Coldplay Responds To Plagiarism Accusations

Being accused of plagiarism is not something any band wants to go through especially when the accused song was one of the biggest songs of the year and is up for three Grammy awards and the accuser is seeking “any and all profits” the band has made from the song.

In response to guitarist Joe Satriani’s accusations that Coldplay’s song "Viva La Vida" features "substantial original portions" of his own song, "If I Could Fly", Coldplay released a statement on their website to share their side of the argument.

"With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations," the band writes. "If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavors."

Satriani is filing a lawsuit against the band and is seeking a jury trial for damages and all profits that the band has incurred from the song.

You can hear the songs back to back and decide for yourself if they sound alike here.

Report by David Lowe-Bianco.

Comments

[GuitarJames]

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

[Sandon8]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I agree

[Pumpkins4Life]

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

[Led-Zeppelin71]

There is coincedence and this is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

[Led-Zeppelin71]

There is coincedence and there is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

[Caribousunking]

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

[Gein]

It's really not hard for these types of coincidences to happen in music. Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff). Not saying they didn't copy Satch, just saying these things can happen.

[meakel]

I say it's probably a coincedence. I don't think Coldplay needs to or is dumb enough to rip off a song.

But on the other hand, Satch wrote it first. I say give satch part of the earnings. Not all, but at least some.

[tands]

They both could like Cat Stevens - Love / Heaven so he should sue them both!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXda-RTE_c#t=3m15s


i think it could be coincedence but at the same time chris martin seems like the type of guy who things he can get away with anything, coldplay should return to the rush of blood to the head days IMO

[ESte]

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

[bigshoes=]

whil i agree there is a case for this, i donmt think Coldplay did intentioanlly steal the song. and being that Viva La Vida was the biggest song of 08 i sense sour grapes here

[IcedRth]

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

[pigmaggots]

Accidental and anyway, its only the vocal melody thats the same as the guitar melody, its not like they portray the same emotion or are even remotely within the same genre.

[howrylak1]

I am calling bull crap. This isn't the first time cold play has been accused of plagerism

[shpangler]

pigmaggots wrote:

Accidental and anyway, its only the vocal melody thats the same as the guitar melody, its not like they portray the same emotion or are even remotely within the same genre.

ya exactly plus Coldplay has no motive to steal music, I mean they're already popular so it wouldn't benefit them to have this negative publicity.

[TheJudasKiss]

Coincidence? Possibly.

But its highly unlikely.

[webbtje]

Hmm, nice of them to do this, but not quite enough to stop the lawsuit.

[SmokeyMcStoner]

Personally, I'd never heard Satch's song before now...I don't think he's losing much. Shit like that goes down all the time...accidents happen too. Coldplay has great idea's and stuff, they have no NEED to steal a song.

[untalented]

I'm not a fan of either and I hate both songs but...
I think that satriani's song must have had some influence on them. Whether it was directly copied or indirect (as in they heard it first and then accidently repeated it years later) is another question. The timing, rhythm, chords, chord changes and melody, timing of the melody etc. are all too similar for it to be a complete accident - although his singing does sound like typical chris martin.
Overall, I think that satriani shouldn't sue on the basis that he is a guitarist and guitarists steal ideas off of each other all the time. It's not as if anyone gets sued for doing copies of beethoven's 5th symphony or evanescence will get sued for butchering mozart's lacrimosa. All satriani should ask for is recognition.

[Nick_porter333]

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

[layzejerze20006]

Eh, coincedences happen but i think this is just too close.

[Azuro]

Well I'm a huge Satriani fan. But obviously he didn't "invented" this melody.

[jammyninja]

Inb4 idiots calling for Coldplay's blood?

Tbh someone needs to send Satch that song that camed out before his so he will realise that coincidences like that can happen. There have been far more improbable things happen in this world than two melodies sounding the same.

[Powerhouse]

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

[tushmeister]

Even if it is coincidental, you realise that isn't the point right? As far as Joe's argument goes, it makes sense, it's something he created, I don't have particular knowledge of the laws associated with musical property, but in essence it is 'his' from what I can tell.

About the song released before his, well yes he should see that and it'd be interesting if he did, but if they chose to pursue legal action, I would support them too.

And as said, the Coldplay guitarist claims to be a massive Satch fan, so the coincidence is limited slightly surely?

I'm backing up Joe, but I'd back up the other band who had it before him in the same situation, and it's not through a knee-jerk reaction to the word Coldplay

[jmetalf]

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

[str84ever]

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

[A8039077]

The two songs sound VERY similar - same chord progression and essentially the same melody.

Although they sound GREAT together when overlapped

[str84ever]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

[wouldyakindly]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

The concept of tonality completely decimates that figure. I'd say the possible combinations of notes in the scale that both songs use (who ever invented that scale should totally sue!) is in the thousands, not the millions and as a result, its entirely plausable it could be a coincidence. Also, everyone seems to have forgotten that the melodies AREN'T exactly the same (although the similarity is obviously uncanny).

[mlemme]

yea i doubt they stole it from him, although a ridiculous coincidence that it sounds the same he should just chill and be glad that his song is now more popular than it ever would have been and probably gained so many more fans.

[Sol9989]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

that number is only 11 permiatations of 12. the number of combinations/permiatations depends of the number of notes you're using, and you can't just put any old notes next to each other, there are things called keys.

[Stampede]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

lol just because satch is a musical doesn't automatically make his music enjoyable. sucking is a matter of opinion.

but, staying on topic. i'd be pretty mad about this if i was satch. he could at least got credited for it, and recieved some royalties.

[CraigKing]

Why do so many people support Satch? He should be embaressed thinking they stole from him, Considering this was written two years before his piece...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

[mudthing]

i have 2 say they do sound very similiar im no sure who 2 believe really seeing as it could be coincidence or a big band thinking they can get away with it because nobody would think they would do it in the first place

[acade365]

wouldyakindly wrote:

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.
The concept of tonality completely decimates that figure. I'd say the possible combinations of notes in the scale that both songs use (who ever invented that scale should totally sue!) is in the thousands, not the millions and as a result, its entirely plausable it could be a coincidence. Also, everyone seems to have forgotten that the melodies AREN'T exactly the same (although the similarity is obviously uncanny).

this.

[H_ngm_n]

How many of you people watched the video? At the very end they play the two songs over top of each other and it's the same chords, the strings in the coldplay song follow the drums in Satch's and then the vocals in Coldplay follow the guitar melody perfectly. So not only did they "Magically" write a song with the same chords, they just happened to use the same beat and the same melody...Don't think so.

Get 'em Satch.

[boreamor]

I see a similarity, not an identical rip off. I honestly think Satriani should settle for "It's not intentional, seriously! We're sorry for any misconception." because that's all he deserves. I prefer Satriani to Coldplay, and I respect him alot more than Coldplay... I just don't see the "plagarism".

[Braincheese]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

LOL what? people should quit playing because someone is better than them? you're crazy

[TJ1991]

It's a bit of a MASSIVE coincidence though innit? I can understand a melody or a chord progression being the same in one song as another, but not both in the same song.

[EyeOfThePantera]

This isn't a coincidence. Satriani deserves his fair share.

[mattiwillohouse]

Noel Gallagher has been ripping off riffs and piano sequences for years (mainly Beatles, Lennon), it happens all the time. But this is nothing like that, it's just another bloody American filing a lawsuit. It's like a right of passage in America, and if you don't sue someone at least once in your life you're somehow not complete.

Shame on you Satch, you don't NEED to do this..

[wtf290]

Braincheese wrote:

LOL what? people should quit playing because someone is better than them? you're crazy

LOL what? Sarcasm? Who would've thought...
But on the actual case, what most likely happened was the band heard the melody at some point, and used it later without realizing it.

[kryzay311]

EyeOfThePantera wrote:

This isn't a coincidence. Satriani deserves his fair share.

:yes:

[Gormanilius]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

2nd
Much wisdom you have.

[Lostprophets$$$]

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

Spencer from Underoath's biggest influence is Coldplay. Do they sound anything like each other? No, some people are broad-minded when it comes to music. I listen to all-sorts, and so do most people, apart from the narrow-minded pricks that believe metal rules all, or that emo is the most br00t4l thing since sliced bread. Anyhoo, basically, they could've quite easily ripped them off, maybe not intentionally, but it's highly likely. I've realised that with my own music that sometimes I end up almost stealing a vocal melody, even it's only for a few seconds of a song, complete unintentionally. and in one case this was from an r&b song. Sorry for the rant, but basically, don't judge by genres, simple rule (Y)

[.Will.]

It is impossible that this is coincidence.
The melodies are EXACTLY the same.

[sneyob]

They sound exactly the same.

If there is any justice in the world, Satriani will get his song back.

[acade365]

i posted this on the other newspost:

actually, these sequences qre in major rather than in the relative minor. To me the underlying structures are roughly:
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
These are extremely common sequences, and not only these two songs but a large fraction of modern Western music has them.

Additionally, Satriani's use of sevenths, versus Coldplays use of suspensions and retardations, gives the sequences distinct emotional character. Their key, orchestration, and melody line is also distinct.

In short, I find that the only commonalities between the two pieces are ones also found in many thousands of other songs.

[Matetz]

Caribousunking wrote:
Nobody gives a hoot.

Word.

[CraigKing]

AGAIN

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

WHY ARE PEOPLE ALL ON SATCHs SIDE!?

[aprice6565]

both songs are shit so it doesnt matter who wins

[fr33t0m]

I hope they get bankrupted. No coincidence is that similar. The songs had the EXACT same tempo for god sakes.

[therudycometh]

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

+1

[Fritz621]

Say said in "The 40 yr old virgin" ....
"Wanna know how i know your gay?"
"How?"
"You like Coldplay"..... Thats sums up about everything

[HELLAWAITS88]

Coincedence or no coincedence...the songs sound excactly the same, and frankly I don't care for either of these songs. I'm also not a big Satriani fan and I absolutely despise coldplay... To me Satriani has the talent more so than coldplay and he wrote his song first so I rule coldplay guitly on all accounts...go joe.

