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

[SwingingFromCenter]

I'm surprised it took this long.

They're basically just U2 with a piano.

[NoSillyName]

And the "Energizer Bunny" up front. Dude should put out an exercise tape instead of crappy music.

[Tumerica]

As a former musician, I can say without hesitation that Coldplay's music is not just similar to Satriani's, it's identical. Coldplay did not even bother to change the key or even try to put on the appearance of not having copied, note for note, chord change for chord change, using the same tempo and style.

If Coldplay does not get a bad rap for this plagiarism, then the recording industry is just pathetic. If you were the songwriter and a famous group had copied your work exactly and made a killing taking credit for your ideas, how would you feel?

[TRCimino]

While there's a mild similarity, I don’t think that one can say he barrowed from Satriani's work, much less prove that they intended to copy and or remarket Satriani's work. These are all the standards that such a lawsuit has to meet. Considering the length to which Satriani’s attorneys are going to "embarrass" the members of Coldplay, I would have to conclude that this lawsuit is more about hype and attention and less about the claimed tort.

On a personal note; I had the opportunity to see Coldplay in Boston this last summer and was moved. An amazing band.

[NoSillyName]

Thanks for sharing.

[Horus]

Wow, I just listened to that comparison. I would say that they deserve to get served. The songs were just TOO simliar.

[lisalovesamelie]

Yeah, they sure do sound alike, and so does Satriani's same song to several other songs that came BEFORE his own.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6XnhFR73wOs&feature=related

Sorry Joe.

[lisalovesamelie]

Oh, and this one too by Cat Stevens, circa 1973

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

[Horus]

Interesting. Thanks!

[vcalzone]

I don't particularly care for either party here, but Satriani is full of crap and doesn't stand a chance of winning any of this. I guess he either just wants the attention or feels like he can get a settlement from the band and EMI. I don't hear any similarity at all in any way that counts. Besides that, I doubt Coldplay (or anyone else, for that matter) is sitting around listening to Joe Satriani when looking for innovation.

[jweider]

Of course, why would any musician be sitting around listening to one of the most influential rock guitarists of the last 20 years when looking for innovation?

[ATTS bb3]

It's not on homage it's theft

From Wikipedia:

"Talk" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their third album, X&Y. Built around a riff from Kraftwerk's 1981 song "Computer Love".

Written by all of the members, but built upon Kraftwerk's melody. Sort of like, "It took me years to write won't you take a look? It's based on a novel by a man named Lear, and I wanna be a paperback Writer"

[lisalovesamelie]

It's not theft when they get the band's permission to use the riff.

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/martin%20sent%20kraftwerk%20begging%20letter

[ATTS bb3]

Wow. My little heart just sank a few inches. Perhaps they owe Ralf und Florian a new car or a boat load of Euro:

""Dear Ralf, I sing in a band called Coldplay, blah, blah. I drew a little picture. Everyone says it's extraordinary that they said yes.' "

yep, extraordinary and sad.

[John Fudrow]

I can't believe that Coldplay has ever listened to Satriani. The songs are similar but there are some subtle differences in the melody. I guess the lawyers will take this one, but shouldn't someone be suing Coldplay for their musical theater-like uniforms?

[gymbunnybee]

Satriani's such a lame killjoy! Viva la Vida is more like Kids by MGMT than anything else. I can't imagine Coldplay stole anything knowingly.
And FYI "SillyName" Chris Martin is rather lovely.

[ZTB]

if you knew anything about this case, you might think differently.
this was out and out plagiarism­....no doubt.
chris martin may very well be "rather lovely", but certainly,
his business practices are not.

[NoSillyName]

Its all a matter of taste, isn't it.

[Fein]

Their music's nothing but a remix of all the 'boy band' trash of the '90's anyway.

[jweider]

Except that it's played in a minor key to make it sound more serious. My music theory professor in college used to do the same thing with "twinkle, twinkle little star".

[eighteesix]

Joe Satriani should focus on his career rather than Coldplay. It's no ones fault that an incredible simple chord progression in a similar time signature is easily reproduced.

[Jerry Pecks]

Exactly. There aren't that many chord progressions. One could easily find lots of other songs with the exact same chord progressio­n...(i.e. Green Day's "Whne I Come Around", and Bush's "Glycerine"--Exact same progression, different tempo. Joe Satriani is a cheeseball loser. I'm sorry but his guitar playing sounds 80's as hell.

[MARCANTONIO]

Yea really the last Coldplay album was so lame.

[newdreams]

Rich.

[NoSillyName]

hehehehe. What a lame group, or at least the main guy.