Coldplay May Get Served Lawsuit At Grammys

Coldplay may get served legal papers at this weekend's Grammy Awards.

Last year guitarist Joe Satriani alleged that Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" borrowed a little too heavily from his "I Just Wanna Fly." Satriani's lawyer Howard King is planning to blanket the Grammys with servers to hand the band a plagiarism lawsuit.

Fox News reports:

King says, "We have warned their British lawyers that we have hired a fleet of process servers lined up to dog the band everywhere they go this weekend in the hopes of serving them."

King even promises to have camera crews roaming around with the process servers to get the whole thing on tape.

Coldplay denies the charges.

Read about Satriani's complaint here.

Hear a song comparison:

Comments

[Jafeth Mariani]

It is a strange time for coldplay.
At the one side , they are making the best music tehy ever did.
At the other side, they appear under drugs in germany TV ( http://angelsmagazine.blog.de/2009/01/25/coldplay-wetten-besoffen-blutig-5441174/ video )
and then teh satriani problem.
really strange combination. Too much success?

[SmootyBooty]

does anyone hear remember that this band once used a Kraftwerk song note for note, and then said on the liner notes that theirs was "inspired" by the original. talentless and clueless...

[LunarDelta]

They had Kraftwerk's permission to use the melody from Computerlove.

Do some research before you make a fool of yourself.

[Madmac]

I'm sorry, I've bought both songs, seen all the youtube comparasions and I can't see where they are similiar.

[realitycheck7]

you have to press play on the music player first

[Madmac]

I'm listening to them now jerk. Maybe you should get your head out of your derriere it would be a benefit to us all

[notanicegirl]

My son is a huge Satriani fan, he knew I had the Coldplay CD. He put on Joe and asked me to listen and see if I could pick out the song. You had to be deaf and dumb not to hear it. I started singing the Coldplay lyrics along with Satriani. I like Coldplay, but I fear they may win an undeserved Grammy. This is not the most original band to ever set foot in a recording studio. I think Brian Eno holds some responsibility. Even if CP is too thick to get what they're doing is wrong, Eno knows. Plus, Coldplay could face this like men - if they haven't done anything wrong, why are they refusing to talk to Satriani and ducking his lawyers? Satriani has more talent in his middle finger than that whole band will ever dream of having. Should be an interesting awards show.

[RepugsOut08]

Scroll down to the post that has links to many similar songs including the old Cat Steven's song from "Foreigner" on you tube. Wait until it gets towards the end of the song. "The moment you walked into my door, I knew that I need not look no more" part. You'll see that this melody is as least 35 years old. Cat Stevens should sue Satriani.

[Madmac]

Refusing to talk to someone who wants to sue you is neither ducking nor is it avoiding something like "a man". They (Coldplay) have lawyers to deal with this issue. And the last time I checked, this is a nation of laws, not of known unknowns or preemptive strikes. Now Mr. Satriani has filed a lawsuit believing that his rights were infringed in this manner, Coldplay will respond to this civil complaint in a legal setting, not on a blog and not in the court of public opinion which DOES NOT EXIST. You are entitled to your opinion and you have made that known as I am entitled to mine. Based on the data that I've accessed, I do not believe that Mr. Satriani has met the legal burden of proof in this matter at this time. To me, Tom Petty had a much better case of Copyright Infringement regarding Dani California and Last Dance with Mary Jane as opposed to this.

[TruthosaurusRex]

Um, did you take your earplugs out first?

The very first thing I thought was, how similar they are! The guitar instrumental is note-for-note to Coldplay's song!

[Liberterna]

lawyers and artists

horrible mix

lawyers on earth, horrible abberation.

do a good deed, spit on a lawyer.

[Dogmanger]

Excellent argument and brilliant solution! Somebody has ISSUES!!!!

[mergina]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
You maked me giggle.

[ElPerro]

Everyone hates lawyers.... until they need one.

[217]

The songs are alike, but the melody is so inevitable and natural, that it shows up in all of the songs in TTM's great post (and a song by the indie band Creaky Boards). The fact is that Coldplay put out the best album of the year, and Satch (who I love) got his feelings hurt. The bottom line is, if Led Zeppelin is allowed to be in the RnR hall of fame, Coldplay should be allowed to keep the praise for their great song.

[realitycheck7]

calling a coldplay album the best of anything immediately disqualifies you

[Dogmanger]

Aah musical snobbery. The most pretentious and common of all snobbery.

[Soundofthunder]

How does Led Zeppelin have anything to do with Coldplay ripping off a song? Please list, if you would, the songs purportedly plagiarized by LZ. Do not include COVER SONG. Those are properly credited.

SOT

[Chilblain]

HEY DUMMIES!

PUBLICITY STUNT !

[realitycheck7]

yes it is but not in the way you are thinking

Joe Stariani does not have the resources to battle them out in court. So by doing this, Coldplay will hopefully get enough bad publicity that they have no choice but to be shamed into paying up for their blatant plagiarism

[jbeach]

Disagree re: blatant plagiarism. That melody line is a natural result of those chords; and I honestly doubt if Coldplay had ever even heard Satriani's song. I certainly haven't, and I used to listen to Satriani.