[flintazra]

I get Satch's point and think that Coldplay is massively overrated, but come on. If anyone should be suing anyone, it should be Radiohead suing EVERYBODY. Cause everybody rips off them whether they want to or not. I'd be at the front of that line getting served.

[jmetalf]

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

haha wow i guess i made my point a little more strongly than I meant to have... and to respond to you calling me a dumbass that kid said "copy someone descent" alluding to the fact that Satriani is not a "descent" musician. Maybe my respond was as ignorant and inconclusive as his point but i was mostly tired of kids of IcedRth getting onto these blogs and posting things that they know will piss people off just to see their responses. Oh well. none of this matters.

[GN'R Dude]

sneyob wrote:

They sound exactly the same.

If there is any justice in the world, Satriani will get his song back.

To qoute Hetfield, "Justice is lost, Justice is raped."

[RichieJovie]

Dear Coldplay, this isn't the first plagiarism case against yourselves. Kindly admit that you are talentless chancers pay up and never record again as long as you live.

[Helpy Helperton]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

here here, well said and without resorting to flaming too, well done.

[mcyrus10]

he just needs to drop it like tom petty did when the peppers were getting accused, he's just tryin to get in on some of coldplay's success which is quite high right now

[Jam1eFoster]

These pieces of music are too similar, I believe that Coldplay copied Joe Satriani unintentionally (perhaps through hearing the song once and then getting the idea), but none the less did. I can see how Coldplay would be surprised by the accusation seeing as how they probably wouldn't have released the song if they had known it was sooo similar to another song. I can also see how Joe Satriani would be pissed off, I would be too. But I'm not sure the best way to go about it is suing them... And when it comes to the lawsuit if I was the judge knowing only what I know now, I have no idea who I would side with.

[PendulousThread]

So hows this gonna work then? Every time one of us pens a tasty riff or line we have to listen to every piece of music ever written to check its not already there?

As many people have said Coldplay aren't stupid enough to rip of Satch and make it a massive single, besides what label would let them? Its just a coincidence and thats that. Just so you all know I'm no huge Coldplay fan and I love Satch's music.

[sgtpepper321]

i love the way it sounds with satriani's guitar under coldplay. i think they should have just done it like rappers do and said "ft. joe satriani" and said they were sampling him or something

[itsthehutch]

UG seriously has to rely on youtube for an example of the songs? the key was changed for the coldplay part in that video

[theotherguy7145]

Sounds sincere, but they do sound very alike. I dunno who to believe anymore. I prefer Satriani though.
Maybe its a bit too much to ask for "any and all profits"! they didn't copy the song entirely!

[g00fy_130]

Anybody remember the "Last Dance with Mary Jane" and "Dani California" fiasco?

Music has been being made for a very, very long time. Occasionally people run out of ideas, progressions, etc., and the end result is two (or more) pieces of music sounding the same.

If anything, both artists should be happy, because now people might be checking out their music who might never have before.

[G-loony]

CraigKing wrote:

Why do so many people support Satch? He should be embaressed thinking they stole from him, Considering this was written two years before his piece...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI[/quote ][quote]tands wrote:

They both could like Cat Stevens - Love / Heaven so he should sue them both!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXda-RTE_c#t=3m15s


i think it could be coincedence but at the same time chris martin seems like the type of guy who things he can get away with anything, coldplay should return to the rush of blood to the head days IMO

These guy's are WIN (the one's who posted this)
Now you SEE for YOURSELF that BOTH Joe shouldn't sue them because then he'd be a ego trippin hypocrit.

[SlinkyMcdougall]

I was more upset about the youtube video in which it shows Coldplay ripping off Ashlee Simpson.

ITS TRUE!!! LOOK IT UP!!!!

[joester567]

if any of then cite joe as an influence then it could be a subconcios thing, like when i maje a song they allways sound aliittle like metallica even though i dont meen to

[foolishguitar]

i think it's a coincidence and it wouldnt have been made a big deal if viva la vida wasn't as popular as it. It's generally a better piece of music

[Birchall17]

I don't think Satch should get all of the profits from the song, after all it was only the vocal melody that's the same as If I could Fly, the rest of the song and lyrics were by Coldplay, so he should on get a percentage of the profits.

[sucubus]

coincidence? maybe. out of of court settlement? more than likely

[Warheart1188]

I love Satch and I don't care for Coldplay but I hope he accepts the apology. The last thing the music industry needs is another artist to lose money. Coincidences happen. I just hope Coldplay isn't lying...that would be another story...

[threedaysgrace9]

i think they ripped it badly. no reason to make such a big deal tho

[punkrockdude2]

Sandon8 wrote:

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I agree

remember the rhcp and tom petty cowinkiedink?

[Lotz222]

The funny thing is i clearly remember the Coldplay frontman talk about one of his other songs. He explained how he and his bandmates heard some song and like the chord progression or something and wanted to work to that. He said they wanted it to do it a different way but that just leads to lawsuits.

[slomoslam]

SmokeyMcStoner wrote:

Personally, I'd never heard Satch's song before now...I don't think he's losing much. Shit like that goes down all the time...accidents happen too. Coldplay has great idea's and stuff, they have no NEED to steal a song.

Well aparently they do NEED to steal a song, because they did. Whether it was accidental or not, they are still liable to Joe for ending up with the same song. If you run a red light and smash someones car you are liable, even though it was just an 'accident'. Pay up suckers.

[mdawg24]

Yeah, it's probably just a coincidence that they wrote the exact same melody over the exact same chords in the exact same time.
:facepalm:
I hope Satch wins.

[JamesxHetfield]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

...I Think i should stick my guitar up YOUR ass.

[Dempsey68]

satch for the win

coldplay suck borlz!

[sav46e]

I hate coldplay as people and as musicians but their is going to be songs that sound like each other in parts throughout time. I honestly doubt they even knew Satriani's song existed.

Still hope he wins his lawsuit cause of that bloody singer

[dagiff]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I understand what you're saying, but BOBD and Wonderwall is just one little 4 chord progression, and the rhythm isnt even the same.
The similarities are too much to just be a coincidence. The chord changes and the melody are exactly the same as in Satch's song.

[sock_demon]

lulz.

When the songs overlap they sound awesome.

[WyldeMan666]

I dont really like coldplay and if i was satch id be mad too but... were getting into dangerous territory when someone can own a chord sequence dont cha think

[JRowe3388]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

There are more than that many songs around, surely.

[voidSkipper]

I imagine that Coldplay did steal this song section. I don't believe that they did it intentionally, though.

Haven't any of you ever written something only to find out you stole it accidentally from somewhere?

And this is from a completely unbiased perspective, seeing as I don't enjoy Coldplay or Satriani.

And to all you people saying that "you can't own a chord progression", please listen properly. The coldplay singer is singing the melody, and the drums are the same. It's not a progression, it's the phrasing, voicing and ambience.

[kellysoccer]

the people that are saying its a coincidence are retarded. like este said, you get 479001600 combos out of 12 notes, and there is no way coldplay accidentally fell upon the EXACT same melody with the EXACT same timing...listen to the mashup! its so obvious!!

[korbhag]

If Satch just asked for recognition I'm pretty the case would already be over.

[WyldeMan666]

yeah thier one chord differant but theoretically its used for the same purpose

[*mystery*]

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

Anyone can be influenced by anyone. The Killers are influenced by The Smiths. Can you believe it?
And If you didn't notice that the Coldplay guitarist is a huge Satch fan.
This is plagiarism at it's finest.

[RichieJovie]

Coldplay Guilty : The death penalty please.

[Ducky-Kun]

itsthehutch wrote:

UG seriously has to rely on youtube for an example of the songs? the key was changed for the coldplay part in that video

This

[WyldeMan666]

i agree its hard to denie it's the same thing basically but its not like doing a cover and calling it your own ,plus smells like teen spirit and more than a feeling are very simalar too and theres not a lawsuit

[Ragnorak6000]

This is complete coicidence tbh. As if they would do it on purpose if they knew theyd get caught out for it.

[charvel_man]

Of course they've been edited to sound in key and tempo, but the similarities are stunning.

... and sound pretty good.

[charvel_man]

I forgot to add: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w3kytzHrKpo

[LondonGeetarist]

Am I the only one thats realized that this lawsuit came out AFTER the song was nominated for 3 Grammys? Nothing against Satch, but it sounds like he's missing the media attention.

[bearcat25]

SlinkyMcdougall wrote:

I was more upset about the youtube video in which it shows Coldplay ripping off Ashlee Simpson.

ITS TRUE!!! LOOK IT UP!!!!

sorry buddy, that video was meant to show Ashlee Simpson riping off coldplay, look at the release dates for the respective songs (06/05 for Coldplay and 10/05 for Simpsons)

6 comes before 10 but I can see how you'd be easily mistaken *rolls eyes*

[tands]

RichieJovie wrote:

Coldplay Guilty : The death penalty please.

LOL, MTV would eat that right upppp

[Novacane...]

Anyone else think Colplay haven't really ever listened to Satriani, never mind this song of his in particular?

This situation is hilarious but at the same time it makes me angry.

[nikhil101]

Everyone is saying that it is coincidence. Whether or not Coldplay ripped off Satriani does not matter. What matters is that there are similarities between the songs and enough of a similarity to warrant Satriani's lawsuit as Coldplay are earning money from something that sounds similar to his song. If it was a non profit song it would not matter. But as Coldplay are earning money from it and the fact that it is similar, Satriani has a case. I'm not saying I support him, just saying that his lawsuit is warranted. Although I do prefer Satriani to Coldplay ;p

[Axl_Explosion]

sgtpepper321 wrote:

i love the way it sounds with satriani's guitar under coldplay. i think they should have just done it like rappers do and said "ft. joe satriani" and said they were sampling him or something

Even to sample, you have to have the artist's permisson, don't you? That aside, though, I think the thing that none of the coldplay fans seem to want to look at is the fact that Satch tried to contact them for who knows how long in order to figure out what happened, and they, in their infinite arrogance, ignored him. And then Satch made it public and announced the lawsuit, and even still, it's taken them how long to respond? And the response itself is the most lackluster, care free response they could have written. It makes it seem, to me at least, that they don't even care about the song. And that, to me, indicates guilt to some level because, as most of us are musicians to some level ourselves, you know that when you write a song, they aren't just words, or in Satch's case, tabs. Every artist cares, to some degree, about every song they've written, which is obviously true in Satch's case...yet glaringly obvious to be missing in Coldplay's case.
Take it for what you want to, but I know damn well that if I had written a song that was as popular as Viva La Vida, and then someone came along saying it was stolen from a song they wrote, and I knew I hadn't stolen it, I'd have been on every media outlet I could manage the next day refuting the claims.

