Could Fly” in “every possible way.” Unless you and your students have no idea what your talking about. And clearly you don’t and now a bunch of kids out there wrongly believe Coldplay ripped off a guitar great (Joe Satriani). And for the record, I love Satch 10 times more than I ever would Coldplay, though they are a good rock group as well in an era of disposable crap.
I don’t have a classroom of kids but have definitely studied Satriani’s work for years and so had no problems studying both “Viva” and “Fly” several months back when this controversy started.
First, the two songs (“Viva” and “Fly”) start out and end COMPLETELY differently. The bass, guitar and drum parts of both songs are COMPLETELY different and the verse vocals NEVER match up with any Satriani lick note-for-note. Not. Even. Close.
As I’ve said elsewhere, the ONLY similarity between the two songs is where Chris Martin’s vocal verse, a few notes into it, features Martin holding a single note (D flat) for a length of five 8th notes long just as Satriani starts the two choruses of his instrumental (“Fly”) by holding an F sharp note for five 8th notes long.
After that, Martin goes from D sharp to D, then down to B, while Satch goes from F sharp to G, then down to E. So both songs have a 3-note progression where the notes go up a half step, then down one-and-a-half steps. Thus, though briefly similar, it is not even close to plagiarism.
Then, both Martin’s verse and Satch’s solo go in completely different directions, especially Satriani, though Martin does eventually hold out future verse notes in a higher pitch or return to the same pitch he started with for a similar time frame (the five or so 8th notes).
Other than that folks, there’s not a SINGLE other notational pattern between the two songs that are similar. None are even close to truly mimicking each other. Thus, Satriani has NO case for a lawsuit and although I still love the guy’s work (Chickenfoot excluded), his hearing skills are clearly on the decline. It’s sad but true.
BTW, the YouTube instructor Satriani’s lawyer loves totally made up guitar chords in “Viva” that don’t exist. He is dead wrong about “Viva” and not to be taken seriously by anybody, let alone a lawyer involved in a lawsuit.
I think Chickenfoot and Pearl Jam are co-headling a tour together this summer.
People at my work are mad pumped about it.
-Farmer Ted
I’m sorry, but did coldplay dude say “Viva La Vida” was their “best song” i think it’s one of their worst. Though i hate to admit it i really like some of their old stuff, but this last album is just really bad.
If Satch wins anyone could sue Coldplay over all their music since it all doesn’t really sound very original. There’s so much music out there that it’s probably possible to find another song anytime that has a similar chorus, groove, guitar riff, whatever.
still waiting for the poor schmuck who recorded some obscure 60′s detergent-ad jingle this melody is probably based on to come forward. We need a perfect suing square on this one…
King Carrot Flowers is dead wrong. Viva La Vida is Coldplay’s best album ever; it made them relevant.
Made them relevant?? Dude, they’ve been ruling the airwaves for close to a decade. Ever heard Parachutes? Or a little platinum-selling, Grammy-winning album called Rush of Blood to the Head? To me that earlier stuff was a lot more exciting because it was fresh and rare. The Coldplay sound has gotten kinda tired of late.
I think the sentences “well respected rock guitarist” and “currently plays in the rock band, Chicken Foot with Sammy Hagar” kinda negate each other! Satriani is a goon, there’s no way Coldplay was sitting around listening to a Joe Satriani record
it means Satriani and Cat Stevens copied too after the Spanish guy who had the song on a CD in 1993? Check out “Ibon Errazkin” “Vacaciones en Roma” 1993 from Elefant Records.>
Maybe Coldplay payed for it and that’s the reason they are so relaxed. It is an instrumental piece and just waited for the lyrics. Coldplay put them. Let’s hope they payed for it to Elefant Records and/or Ibon Errazkin.
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I think I know what happened…
Satriani contacted the record label but they didn’t reply, in fact they dismissed it even after a 3-4 month period. I think that was due to arrogance…I don’t think anyone including the band coldplay took it seriously, i think it was then that satriani was peeed off about it all. This guy is quality, he is such a nice bloke. Fact. Whereas Chris Martin??? mmmmm he has been reported to have lost it on a few occasions. Hey that’s life, and i appreicate that he may have had his reasons, but coldplay fans seem to think that satriani is doing this for publicity, and because he isn’t famous. Satriani is one of the nicest blokes in showbizness, fact. Which makes this case even weirder!!! Coldplay fans think that he is in it for the money but that is rubbish!! There is more than to this than meets the eye. I’ve heard satch in an interview a few years ago, he actually praised coldplay, so he hasn’t got any bad feelings against anyone. I just think that he was annoyed to hear his melody be so succesfull, i even think that in the back of his mind he knows that coldplay didn’t purposely copy satch, it’s just the actual nerve of it all. I feel that the record company didn’t give two monkeys about satch’s point. Coldplay are a very successful band, personally they are very generic, but like britney spears, take that, and the killers they are commercial enough to appeal to a wide range of people. Good luck, but please you have to admit that so many tunes they have been successfull with have been heard before. I reckon if they had interacted with Satriani this case wouldn’t have gone this far…again I will make my point that i’m not a fan of coldplay, but understand why they have a huge audience. It’s easy listening, whereas satriani’s material isn’t. However he made a fairly good living as a rock guitarist, and the song he wrote that sounded exactly the same as the coldplay song was about his wife…so it’s very personal to him.
As I will repeat, I have a feeling that this case has been going on longer than we think – coldplay fans think that satch is making a mountain out of a molehill. but i reckon that no one listened to him for quite a while, it was then that he thought “sod this no one is listening to me, lets take it further.”
There are two kinds of people who care enough to comment. Those who are defensive of Coldplay, and those who are objective and recognize plagiarism. Wow, so blatant, it really is unbelievable! Stop being ignorant, the guy is one of the best guitar players to ever walk the earth. Sure, so you think his music is lame, you probably think the Brandonburg Cncerto is lame too, just don’t commit the terrible mistake of judgement out of ignorance and subjective personal opinion. If you stick with the just the facts maam, its plain to see!.!.!
So, YouTube users are know for their good judgement? Not sure if that’s the same as a jury of your peers, but I don’t think so. I use YouTube and often times my wife tells my judgement is not very sound at all.
That being said, I think that plagiarism is alive an well on planet Earth, and everyone from middle school students to Coldplay think they can get away with it. Maybe because the internet has spawned the duplication and re-issueing of content – aka YouTube
Im Lovin Joes hat .
Any one no were he got it?
Coldplay has a mess on their hands with this one – had they gotten permission from Satriani about this music, the two mixed together actually sound great!
joyce
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