But you're probably right as to what Satriani is pursuing. He probably does think he was ripped off, and I can understand what could lead him to think that; but IMHO he was not.

We'll see what the courts say, if anything...

[StuartandKathren]

I honestly doubt they have ever heard of Joe Satriani, let alone heard this song.
I am the same generation of British male, from the same part of the country, and let me ASSURE you we were NOT listening to this fella.

[anorien]

I really don't know whether or not anybody ripped off anybody else here but I'm more or less the same generation of British female (a bit older, truth to tell), and I knew Joe Satriani's material at the time.

[Zillacabra]

They've definitely heard of him. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Coldplay that appeared on VH1.com on August 12, 2002:

VH1: You’re always hinting that maybe this might be the last Coldplay record.

Chris: We’ll wait and see. I sometimes think we’re just a one-hit wonder and that’s it for us. Other times I know that it’s not true. Being in Coldplay is what I live for, and I’d be gutted if people didn’t want us around. This is getting depressing! This is going to be on VH1’s 100 Saddest Stories: the day we gave up because no one liked us. Get Joe Satriani to comment on that!

http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1456997/08122002/coldplay.jhtml

[XLintLuvR]

Ok. Let's call a spade a spade. I used to like Joe, but if he's going to embarass himself chasing Coldplay around to serve them up on this, I'm losing respect for him by the day. The melodies are similar. I'll agree, but considering how weak his was, I'd be embarassed to bring up that suit because anyone listening will say that Coldplay's was far suprior and if they did swipe it, they at least made it a better song. lol

[TTM]

If Coldplay is sued by Satriani for plagiariazing Viva La Vida, then Satriani might be sued by Enanitos Verdes over If I Could Fly. Ultimately, it all goes back to Cat Stevens:

1. Coldplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE

2. Satriani:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMcjXo8ZuqE (0:48)

3. Enanitos Verdes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI (0:34)

4. NKOTB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXmCOXQcmVE (0:42)

5. Marty Balin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTp0P5xMHog

6. Babik Reinhardt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cgy8TBr_dk

7. Gunther:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XnhFR73wOs

8. Cat Stevens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXda-RTE_c (3:14)

Bottom line: it is inevitable that vocal melodies and instrumental phrasings over similar chord progressions will often overlap.

[RepugsOut08]

Wow! Thanks for the reminder of the Cat Stevens song. I knew that melody was familiar, but I'd forgotten the Cat tune. Yep, Satriani has lost all credibility with me in his lawsuit pursuit after hearing this.

[Soundofthunder]

These are the same songs. Changing the make up of instruments or adding lyrics doesn't excuse the outright theft of the underlying music. This is a more egregious case of copyright infringement than the "Ghost Busters" theme stealing "I Wanna New Drug".

SOT

[Bulbul]

Something about being rich and famous, they remain untouchable. First was Seinfled and his wife coping the cookbook and then the husband went around in different talk shows and was arrogant and insulting to the original author ! Then this coldplay..it is a copy, why not ask if you like the notes and the music.
Let the story unfolds..and resolves to nothing.

[Furby]

You know the Grammys are in trouble when they start serving subpoenas at the show. Not to worry Cold Play fans, it's all in the master plan. It won't cost Cold Play a nickle, and Joe has already been paid off. I still don't think this stunt will be enough to get the viewership they need to keep the show alive, but it's worth a try I suppose.

[realitycheck7]

tin foil hat

[Furby]

which is way better I suppose than a big honkin grey thing with a bow on it - oops here goes.

[jdmccl]

Joe hasn't been paid and has more talent than the Moody Blues, er, Coldplay. Stealing music is serious. Milli Vannili should just take the Gweneth home and leave the music to the big boyz.

[jgsuperpants]

It's not just the notes in the guitar lead that are nearly identical to the vocal line in Coldplay's song. The chord changes are identical, and the harmonic movement is identical. However, when it comes to pop/rock music, it really has all been done.

Western music is 12-tone music. Unless you are listening to Asian, Indian or African music, everything coming out of Europe or the West is 12-tone music. That means there are only 12 notes. That's it. Everything we hear is just a variety of combinations of these notes. And, more importantly, outside of classical and jazz, pop relies on a very finite harmonic structure that limits the variety of tension in the music. So, basically, it's all been done. However, there are clear instances when there is a direct link between known songs.

Listen to the Chili Pepper's "Dani California" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance." Strikingly similar. Even John Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing HIMSELF!!!! (for a solo record that sounded a lot like a CCR track).

Coldplay shouldn't have to turn over writing credits, but they should give some royalties to Satriani. It's a pretty obvious "borrow."

[GoodwithWood]

Who's ColdPlay?

[killjoyvanity]

Meanwhile Jet completely rips off "Menomena" by the Muppets AND gives me a headache every time I hear "Will You Be My Girl." There is no justice in this world.