[maidenitalia]

[quote]CraigKing wrote:

Why do so many people support Satch? He should be embaressed thinking they stole from him, Considering this was written two years before his piece...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI[/quote ]

Plus the thing in the songs that is the "same" is two notes in the solo or whatever and two notes in Chris Martin's voice. They merely resolve to the same note, like good music theory says they should

[bearcat25]

OK obviously facts about Coldplay are getting skewed...
Jonny Buckland, guitarist for Coldplay (yes he has a name) NEVER said he was a huge Satch fan. It was ASSUMED in another post on another article on here that since they worked with Brian Eno, who is a huge music theorist that Eno and Satch probably know each other well. NOT Buckland.

The Drums in Viva La Vida are the same? Have you watched the music video or their live performance?!?!?! The drums consist of a Timpani and Church bell!!!! Pardon me but I don't think Joe Satriani is that creative....

And last, NO The melodies are not the SAME they are SIMILAR as I have said twice before transpose it to sheet music and you will see. There is 3-5 consectuive notes at most...you can use 3-5 notes in a row a few times and it is going to sound very SIMILAR but not EXACT and still be less than the 8-9 it takes for copyright infringement.

[phishfan08]

Who would want to rip off Joe Satriani??? He's so boring. Widdly wah wddly widdly wah = Satriani's carrer.

[redhotsexmagic]

I don't think there is any way they purposely ripped the song. It would make no sense. Its not like satriani is a no name guy..there are millions of people who know his music and millions who know coldplay, so they wouldn't do it intentionally because they would have to imagine something liek this would happen. I think they should just settle this out of court and move on with their lives

[Savage Animal]

Most of the people here are just rooting for Satch because they like his music over Coldplay's. If you want to get technical about it, it goes as far back as Cat Stevens in the 70s.

[tands]

bearcat25 wrote:

The Drums in Viva La Vida are the same? Have you watched the music video or their live performance?!?!?! The drums consist of a Timpani and Church bell!!!! Pardon me but I don't think Joe Satriani is that creative....

thats not creative at all, when Pink Floyd did 20 years ago it was creative

[Shread_6009]

GuitarJames :
Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

unless all their other "Great Ideas" are plagiarised themselves. plus most of their stuff is really "great" or "original" anyway.

if a group has already been sued before for plagiarism, then who's to say its not gonna happen again

[daytripper75]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

i agree with this. i think they are smart enough to know that if they copy a song from a fairly well know musician, someone will find out. especially when your song is one of the most popular songs of the year. it just seems like a stupid idea for such a popular band, because someone will almost definitely notice.

but who knows.

[bearcat25]

tands wrote:

bearcat25 wrote:

The Drums in Viva La Vida are the same? Have you watched the music video or their live performance?!?!?! The drums consist of a Timpani and Church bell!!!! Pardon me but I don't think Joe Satriani is that creative....

thats not creative at all, when Pink Floyd did 20 years ago it was creative

Still don't see how you could play a timpani and church bell at the same speed and tone of a full drum set...

[Sean-Man]

Gein wrote:

It's really not hard for these types of coincidences to happen in music. Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff). Not saying they didn't copy Satch, just saying these things can happen.

well 12 notes,and the diffrentoctaves

[bearcat25]

Also, someone please show me where Coldplay has last a lawsuit before, because a lot of you claim they have...

I dunno I never heard about that.

[mattiwillohouse]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

he said the SONGS suck, not the artist, you pompus buffoon.

Good night..

[whoswt]

*mystery* wrote:

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.
Anyone can be influenced by anyone. The Killers are influenced by The Smiths. Can you believe it?
And If you didn't notice that the Coldplay guitarist is a huge Satch fan.
This is plagiarism at it's finest.

+1000001 obviously powerhouse is narrow minded as shit and why cant musicians take interest other than their genre for one it makes you a better overall musicians and i myself thrash metal lover but i also take inspiration from bands such as brand new and bb king

[BirdmanDeuce]

Surprise, Coldplay fans!

Just because YOU'VE never heard of Satriani doesn't mean that he's not popular!

[Jau_Peacecraft]

BirdmanDeuce wrote:

Surprise, Coldplay fans!

Just because YOU'VE never heard of Satriani doesn't mean that he's not popular!

[Jau_Peacecraft]

damn, sorry, I was highlighting your comment & my mouse flew over to the post a comment button... I really need to get a real mousepad :\

[therescue06]

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

Thats what they want you to think.

lawlllll

[MoroneSaxatilis]

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

The bigger question is, who the fock still listens to Coldplay?

[MetalGear1786]

I think Joe is going to make an ass of himself. Im sorry I like Joe, I like Coldplay but hes just being a dick. Im pretty dissapointed he would do that.

[therescue06]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

what if i dont wanna match his knowledge and technique? i play guitar for myself and myself only because its fun. and just because im not as good as him doesnt mean i should f***ing quit, and niether should anyone.

[atthedrive-thru]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

yeah, it's called sampling, and they get permission to do it

[JohnnyChimpo241]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

samsies, +1

[kornflipsk8er]

mlemme wrote:

he should just chill and be glad that his song is now more popular than it ever would have been and probably gained so many more fans.

I don't think Satch got anything from this.Coldplay certianly did though.

Would you be happy if someone stole your song and got really rich and popular with it then called you a liar for calling them out on it.

It is far to similar.Everyone is talking about the melody.That is not the only thing in the song that is the same.It is glaringly obvious.I don't understand how anyone can even debate it.

[Ax3man]

Stolen

[2muchTV]

Just throwing this out there, there is a psychological term called misattribution, which is when someone believes to have done something on their own, but really got the idea from somewhere else. That's pretty much what it seems like to me. If it were me I think I would take the Prince approach and let it be. Someone clearly misattributed a Prince song recently and he said, yours is better go with it.

[GuitarPlayer716]

So here's the thing: being a college student who just finished a research methods course, you have to cite your sources everywhere. Even if this was accidental or a coincidence, the fact that they are so similar legally means they have to acknowledge that Satriani influenced them. Period.

[Smithsc]

I hop Joe wins, these f*ckers deserve it!!

[soupdragon]

acade365 wrote:

i posted this on the other newspost:

actually, these sequences qre in major rather than in the relative minor. To me the underlying structures are roughly:
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
These are extremely common sequences, and not only these two songs but a large fraction of modern Western music has them.

Additionally, Satriani's use of sevenths, versus Coldplays use of suspensions and retardations, gives the sequences distinct emotional character. Their key, orchestration, and melody line is also distinct.

In short, I find that the only commonalities between the two pieces are ones also found in many thousands of other songs.

this times a million

seriously, there are only so many possible melodies and chord progressions. Coldplay's song is not identical to satch's, and i severely doubt they copied satch. (BTW i don't like either :P)
Satriani hould drop the case and get over it. and if that spanish (?) band really did record the song first, he's juts gonna look a hypocritical idiot.

[Religulous]

In my opinion he doesn't need to sue them but whatever... It's his choice.. After listening to the comparison of both songs it can't be a coincidence. Lol

Joe is already rich anyway :o
I think he just wants to get his point across.

[wndrw982]

if i was joe, i wouldn't even acknowledge coldplay's existence

[Geeks Gone Bad]

They stole the song - simple as that... the guitar player heard it - thought it was good - brought it into the band and they made the song... it's probably the guitar player that's lying - chances are he's a big satch fan (along with millions of other guitar players)

and for those who said they don't need to rip off other people's music - you have no idea about the music industry... these guys are under contract to produce more albums and they're creativity probably hit a slump - so they looked to older songs that weren't so radio played (like satch and vai etc...) and ripped them off

Coldplay sucks....

[element4433]

Checked

[Thefallofman]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

Well I see your point, but great guitarwork doesn't always make a song great. Satriani can play faster than most people and knows more than most people- but there's a reason he isn't well known outside of the musician world.

[holden22]

Tom Petty says it best:
"I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."

[RUSTDOGG666]

we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations

well coldplay did you finally wake up? did you think of someone that's accusing you of this would just leave you alone one day? no. you do need to respond. and that is the worst response I've ever heard from a band. you need to admit that you did copy his song because it is the same. the only difference is that you changed the words, and left out the lead guitar. anyone can see that. well except if they're tone deaf then they wont be able to tell. but anyways. I know professionalism and how to act in a case like this and what you guys need to do is quit covering it up and admit to your mistake. because you are not and your just trying to find a way out of this I think you guys are not professional at all. don't even know what it means to be professional. and you need to be schooled on how to be professional. it ain't no wonder I never liked your music. its all sloppy recordings. you can expect that from say a digital camera but you guys use studio equipment so what the hell? I thought I was going to give you guys a chance and like this one song. now I found out you stole it from one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived, I've even lost more respect of you than ever before. And this statement you made responding to Joe made you look even more weak. so forget it. you guys suck and you always will. not only in your music, but your attitude in general. that's okay though. fred durst might have an opening in his non existent band for people like you so you can pretend that your working in a band when your just wasting time. might want to give him a call cause you are just as pathetic as he is. this is really sad to say but its true. I would listen to limp bizkit over you guys anyday. aside from the shitty attitude fred has, at least there are songs that I can actually listen to and tolerate unlike coldplay.

[vincymon]

I find this a bit of a stretch. In terms of keys, the song is like.. 4 whole steps in a differnt key ! And even so, The "joe" guy's song has some other varients that makes the chord progression slightly different, even AFTER you have transposed it.

Do any of you remember the case of Red Hot Chili Peppers and "dani california" well that, i can side with. In that case, the drum tempo was the same, the chords were in the same key, the singer had the same tempo, and both songs had a similar theme.

