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

[gjohntheterrible]

I hope Joe Satriani wins this. I admire what Satriani has done for the music world but I've never been a big fan of his. John Pettruci is way better than him in my opinion.

[XLintLuvR]

An obscure guitarist at best. If it wasn't for that electronics commercial that featured some of his music about a decade ago he'd be completely unknown and this is coming from someone who knew dudes raving about his music back in HS and that was in the 80s. I'll drop to the ground and run in circles on my side like Curly from the Three Stooges if Chris Martin asks "Joe who?" lol

[NoSillyName]

Satriani is not "obscure" to everyone. Speak for yourself.

[realitycheck7]

you know little about the guitar world

Satriani is a guitarists guitarist. He may no be as popular as some, but nearly all serious guitar students know to appreciate his ability

[realitycheck7]

coldplay clearly ripped off the song

I hope justice prevails

[poormanG]

Miles Davis once said, " Bach and Duke Ellington wrote all the music. everything else is just copying. "
or words to that effect.
I think joe should keep that in mind. i've listened to both tracks and dont think 3 notes is worthy of a plagiarism suit

[Doris]

The Rolling Stones stole "Time is On My Side" lick for lick from Irma Thomas - but, I don't think anything was ever done about it.

[bigbingtheory]

Led Zeppelin's riff in Babe I'm going to leave you is identical to the intro of Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4. Chicago stole it from some one else. Zeppelin's first 2 albums were riffs, lyrics and entire songs of American blues legends. What is it about a new band that peaks our interests? Usually because it reminds you of someone you already like. I believe Stone Gossard called it "Inadvertent imitation.­"

[mandalina]

High five on the Stone Gossard reference!

[NoSillyName]

Rock & Roll derived from the Blues, that's not news.

LZ came along at just the right time.

[newdreams]

The Verve were sued by Andrew Oldham (Rolling Stones manager) for using 5 NOTES of 'The Last Time' in 'Bittersweet Symphony' and finally had to settle and give ALL writing credit to Jagger and Richards, even though there was prior permission AND the Stones did not write a line of Bittersweet Symphony.

5 NOTES

[WildElf]

No, that's a completely different situation. The Verve used a SAMPLE of the Rolling Stones song. A sample of which they claimed to have a right to use (and was many more than 5 notes long), but the Stones' record label claimed they used too much of it, and ultimately won. Using a direct sample from a song is nothing like claiming the composition was stolen.

[Doris]

listen to time is on my side by Irma thomas it is exactly the same.

[jdmccl]

Stealing is stealing. What Verve!

[HazerX]

One of the top 5 guitarists. . .hmmmm. . .

I love Satriani's music. I'm a fan of Vai (whom I'm sure sold his soul to the devil), and Metallica.

But I think you/we should put "Great Guitarists" into perspective. You might say Joe is one of the top 5 Rock Guitarists. I could buy that. But compare him to someone like saaaaay, Justin King, and Satriani isn't even in the ballpark.

Dont believe me? Youtube some Satriani. . .then Youtube some Justin King. 2 diff styles/genres, but clearly King is. . .well, the King.

[bigbingtheory]

Bill Frissell, Pat Metheny, Adrian Belew, who was the cat that played on Miles' Jack Johnson sessions? I never saw the appeal with guitarists like Satriani. He plays a lick and constructs a cacophony of noise around it, big deal.

[NoSillyName]

There have been many great jazz guitarists.

There have been many great rock guitarists.

And then there's FUSION!

[XLintLuvR]

How about you're both knuckleheads. Why not throw out some more obscure guitarists? Why haven't I head either of you mention Nuno Bettencourt (who I absolutely loved his music) or Eric Johnson or Yngwie Malmsteen. Look, fact is this, outside the handful of people on here that actually know all the names of all those guys you've named and you know what they all have in common? No airplay through a lack of hitting the mainstream on their own. Not one of those guys should even be in the running for top 25 let alone top 5 so stop trying to show off that you can name a bunch of guys that nobody's familiar with.

[Feanor]

Satriani possesses awesome technical proficiency, but that doesn't make him a great guitarist.

[TTM]

George Benson is a great guitarist.

[NoSillyName]

Jeff Beck, Dwayne Allman, Jimi Hendrix, SRV, just to name a few.

[NoSillyName]

Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Jimi Hendrix...­.

[bigbingtheory]

I was all set to say WTF is Satriani talking about. But the guitar solo is exactly, exactly the same as the melody. If Harrison could get sued by the Chiffons and win, Satriani can too. BTW, I thought this last Coldplay album was probably the lamest I've heard from any band in a long time. What's with the 1:30 useless intro song that get's interesting at about 1:20?

[bigbingtheory]

I changed my mind. The Dandy Warhols blatantly ripped off the Stones opening lick of Jumping Jack Flash and didn't get sued by the biggest rock band in the world. The track was Bohemian Like You which appeared on commercials and movie soundtracks even. This comparison doesn't approach that. Both Satriani's version and Coldplay suck almost equally however.

[NoSillyName]

I haven't seen anything interesting happen during the Grammys since "Soy Bomb" took the stage and acted very weird behind Bob Dylan.

Of course, Dylan the Pro, carried on in spite of the interruption.

[marred]

Can't we all sue coldplay for mkaing lame, white, soulless music?

[nana4g]

I love Coldplay music.

[bigbingtheory]

Whatever moves you, it's cool. Unless it's that godawful band Creed. There is no excuse for liking them.

[bigbingtheory]

It's soullessness knows no racial boundary. It is profound. I used to really like these guys too for some reason.

[jdmccl]

Sounds like the rednecks description of Rush. maybe they should just stick to comercial jingles.

[gjohntheterrible]

Amen.

[newdreams]

There is a similarity there between the two songs. BUT, It doesn't matter what we can hear or not hear or what other group may or may not have a similar sound. What matters is what the court decides. Bands have been found guilty of plagiarism over much more murkier or reversed sounds.

[Dukedraven]

An argument could be made that Coldplay cribbed from Satriani's song. For his sake, he better have good lawyers.

[NoSillyName]

Even their title choice is lame.

Maybe The Clash could sue Coldplay for using the word "VIVA".

Maybe Ricky Martin could sue Coldplay for using the word "VIDA".

But seriously, I hope Satriani wins.

[lochnessmonster]

I heard a professor.­..some sort of expert on Sound Opinions last Saturday. he does these comparisons as part of his work for lawsuits such as this. He said while some of the song is similar there is too much difference for Satriani to win the suit. We shall see.

[winkin]

There's another song, older than Satriani's, of which the intro sounds very similar to Viva La Vida:
"J'en ai marre" by Alizee (2003)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=240S04eCCC0

[normanx]

I'm for the puppet government­.... never mind coldplay..­: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw23N9xXM60

[oiba]

Also, coldplay have said in a rollingstone interview that they borrow music from artist. something along those lines, look it up.

[bigbingtheory]

"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief." Bono

[Antacid]

Really? You're quoting Bono in an attempt to look intelligent?

[oiba]

coldplay is horrible. just because they sell albums doesn't make them a good band. mc hammer and vanilla ice sold many records...

[gjohntheterrible]

That talentless h a c k ice stole the opening to his one hit from Queen's "Under Pressure"

[gjohntheterrible]

That talent less h a c k ice s t o l e the opening to his one h i t from Under Pressure by Q u e e n

[NoSillyName]

Hammer vs. James