But this case of "Joe" and Coldplay..I think it is unfair. I think this guy is just trying to slander the latest popular band.

[MustangMatt]

Anyone with half a brain can hear the songs and notice the difference immediately. Coldplay's vocal melody and Joe's guitar melody match up perfectly note for note and when you play the two on top of each other, Joe's guitar friggin sounds like it belongs in the song.

[MustangMatt]

MustangMatt wrote:

Anyone with half a brain can hear the songs and notice the difference immediately. Coldplay's vocal melody and Joe's guitar melody match up perfectly note for note and when you play the two on top of each other, Joe's guitar friggin sounds like it belongs in the song.

Correction, similarities, not differences

[edbert]

Fritz621 wrote:

Say said in "The 40 yr old virgin" ....
"Wanna know how i know your gay?"
"How?"
"You like Coldplay"..... Thats sums up about everything

hahahaha wow it took this long for someone to drop that line

anyone have any references that coldplay's guitarist is a "MASSIVE satch fan"?

[Geeks Gone Bad]

How many guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

[ninjafingers]

I don't think it's close enough to be called plagiarism. The melody is actually not identical except for those 3 notes. Those are the hook though, so people hear that and say the're the same.

[rebeltildeth87]

dude this seems much more than coincidence. check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

[ivan_2894]

Fritz621 wrote:

Say said in "The 40 yr old virgin" ....
"Wanna know how i know your gay?"
"How?"
"You like Coldplay"..... Thats sums up about everything

+1

[[travis]]

Here's what Coldplay really meant: "Please don't take our money." lol.

[themastersounds]

holden22 wrote:

Tom Petty says it best:
"I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."

took the words right out of my mouth

[bearcat25]

No, there is no references that Jonny Buckland (Coldplay guitarist) is a huge Satch fan. I've heard him mention Echo and The Bunnyman, My BLoody Valentine, Slash, The Edge (obviously). Beyond that his style is far from a Satch style of guitar playing. Heard of him? Probably..."Huge Fan"? I HIGHLY doubt it. It was just some rumor spurred by someone on here that you all took as fact. Please people do not use "I heard this" or "Someone told me that" no matter which side you are on. Please cite your sources, we all know how to do that...unless of course you didn't go to college.

[the_hoodster]

insted of arguing over it, why dont they try recording both songs 2getha? Satriani can do his stuff n Chris Martin can sing the lyrics over the top. Be quite an interesting collaboration

[darrenjables]

What? I posted this on a comment yesterday!

darrenjables wrote:

http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=242
Opi nions people?

[jetfuel495]

if you gave a thousand guitarists one chord progression and told them to write an extremely simple lead over it, some of them are bound to sound similar.

It was only a matter of time.

[darrenjables]

On topic: Looks like Coldplay are screwed, Satch takes his music quite seriously and if he wins, no body would think of ripping off Satch again.

[Savage Animal]

Geeks Gone Bad wrote:

How many guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

Me. This goes back WAY BEYOND Joe Satriani and the majority of the people posting here are just retarded teenagers who hate Coldplay and would love to see Satch win, even though he's just as in the wrong as them when it comes down to the melody

[Drowning!Waving]

coldplay should just pay satch $100k or so, to appease the musical karma gods...its not like they don't have that laying around in loose change

[vincymon]

Here's another question, why is it that this story comes out when the song is in the height of its popularity ? Its been almost a whole year since 'viva' came out.

I mean, like someone said earlier, there are over 7 hundred thousand chord combinations possible, plus varients in tempo.

But what he failed to say also is that there are "billions" of people in the world.

By pure statistics, this is still very likely to be chance.

I mean, in all fairness, you can't expect a musician to sit and listen to all music ever made before he writes a song. If everytime someone wrote a song he had to stop and wondering if its plagierism..no music would get written.

I'm sure that if we look a bit further in history we are bound to find another song BEFORE both coldplay and Satch..which is similar to this.

[RockInPeaceDime]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

Actually a lot of people "give a hoot." You don't coincidentally create a song identical to a complex solo guitar song.

[shibby013]

Fucking hell there are some right w*nkers on this site..Out of the whole history of songs released i bet you could match any two songs up and say they are similar and unfortunatly they are very very similar i believe coldplay are extremelly talented musicians and it was an absolute coincidence that a satriani riff and progression is similar to viva la vida. But copyright laws are laws and its definatly a talking point, in my eyes it was a mistake but it is rediculously similar.

[XnaySaturo]

"It's not as if anyone gets sued for doing copies of beethoven's 5th symphony or evanescence will get sued for butchering mozart's lacrimosa."

Copyrights on those have expired a long time ago.

[a6l6e6x1]

sue coldplay for all theyve got joe!!

[shibby013]

and plus its nothing to do with the coldplay guitarist its chris martins vocal line that the same....vivas a better song anyway **** satch...**** the lotta ya lol

[Punk_Ninja]

I'm still thinkin' Joe should sue!
They are too similar.

[fukkindoyle]

RockInPeaceDime wrote:

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

Actually a lot of people "give a hoot." You don't coincidentally create a song identical to a complex solo guitar song.

i was about to write the same thing, before i saw your comment right in front of me. haha

[Gh.]

actually, these sequences qre in major rather than in the relative minor. To me the underlying structures are roughly:
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
These are extremely common sequences, and not only these two songs but a large fraction of modern Western music has them.

Additionally, Satriani's use of sevenths, versus Coldplays use of suspensions and retardations, gives the sequences distinct emotional character. Their key, orchestration, and melody line is also distinct.

In short, I find that the only commonalities between the two pieces are ones also found in many thousands of other songs.

Noone other sees the boundries of nowadays popular music, beside this guy?

[fukkindoyle]

bearcat25 wrote:

No, there is no references that Jonny Buckland (Coldplay guitarist) is a huge Satch fan. I've heard him mention Echo and The Bunnyman, My BLoody Valentine, Slash, The Edge (obviously). Beyond that his style is far from a Satch style of guitar playing. Heard of him? Probably..."Huge Fan"? I HIGHLY doubt it. It was just some rumor spurred by someone on here that you all took as fact. Please people do not use "I heard this" or "Someone told me that" no matter which side you are on. Please cite your sources, we all know how to do that...unless of course you didn't go to college.

hey, **** you. i didn't go to college and i know how to cite references. de-grading people who haven't gone to college... shame on you. haha

[iloveashley]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

agreed

[MoreGilmour]

Man, the Satriani Fanboys are out tonight, I haven't seen such a gathering of offended uppity faggots since witnessing a Fall Out Boy concert on MTV.

[rich420]

No one can be sure can they? Maybe they did copy from him ,or maybe it was a complete coincidence, both are completely possible. It's still just a group of notes put together to form a melody, it's perfectly possible that both artists came up with the same melody on their own, regardless of who did it first.

I as jamming once on my acoustic and came up with an awesome bass line that i was gonna make into a song, then some time later i realised it was EXACTLY the same as a bass line from a Journey song that i'd never even heard before, so it can happen.

[GabeWang]

The odds of a hugely successful band stealing from another artist instead of just hiring their own outside writer are very low. Do you people who think Coldplay stole this song, honestly believe that they made a concious decision to do so and thought they'd get away with it? No, because that's illogical. This is a very simple chord progression and very simple melody here

[FearBefore]

If you're a fan of a band/musician and you're just jamming out, chances are you're gonna play parts of a song from whoever you are a fan of. If this guitarist is a fan of Satch, chances are he was playing away and this little progression/melody has got caught up in his own composition. I would bet there are a few other artists have taken something Satch wrote and in cooperated it into their own song without him knowing. I wouldn't say this is worthy of a lawsuit.

[bearcat25]

I love how assumption that if a song is popular it CAN'T be good. Yet if Joe Satriani ever got played on mainstream radio you all would say, bout time they played good music here!

[bearcat25]

GabeWang wrote:

The odds of a hugely successful band stealing from another artist instead of just hiring their own outside writer are very low. Do you people who think Coldplay stole this song, honestly believe that they made a concious decision to do so and thought they'd get away with it? No, because that's illogical. This is a very simple chord progression and very simple melody here

They actually did bring someone else in. Brian Eno worked with them on this album. I mean...god forbid we admit we aren't gods and can learn something new from someone else right....

[thereverendsoup]

Geeks Gone Bad wrote:

How many guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

I'm not. Most of my friends play guitar, and among them, there's one person who might have a passing interest in Joe Satriani, but doesn't own any albums or anything. Only person I know who actually owns a Joe Satriani album doesn't play guitar.

Just because I play guitar doesn't mean I automatically like listening to music made by everyone who's good at playing guitar.

[lank81]

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

[FearBefore]

lank81 wrote:

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

I'm with you on this, the same progression is right there.

[bearcat25]

If Coldplay is guilty, than Joe is guilty, then the spanish band is guilty, and Cat Stevens will be the next one to eventually be proven guilty.

Whether Coldplay did it or not, and intentionally or not, I don't think thats a wise road to go down.

[JamSandwich4]

Led-Zeppelin71 wrote:

There is coincedence and this is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

You just said that this was co-incidence. That means you think they didn't rip it and the songs just happen to sound similar, except then underneath you said he should sue them. That doesnt make any sense to me...

[benjibreeg]

sigh...it might have been influenced. Sadly coldplay pretended that they havent even heard the song before...

I've lost a lot of respect for coldplay after their previous album...i still wonder how listeners bought the hit "speed of sound" which is basically "clocks" tuned in a different pattern :S

[JamSandwich4]

rich420 wrote:

No one can be sure can they? Maybe they did copy from him ,or maybe it was a complete coincidence, both are completely possible. It's still just a group of notes put together to form a melody, it's perfectly possible that both artists came up with the same melody on their own, regardless of who did it first.

I as jamming once on my acoustic and came up with an awesome bass line that i was gonna make into a song, then some time later i realised it was EXACTLY the same as a bass line from a Journey song that i'd never even heard before, so it can happen.

Yeah, i was coming up with some chords once, then realised they were the same as Lost by Coldplay. Co-incidental things like this happen very easily, so i think Joe Satriani can stick his lawsuit where the sun don't shine.

[nikh158]

Plagiarism claims are notoriously hard to prove. In fact I can only think of one(partially) successful claim in the last 40 years, which was when Phil Spector sued George Harrison over his song "My Sweet Lord", which allegedly ripped off the Chiffon`s "He`s So fine". So, are AC/DC going to sue Airbourne? while we`re on it, Try listening to the Kings Of Leon`s "Manhattan", back-to-back with Radiohead`s "High And Dry". The intro riff is pretty much identical.

[Jimmy5790]

Coldplay aren't that good, but Satch is out of line and for all of you idiots talking about the guitarist being a fan of Satch listen to the songs, the orchestra in coldplays song sounds like the bassline to satch's song, it is a coincidence and it has nothing to do with guitar.Joe Satarini should just shut up and be happy anybody even buys his Power Ranger music.

[Phiddler]

Its not the same melody, why does everyone keep saying that? Aren't we supposed to be musicians?

[NewSkewl]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

just for the record, he can state that it is bad because it doesn't appeal to him, making it bad to him. It likes someone saying that seafood is bad just cause they dont like it. It doesnt make it bad, just to that person.

[savvysoul]

Everyone copies from someone. This is a stretch to say that Coldplay stole it. Satch should just be happy for the extra Christmas present he'll get when he gets the royalty check for all the downloads of the song just to see if they match.

[urik]

Hahah Coldplay fanguys, stop crying. Plagiarism is relevant even in the best bands out there. Stairway To Heaven? The intro was stolen from "Spirit - Taurus".
The best south american band in south america (Rata Blanca) stole a shitload of riffs from Rainbow.
So yes, even though they don't need to, big bands do plagiarize. And it's evident that this is another case.
Although I don't know if the lawsuit is necesary. Satch's not goint to earn anything from this.

[Jimmy5790]

lank81 wrote:

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

Whoa who are those Argentinians? If they in fact came before Satch then he even stole the lead from them.I completley agree with you man.

[Andy2k64]

Led-Zeppelin71 wrote:

There is coincedence and there is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

yeah its too much of a coincidence. I can understand where slight coincidences occur but the melody and everything is the same! good luck to joe and I hope Coldplay learn!

[Vendim]

I don't think,that they stoled his idea.
This happened to me once.. when I started playing guitar. I was lying in my room and playing some stupid notes of some simple chords and what happened? I heard that same f-ing thing on MTV 1-2 weeks later! It was Johnny Cash ( god bless his soul) with his last song "Hurt".
...that hurts ^^

[Andy2k64]

lank81 wrote:

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

Its the melody too not just the chord prog. Chord progressions can easily be coincidentally copied but melody can't that easily. sorry dude

[mikey son]

Sol9989 wrote:

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

that number is only 11 permiatations of 12. the number of combinations/permiatations depends of the number of notes you're using, and you can't just put any old notes next to each other, there are things called keys.

You do realize that you dont have to stick in the same key throughout a song
master of puppets has chromatics runs in the beginning riffs
sticking to a certin key is ok but its not set in stone

[lank81]

Yeah, i was coming up with some chords once, then realised they were the same as Lost by Coldplay. Co-incidental things like this happen very easily, so i think Joe Satriani can stick his lawsuit where the sun don't shine.

Now coming up with the same chords is going to happen all the time. There are many of songs that have influenced progressions that I've come up with. It depends on how you use them. It's the rhythm the melody not the progression.

[TheWickerMan666]

If you take the number of notes on an average guitar (46), and play 46 of those notes (each can be played any number of times, including zero, as long as the total played is equal to 46), then there are 97336 different possibilities, not counting timing, which makes the possibilities infinite.

And that's only with 46 notes being played, and no timing. Most songs have at least 1000 notes, and varying tempos.

For two songs two sound the same, therefore, is either down to extreme coincidence, or foul play.

Also, Satch > Coldplay

[guitarkid583]

"Being accused of plagiarism is not something any band wants to go..."

thank you UG for that insight

[thereverendsoup]

Man, after listening to that Cat Stevens song, Satch has no case.

If Cat Stevens isn't calling his lawyer over this thing, Satch sure as hell has no business calling his.

[howard3917]

What I don't get is why he's deciding to call Coldplay out now. The song's been out for well over eight months. Did he just hear it last week for the first time? That makes this situation way screwy.

[Savage Animal]

Oh, and Cat Stevens > Joe Satriani

in terms of songwriting

[Jimmy5790]

Andy2k64 wrote:

lank81 wrote:

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

Its the melody too not just the chord prog. Chord progressions can easily be coincidentally copied but melody can't that easily. sorry dude

I disagree yeah Joe can make a case about the melody, but i mean really anybody could have came up with that Chris Martin did it with his voice Satch did it with a guitar,now it could be one of those sub-conscience things, i mean when i first leanred an E and an A chord i thought i wrote like twelve songs right off the bat but they all turned out to be ACDC songs.In that case though he shouldn't be sueing for any and all profits but maybe songwriting credits and some royalties.Why do i keep defending Coldplay?I better quit before i grow a vagina.Before anyone say's anything i'm not saying that because of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Coldplay are just a femenine band.

[Metallicam]

holden22 wrote:

Tom Petty says it best:
"I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."

This. He just take a page out of Petty's book. Lots of songs sound similar. It's not a huge deal. Last Night by The Strokes sounds very identical to Petty's American Girl and did he really care? No.

[aznrockerdude]

acade365 wrote:

i posted this on the other newspost:

actually, these sequences qre in major rather than in the relative minor. To me the underlying structures are roughly:
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
These are extremely common sequences, and not only these two songs but a large fraction of modern Western music has them.

Additionally, Satriani's use of sevenths, versus Coldplays use of suspensions and retardations, gives the sequences distinct emotional character. Their key, orchestration, and melody line is also distinct.

In short, I find that the only commonalities between the two pieces are ones also found in many thousands of other songs.

This. I'm not the biggest fan of either btw.

[m0o]

no offense to satch but this is ridiculous.. i dont think there should be any lawsuits on melodies and chord progressions.. satch might have been hurt or offended that someone ripped him off (not saying coldplay did or didnt) but in the court of law NO ONE IS GONNA ACCOUNT FOR SATCHS FEELING!?!?!?
one would think a grown man would understand that.
personally i think this lawsuit is gonna go nowhere.

that being said.. i just wanted to make clear that satriani is a GENIUS of a musician and one of the greatest guitarists of our time.

[FearBefore]

Phiddler wrote:

Its not the same melody, why does everyone keep saying that? Aren't we supposed to be musicians?

You are kidding, right?

[SURFraptor7]

They should quit bitching at each other and play a show together instead. That'd be totally tits.

[recliner33]

I don't know why people are saying that Coldplay doesn't listen to Joe Satriani. Like how the hell do you know? People are talking as if he's an underground guitar legend that no one has heard of or that only guitar players have heard of him. I heard of Joe Satriani well before I even picked up a guitar and I don't even listen to that kind of music. So I'm sure at least one member of coldplay has heard of the guy before all of this happened.
All I'm saying is that just because your music sounds entirely different from someone elses doesn't mean you can't be influenced by them or fans of them.
For example, did you know that the band Rammstein are huge fans of coldplay? You would have never guessed it by hearing Rammstein's music.

[Setabominae336]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

It would be if people hadn't been writing music since the beginning of time.

[Les Paul Ell]

I think Joe should sue over this. If he wasn't going to sue Coldplay then that would be opening the door to future artists stealing his riffs and walking all over him. However, I don't think Coldplay would have done it deliberately, and sadly, I don't think he will win. But it's really just about the principal, if Coldplay had written the melody AND chord progression first and then Joe used each of them I'd support them as well. Just not if they tried to get all profits as they're rich enough, just so that they got royalties and recognition.

TL;DR version:
Serve that justice, Joe.

[|Guitarhead|]

I totally understand Satch. He writes this amazing song and then Coldplay go and make a song that sounds extremely similar and which is extremely successful. I think Satch is completely right. The melody is almost exactly the same I mean come on - it's obviously not coincidence. Coldplay should've sought permission or something.
It's not the 1st time coldplay have been accused of plagiarism.
Please, don't just say one or the other is right because you're a fan of them listen to Satch's song and Coldplay's (especially the chorus) on youtube.

[Neo Evil11]

a lot of metal songs sound the same?

[Wakisazhi]

Also to note and possibly dismiss the claims the guitarist influenced the song since he was a fan of Satch; Viva la Vida was composed by 4 members of Coldplay, not Jonny Buckland. Not to mention all members had different takes on it so the actual Viva la Vida is only 1 of several different versions.

[Chaingarden]

I like how the central point to people's argument is "Coldplay don't need to steal a song." Of course they do. They've been around for ten years. After that long, you start running out of ideas. When you're pressed for a new hit, it's not that hard to rip off a lesser known musician with a great sense of melody.

[thereverendsoup]

But seriously dudes, that Cat Stevens song is WAY closer to the Coldplay song than the Joe Satriani song. The Joe Satriani song has like 5 seconds that sound sort of like that Coldplay song, whereas the Cat Stevens song basically IS that song, right down to the vocal melody. Seriously, they might have stolen the song from somewhere, but it definitely wasn't from Joe Satriani.

[Fingerboy18]

tushmeister wrote:

Even if it is coincidental, you realise that isn't the point right? As far as Joe's argument goes, it makes sense, it's something he created, I don't have particular knowledge of the laws associated with musical property, but in essence it is 'his' from what I can tell.

About the song released before his, well yes he should see that and it'd be interesting if he did, but if they chose to pursue legal action, I would support them too.

And as said, the Coldplay guitarist claims to be a massive Satch fan, so the coincidence is limited slightly surely?

I'm backing up Joe, but I'd back up the other band who had it before him in the same situation, and it's not through a knee-jerk reaction to the word Coldplay

Exactly. If you come out with a product that was invented years before it doesn't matter if you heard of the other one or not, it's no longer your idea.

[RHCP987123]

Gein wrote:

It's really not hard for these types of coincidences to happen in music. Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff). Not saying they didn't copy Satch, just saying these things can happen.

actually 13 notes i believe.

[areese82]

Even if they didn't rip the song off you have to admit they sound alike

[gallagher2006]

I think Satch is blowing this out of proportion tbh. "Any and all profits"? Get real

[.:st.anger:.]

a few notes or chords here and there i could say coincidence but when the progression is substantial - that's theft.

[adtthosa]

I believe them. Show me just about any song with a simple chord progression and I'll show you a song that sounds almost the same.

[dieloony2]

I think satriani should get some $ for this one, and a writing credit.

It's not unheard of, happens all the time actaully.

coldplay are being real stubborn, they have a big reputation on the line. If the songs nominated for awards it changes everything, essentaily THAT SONG HAS already been written. Some chord progression, same melody, the basis for the song.

Also i can't see coldplay listening to Satriani. But i could definetley see a producer or something listening to satriani, Most of these pop/rock bands are heavily influenced by others.

In short coincidence or not he deserves the writing credit and some cash, from a song writers perspective its the same song. coldplay are being dicks, i wouldnt be suprised if theres a rediclious settlement just so Satriani keeps his mouth shut. At wich point there will be some cop out "oh coldplay are great,etc."

[ViciousKillgasm]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

Did you make that number up? You're A Sly One Mr. Gein xD

[Ktool The Girth]

HELLAWAITS88 wrote:

Coincedence or no coincedence...the songs sound excactly the same, and frankly I don't care for either of these songs. I'm also not a big Satriani fan and I absolutely despise coldplay... To me Satriani has the talent more so than coldplay and he wrote his song first so I rule coldplay guitly on all accounts...go joe.

Well according to your theory Joe should be sued also then because someone else wrote pretty much the same song before him too.

[thedarkblues06]

I'm still standing behind Satch.

Btw, all of you who think Coldplay ripping off Satch is absurd, there is an interview in that last article talking about him SPECIFICALLY.

It's looking more like a coincidence. Coldplay is so popular to the point that if they DID rip him off, they would've paid him, don't you think? Read Satch's article, he exhausted every other option.

And seriously, wtf about "it's getting to the point where we have to respond to it.", You should've been respectful enough to do it ANYWAY.

Any and all profits? That's legal jargon, not necessarily what he really wants.

I dunno, it's confusing, let's see what happens.

[ViciousKillgasm]

adtthosa wrote:

I believe them. Show me just about any song with a simple chord progression and I'll show you a song that sounds almost the same.

Almost? In this case, it IS the same?

[Centurion]

It has the same tempo, rythm and melody. It might be just a little too coincedental.

[areese82]

Vendim wrote:

I don't think,that they stoled his idea.
This happened to me once.. when I started playing guitar. I was lying in my room and playing some stupid notes of some simple chords and what happened? I heard that same f-ing thing on MTV 1-2 weeks later! It was Johnny Cash ( god bless his soul) with his last song "Hurt".
...that hurts ^^

you do realize that covered that song from NIN right. Trent Reznor wrote that in the mid 90's

[dieloony2]

adtthosa wrote:

I believe them. Show me just about any song with a simple chord progression and I'll show you a song that sounds almost the same.

True but not all songs have the same chord progression and melody. infact lots songs don't even have melody. it becomes more complicated. If we do have these kinda of plagerism rules, if this doesn't count, then what does?

This is more important then other cases of this we hear about in the news, as this song is huge, and the only difference its the singer doing the melody and not the guitar, but he's doin the same thing.

Yea most songs sound the same, and theres probably 100s of the same song in existance for every song, but not everyone cares, some of them may have good cases, some may not. Some may never hear the other songs, some are already getting money/credit and didnt have to sue, some got settlements, most don't care. i dunno what my point is.

[SirShredfast]

Satch is a bastard... he better not go through with suing them...

this NWOBHM band could sue Metallica for ripping off the intro for Hit The Lights

also, Metallica's intro for Sanitarium is a rip-off

There are so many songs out there... everything is a rip-off in one way or the other... and it's gonna keep going like that. There are only so many notes and scales, and people will never stop making music, so Satch should shut up and not be jealous because they made more money with the melody and chord progression.

[121lespaul]

If coldplay would have just given credit to Joe Satriani in the first place none of this would be happening and both players would have profited way more than either are going to after law suit fees. I mean shit, they could have had joe play in the song and we all know it sounded great overlapped on youtube and it would have been more of a hit by a broader range of musicians. But "If I Could Fly" has been brought to the attention of many more people now and lets be honest in the music business any kind of publicity just brings more attention and more fans so they are both gonna make more money because this happened no matter the outcome and thats obviously what this whole law suit is about. I say good luck Joe and i hope you win

[tona_107]

I once wrote a song where the main riff was pretty much the same as a linkin park song's...needless to say when i realized i killed myself shortly afterwards.

[Slash181]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

no theres a big difference between hip hop producers asking original artists if they can use that perticular material and they pay royalties everytime the song that is re-mixed play to a audience to stealing.....:S
and i dont think coldplay should be let of with this, its not the first accusation!

[life_247]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

Thats called sampling, its credited you fool.

Led Zep "stole" loads of music. Stairway intro anyone??

[Philly080]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

Actually most people do give a hoot. Because they respect Joe Satriani for wanting to protect his music.

[tona_107]

areese82 wrote:

Vendim wrote:

I don't think,that they stoled his idea.

he probably doesn't because he's an idiot.

aside from that trent said he'd never play the song again because he thought johnny did it so much better.
This happened to me once.. when I started playing guitar. I was lying in my room and playing some stupid notes of some simple chords and what happened? I heard that same f-ing thing on MTV 1-2 weeks later! It was Johnny Cash ( god bless his soul) with his last song "Hurt".
...that hurts ^^

you do realize that covered that song from NIN right. Trent Reznor wrote that in the mid 90's

[RenegadeDave]

gallagher2006 wrote:

I think Satch is blowing this out of proportion tbh. "Any and all profits"? Get real[/quote]

He's setting the bar high because he doesn't expect to get it. Predictably, Coldplay responds with "nuh uh" publicly. When it heads to court, if Satch can win the uphill battle, then he will probably be awarded something well below that. He just set the initial point of where they'll be bargaining.

[pandaman0529]

Gein wrote:

It's really not hard for these types of coincidences to happen in music. Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff). Not saying they didn't copy Satch, just saying these things can happen.

12 notes. How many notes are in a song? Lets say 15 in that one riff. But each note can be different (half, quarter, eighth). Also whats the time signature? (5 common times)
12*15*4*5=3600. And thats just 15 notes.

[andyscoot]

I get the whole chord progression thing, its impossible to make an original one these days, but this is a melody, of all the notes that exist, they just so happened to pick the same ones in the same order...

to coincidental if you ask me, im fans of both btw

[seekmetal]

hope he wins and gets a shit load of money. satch deserves it.

[TheWickerMan666]

According to my extremely accurate mathematical calculations, the odds that it was just a coincidence that they sound the same are about 1:2x10^3600. (for anyone that doesn't know what that means, it's 2 multiplied by 10 followed by 3600 zeros on the end.) In other words, BIG.

I wouldn't bet on those odds...

[TheJudasKiss]

I don't like the fact that they ignored him. That's probably why it took so long for this to actually blow up. He waited for a response, over and over and got nothing. So I guess, to get their attention and prove that he's serious about this, he decided to sue them.

& I totally support what hes doing. Seemed very unprofessional of coldplay to ignore him like that.

[amputecture]

Listen to "Computer Love" by Kraftwerk and tell me Coldgay didnt' steal the melody. and chaning a few notes to deviate a little from the Satch song doesn't mean they didn't steal that eitehr. this reminds me fo the time Vanilla Ice was explaining how he didn't steal the bass line from Queen's "Under Pressure." pathetic...

[dieloony2]

Keep in mind It's not easy making a career on instrumental music, you have to really do something special to make a LIVING off it. And to have some juggernaut pop act make more money off the same music last minute, it's kind of a big deal.

There are big bands ripping off nobodies and have gotten away with it, but this is seasoned guitar player with a big following by diehard musicians. It's a lot harder to refute this shit, so saying it's just a coincidence is taking a pretty bold and if you ask me, obnoxious stance, coldplay is really up against the wall at this point cause that thought this was gonna go away, like this stuff normally does so now they are being stubborn since so much is on the line.

he has a good case, he should get song writing credit and royalties or whatever.

[downvictim]

It doesn't matter whether it was intentional or not. The melodies are the same. It's the resposibility of the band to make sure the music they put out there. If it's unintentionally plagarized it's their problem.
Satch wrote the melody first and he deserves any credit or recognition it receives. The only exception is if they ask permission and he allows it. Which is clearly not the case here.

[freshtunes]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

Stealing and sampling are two different things. When you steal you write it off as your own, when you sample something very obvious such as Sean Kingstone/J.R Rotem using the chorus from "D'yer Maker" by Zeppelin for their song "Me Love" they have paid rights and have seeked permission.

[bearcat25]

amputecture wrote:

Listen to "Computer Love" by Kraftwerk and tell me Coldgay didnt' steal the melody. and chaning a few notes to deviate a little from the Satch song doesn't mean they didn't steal that eitehr. this reminds me fo the time Vanilla Ice was explaining how he didn't steal the bass line from Queen's "Under Pressure." pathetic...

Maybe you should know what your talking about? Coldplay didn't rip off that riff they had written permission to use it, and have given them credit in multiple interviews. Chris and co. have ALWAYS been forth right about exactly what bands and songs influence their music. Just knowing that leads me to believe if they say they weren't influenced by a song on artist, then they really were not.

[Hairy Cornflake]

I guess the Kaiser Chiefs are f@#%£ed with their new single as well then....

Kaiser Chiefs "Good days bad days"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u10V_QR3ZSU&feature=rel ated

5 little speckled frogs
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x5KE6K7cGMY

[jshwak]

thereverendsoup :
Geeks Gone Bad wrote:

How many guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

I'm not. Most of my friends play guitar, and among them, there's one person who might have a passing interest in Joe Satriani, but doesn't own any albums or anything. Only person I know who actually owns a Joe Satriani album doesn't play guitar.

Just because I play guitar doesn't mean I automatically like listening to music made by everyone who's good at playing guitar.

correction after reading this... "How many DECENT guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

[360warrior]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

pwn3d

[wjhender]

I don't think Satch is in it for the money. He seems to be doing pretty well with all his endeavors. He just wants the general public to realize hey i wrote this song 4 years ago and you have never heard it. If you like this song "written by coldplay" maybe you'll like mine. In a way hes probably protecting what's his and also opening his music up to a newer audience.

[b-rock34]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

Did you really say lately!!?? Seriously???? Hip hop, rap, crap (whatever) has been stealing rock music as long as it (rap) has existed!!!! I don't blame them for trying. It's hard to come up with anything original when your whole genre is based on talking in rhymes to a beat.

[Donkey Fly]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

Hardly the same thing with them two songs.

[Zycho]

It's one thing to have 2 melodies that are kinda similar but when the song has the exact same melody, chord progression, and tempo it's not cool.

[Stratocaster88]

and Zycho also makes a great point too.

[amputecture]

"Maybe you should know what your talking about? Coldplay didn't rip off that riff they had written permission to use it, and have given them credit in multiple interviews. Chris and co. have ALWAYS been forth right about exactly what bands and songs influence their music. Just knowing that leads me to believe if they say they weren't influenced by a song on artist, then they really were not."

I know a fan boy would chime in. So admitting to sampling makes them no better than any other top 40 "rap artist." It doesn't make them any less boring.

[malmsteenkid]

i love satch, but im going to take a neutral path here. if you are from coldplay or you are joe satriani or you are an individual that knows music law than your comments are worth nothing when it comes to this matter. if u hate joe so much after this than don't buy his records same goes for coldplay fans. why bother fighting over this when our comments or arguments mean nothing in a lawsuit. end of story

[Vedicardi]

They could at least acknowledge that it's the same almost note for note

[bearcat25]

Jonny Buckland was a janitor before he joined ColdPLAY...his influnces include My Bloody Valentine and Echo and the Bunnyman. Buckland's style is not even remotely similar to Satriani's, and that "extra shit" is cellos, violins and other orchestral instruments, there isn't even a guitar in that song.

But I wouldn't expect some of you to recognize any instrument other than a guitar...

[bearcat25]

Vedicardi wrote:

They could at least acknowledge that it's the same almost note for note

Transpose the music to sheet, its really not "note for note" or even close...

[b-rock34]

There are only seven notes. It's a common melody. I hope Coldplay wins. Otherwise my band is totally ****ed! We are putting out a record next year and most of the songs kind of sound like something else. I wrote all the music and melodies. I guarantee you I'd didn't copy a single note from any other artist. Although I'm heavily influenced by a lot of artists, so my brain probably writes music with that influence as a guide.

[malmsteenkid]

malmsteenkid wrote:

i love satch, but im going to take a neutral path here. if you are from coldplay or you are joe satriani or you are an individual that knows music law than your comments are worth something when it comes to this matter. if u hate joe so much after this than don't buy his records same goes for coldplay fans. why bother fighting over this when our comments or arguments mean nothing in a lawsuit. end of story

edit myself

[Klepa]

The funny thing is that if you look on Joe's last.fm site and check ,top songs from last 6 months'- ,,If I Could Fly'' it's on the 45th place and if you look at ,top songs from last 7 days' it's on the 3rd place :P

[HELLAWAITSU]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

they probably would rip it

[AbombO.S.]

I honestly don't want satriani to recieve any money from this, however i would love to see viva la vida taken off the air or atleast labeled as a cover or some other alternative, the songs are nearly identical.

[huevos]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

Definitely.
Satch is just looking to stir up some controversy.
What for?
Idk and don't care.

[HammettHead]

fr33t0m wrote:

I hope they get bankrupted. No coincidence is that similar. The songs had the EXACT same tempo for god sakes.

Actually the Key and Tempo were changed on the video.

[bwalter32]

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

thats just great

[Azwethinkwedo]

kick chris martins ass joe, and his daughter apple

[Spin21]

Even if the influence of Viva La Vida was completely in the subconscious of ColdPlay, if Satch can prove they had access to his song, which should be relatively easy if the guitarist from coldplay is indeed a big fan of his, they can still be found liable for infringement, even if it was completely unintentional

George Harrison ended up being found liable of infringement for his song My Sweet Lord admitting that it was possible he had subconsciously recalled hearing the song He's So Fine in the past and that it may have influenced his writing of My Sweet Lord.

Google it for more info...there are a few good legal articles etc. written that lay out the legal theories behind infringement in the music business in easy to follow terms as opposed to leagaleese

additionally the relevant standard is the whether the two songs are substantially similar to the ear of the ordinary person, hence why Satch is specifically seeking a jury trial in this matter

[Spin21]

Even if the influence of the Satch tune* was in the subconscious of Coldplay

[dieloony2]

Klepa wrote:

The funny thing is that if you look on Joe's last.fm site and check ,top songs from last 6 months'- ,,If I Could Fly'' it's on the 45th place and if you look at ,top songs from last 7 days' it's on the 3rd place :P

so this is just the ultimate promotion. soon we will be seeing britney spears sueing to promote her new singles

[b-rock34]

Stratocaster88 wrote:

For everyone taht says it's coincidence..

ColdGAY's guitarist obviously f*ucking knows who Joe Satriani is. Him and Steve Vai are 2 of the most popular guitar players out there. CLEARLY the guitarist of coldgay knows this is joe's song. It even sounds like he tried to slightly hide it in the song with all the extra shit. It is no coincidence. This is wayyy too close to be a coincidence

That ****er is going down.

Look dude. I'm a lifetime guitar player and I'd consider myself a fan of Satch. But...I don't remember ever hearing that song. And I don't think you can just assume that four dudes from England know every lick or melody Satriani has played on a guitar. I'm pretty sure that song never got any kind of regular airplay. Don't get me wrong. Now that I've heard it, I like it. The two songs are obviously similar, and I think they sound kind of cool together. But, I doubt Coldplay intentionally stole it.

By the way..."ColdGAY"????? Seriously, are you that immature. This is a public forum. I reccommend you keep those funny little things to yourself if you want your opinion respected. BTW, I'm not gay...not that there's anything wrong with it...

[triky66]

Sandon8 wrote:

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I agree

Same here, big deal it's ****ing Coldplay. Not saying anything bad about either CP or JS, but seriously? I never even heard of that Satch song before this thing. He is pole-riding on "Viva," harcore. Like he is going to get anywhere anyway.

[happysmilyguy]

I love both Joe and coldplays music, but i can see both their sides, but. there are billions of songs out there, there is no chance that they can all be completely different, a great sounding cord progression, and note that fit it well, are going to be found by more than one artist. It's gunna be pure coincidence. Just unlucky that to huge artists fell upon a very similar song. But Joe has written like 1000, so i'm surprised that so few songs have had this accusation. Especially with such an influential guitarist as Joe.

[lerxst1974]

both songs are all too similar, and joe has contacted coldplay before about this, and the only reason he's suing them is because they wouldn't respond to joe. they ignored him and hoped it would all go away.

on the other hand, it could be coincidental. unlikely, i think, but nonetheless possible...

[Anarchy_Ant]

This is so pathetic, i have massive respect for Satch and i don't care at all for Coldplay but come on. Things like this are extremely likely to happen as more songs are written.

Think of how many punk-rock songs have the same progressions, or how many blues tracks, or pop songs in general. The fact that the melody was also very similar for a while (i've not heard all of both tracks) doesn't mean anything.

I again repeat, this is pathetic.

[Afi_rocker_91]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

its coincidental to have same chord Progression or maybe a lil vocal melody. Listen to the two. The exact same vocal melody and progression. Its clearly on purpous or they heard his song and sub consicously made viva la whatever

[DimebagRob]

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

That does sound like a very Ulrichy thing to do....

[amputecture]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEGGFJLpbu4&feature=bz302

[Yanks4Life92]

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

He never, ever, said the song sucks, dumbass. He said they should "be banned for sucking." Is in Satch and Coldplay, not the songs, dumbass.

[joker_thief]

i don't think he has enough ground for a case. The songs sound a bit similar around the chorus but thats not enough. think he's been listening to his lawyers on this one.

[Fuzzbox91]

a coincidence is one thing, but these songs match up perfectly with the same beat, same bpm, same chord progression, same melody etc. its not a coincidence

[eltravo]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)...

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

well only certain combinations of those notes can be used in hugely successful pop songs...

[False_God]

They are similar melodys but how bad. Sometimes you have to recycle shit.

[acade365]

ill make a run-down of what people's using to say this is or isnt a real plagiarism case.

"They share the same tempo"- False. The video that mixes the two songs has edited the songs to play along.

"They share the same key"- This is not relevant and also false. Key can be transposed easily and was also edited on the video previously mentioned.

"They share the same chord progression"- Again, not relevant and false. As i explained earlier,
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
Its not relevant because you cannot sue over chord progressions.

"Thay have the same melody"- False. They only share three notes of a little part of the melody. Now, before everyone goes jumping and flaming me, i suggest you transcribe the vocal line from coldplay's song and the lead guitar from Satch's song. You'll notice they are not the same, and they are quite far apart.

Taking all this into account, it doesn't matter if coldplay's guitarist does listen to satch (which is quuite possible, given that satriani is one of the best alive guitarist, if not THE best).

And last, let's remember that music existed way before copyrights and music label existed. lets just try to enjoy music, the best thing in the world i believe.

[Powerchild]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

Okay, so umm- I need someone to clarify the rip off in Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Those songs aren't the same notes or anything.

[adslam3]

acade365 wrote:

ill make a run-down of what people's using to say this is or isnt a real plagiarism case.

"They share the same tempo"- False. The video that mixes the two songs has edited the songs to play along.

"They share the same key"- This is not relevant and also false. Key can be transposed easily and was also edited on the video previously mentioned.

"They share the same chord progression"- Again, not relevant and false. As i explained earlier,
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
Its not relevant because you cannot sue over chord progressions.

"Thay have the same melody"- False. They only share three notes of a little part of the melody. Now, before everyone goes jumping and flaming me, i suggest you transcribe the vocal line from coldplay's song and the lead guitar from Satch's song. You'll notice they are not the same, and they are quite far apart.

Taking all this into account, it doesn't matter if coldplay's guitarist does listen to satch (which is quuite possible, given that satriani is one of the best alive guitarist, if not THE best).

And last, let's remember that music existed way before copyrights and music label existed. lets just try to enjoy music, the best thing in the world i believe.

i second acade365. everyone needs to relax.

[SnowFire]

Yanks4Life92 wrote:

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

He never, ever, said the song sucks, dumbass. He said they should "be banned for sucking." Is in Satch and Coldplay, not the songs, dumbass.

i wanna say dumass too!

[Shangrila13579]

To prove Coldplay is guilty we must first look at some similarities to songs, for example: RHCP's "Dani California" to Tom Petty's "Last Dance with Marry Jane," well because how many songs in the key of A can be written that won't sound similar? Listen! Petty knew this and knew he had no lawsuit. And if your a fan of those musicians you would find it easier to say that Frusciante ripped off that song from his solo work more than he did Petty. Another example from the same band is the song "Under the Bridge." The intro riff rips of a David Bowie tune (andy warhol) and the verse rips off a T Rex tune and the outro Hendrix, but if you listen to all they sound so different, but similar at the same time because of the element that T Rex, Bowie, & Hendrix are huge influences to Frusciante. However, Coldplay verses Satriani is horrific. There is no influence, no coincedence, and nothing else besides plagarism. That is just looking objectively, because not only are the chord progressions perfectly on par (timing, phrasing, voicing), but Satch's guitar melody is the same with the vocal melody. So if your listening to Coldplay, you should just render the fact that when your listening to them, even though only to get down some girls pants, they are plagarists. So all in all should you care? No But you should care that Satriani is owed 99% of what "Viva la Vida" is worth? Yes! Ripping off a chord progression or a riff is one thing even if remarkably similar because that is usually an Ode to that influence, which Coldplay calls a coincedence instead of being honorable musicians and saying that Satriani influence this song a shit load, but going as far as taking the guitar melody from "If I could fly" and using it as a vocal melody well its obvious that Coldplay went hey lets take this guitar virtuoso's work and commercialize it so we can make a bunch of money. Personally, I hope coldplay eats a big lawsuit. F it being the American way, its just fair! I also hear that this isn't Coldplay's first lawsuit either. Poor humble Satriani he writes amazing music, mentored almost all of the top guitarist in the business today, and just simply asked Coldplay to acknowledge that they ripped off his work, but its obvious that they just want it to go away.

[bkliever]

Coldplay is a terrible, terrible band. I hope satch sues them so bad they break up and rid the world of having to hear a band that every song sounds exactly the same. Viva La Vida sounds different from there last 8 cds cuz they stole it, nice job jokes.

[Rock'n'Roller]

RichieJovie wrote:

Dear Coldplay, this isn't the first plagiarism case against yourselves. Kindly admit that you are talentless chancers pay up and never record again as long as you live.

yes accused of plagarism by a different band for the same song/melody thus proving that it was probably a coincedence and that you're an idiot

[pero_o]

Are you guys ****ing retarded or willingly ignorant??? People who are saying "yeah well even if its a coincidence the melodies are the same" THE MELODIES ARE NOT THE FUCKING SAME. how about you stop being fanboys for a minute and look at the matter from a completely objective stance?? look at acade365 post for the actual proof of why satriani is pulling this lawsuit from his ass. sorry for sounding so ****ing angry but if one thing makes me mad is ignorance and spouting bullshit that you think is real as fact. and for people saying "both songs suck so i dont care" nobody needs you here, you have not added anything to the debate, you have just proven what a narrow minded dumbass you are.

[Flying Afros]

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

What a ****ing tool bag.

[Craigadams93]

well. I do see the resemblence, but I don't think that it's that close. Basically one line.

[pero_o]

also, this: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI
why dont these guys sue satriani ?

[luckyshot60]

They are more different than they are the same... It's like three bars in the guitar melody that are similar. There are only so many notes and chord progressions in the world, no case.

[twat]

mikey son :
Sol9989 wrote:

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

that number is only 11 permiatations of 12. the number of combinations/permiatations depends of the number of notes you're using, and you can't just put any old notes next to each other, there are things called keys.

You do realize that you dont have to stick in the same key throughout a song
master of puppets has chromatics runs in the beginning riffs
sticking to a certin key is ok but its not set in stone

We aren't talking about a whole song here, just a small 5 or 6 note hook, of which there are more like 3 million possible (12 to the power of 6) and by the time you take into consideration the number that will actually sound good it is reduced hugely. Along with this any of these melodies can be repeated at any pitch and still basically sound the same (starting on any of the 12 notes, so divide the figure by 12), at this point we are looking at more like tens of thousands.

There are infinite timings for any of these notes. However once you are playing in rock 4/4 timing at around 100bpm this is limited (and not making every note last 8 bars each or 1.3677 of a beat or something).

And of those that will be memorable enough to make them into a recorded song that people will actually want to listen to the figure is going to be largely reduced again.

None of that actually contributed anything to this discussion but i thought i would have my input anyway. I don't think a popular music group would use a melody in one of their key album songs that had already been released on various occasions by other well known artists, it just seems too risky. The tune is quite simple so it is much more likely that it just came out of the chord sequence, which is quite common anyway.

I live up to my name.

[Shangrila13579]

also Satriani being a virtuoso, I don't think he would want to sue because Coldplay is making a bunch of money over this or because he's bitter. Satch's fans contacted him about this and he stated he didn't care really much, but when he heard the song he saw musically how identical they were. Honestly Do you think someone as smart as Joe would try to sue coldplay if it might just be a coincidence. At first he just wanted Coldplay to recognize the issue so to ignore a lawsuit, but he got no reply and got the idea that Coldplay is jsut trying to sweep this under the carpet and wait for it to all go away. And if anyone thinks Satriani sucks i feel bad for your level of music apreaciation. Satriani is on the cover of guitar magazines, taught guitarists like Steve Vai, Kurt Hammett and more how to play, and is ranked by Guitar World as a top guitarist. ICedRth you probably listen to the Radio Dysney, who the **** would say Satch sucks. You can say your not into his music or that you dont like it but no one can merit the comment that Satch sucks, unless your ****ing Jimi hendrix and even he would go to a Satch concert.

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

[no_one_eno_on14]

aznrockerdude wrote:

acade365 wrote:

i posted this on the other newspost:

actually, these sequences qre in major rather than in the relative minor. To me the underlying structures are roughly:
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
These are extremely common sequences, and not only these two songs but a large fraction of modern Western music has them.

Additionally, Satriani's use of sevenths, versus Coldplays use of suspensions and retardations, gives the sequences distinct emotional character. Their key, orchestration, and melody line is also distinct.

In short, I find that the only commonalities between the two pieces are ones also found in many thousands of other songs.

This. I'm not the biggest fan of either btw.

thank you! someone else with some knowledge of theory. This guy is right on. plus what about the cat stevens song that Joe ripped?

[paddyirishman]

In Coldplay's defence (I never thought I'd hear myself say that) I remember writing a riff that I was quite excited about. Then, I started listening to Anathema, a band I had never even heard of before, and waddya know, they got there before me with the opening riff of "Inner Silence". My ex-girlfriend had the same experience; she wrote a riff which later turned out to be "Childhood Dream" by Anathema (note for f-ing note!), and she too had never heard of the band prior to writing it (Anathema have all the best riffs, apparently!). These things do happen, and they are genuine coincidences.

I've unconsciously "rewritten" several Metallica riffs, too, and caught myself on just in time before playing them to staunch Metallica-fan-buddies of mine (that could have gotten nasty). Your mind works in weird ways when you're coming up with stuff.

Another important point is that the very nature of Coldplay's music leaves it open to these kinds of accusations. Their music is usually incredibly simple in every aspect, so it's likely that resemblances to other material will come to the surface. I mean, there are only so many ways to play 3 chords and sing "do ba do" over them, you know?

I've noticed a lot of people siding with Satch simply on the basis that they hate Coldplay. Fortunately the court system don't work that way (well...that could be debated). Try to be level-headed and consider the issue reasonably, Satch could very well be wrong, regardless of his status as a primo guitarist.

On the other hand, Creaky Boards would have had better luck at convincing me of their claim if they were the only ones saying it. The reason being that if a world-famous band WERE gonna rip someone off, it would most likely be a unheard of band that no one would even try to defend (which is apparently what has happened). The fact that Chris Martin was at a CB gig where they played their "original" lends more credibility to the idea that he stole the tune. However, songs (or parts of songs) are usually in the works for a long, long time before being polished off and recorded, which says to me that Chris Martin could have had one of my Anathema moments; he wrote a riff, and was beaten to releasing it by someone else...if that happens, should you scrap your work? Not many artists would do that.

Then again Coldplay could very well be a bunch o' thieving *****s. Let the judge decide!

[avacado]

I know what they could do! Make a collaboration called I wish I could Viva la Vida(?)
But seriously, I think that it's just a coincident. It would be pretty awesome though if Viva la Vida won a Grammy then got sued.

[ANewFoundPride]

I agree. Plus, I don't really want suing to become common in the industry...Joe should give it up

[6sic6_blank]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

Hmm...I'm not so sure, dude. The songs are nearly identical when played together, and even Coldplay's vocalist seems to keep the same guitar solo melody in his singing style over the song. I believe it's more than just a coincidence, and they might've thought that Satch had not been as popular enough for anyone in the mainstream scene to notice. Just my view on the subject though, I actually dig some of Coldplay's music.

[GuitarFreak1387]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

go read some books on music law and you will see whats right.

[thewalrus77]

i hate coldplay so i hope joe wins his case

[luckyshot60]

thewalrus77 wrote:

i hate coldplay so i hope joe wins his case

Good reason...

[Shangrila13579]

I'm not much a fan of Satch or Coldplays work. I think Satch is amazing though. I guess I'm thinking of this too logically as someone who is ignorant. I see Satriani as a honorable musician. I'm entrusting that Satch is much smarter musically than all the people denying the plagarisms of the two songs. I'm sure he is aware of coincidences between songs, the possiblities of both songs being similar, and then just ripping off a song completely. If you think Satch is wrong in his allegation you must be a ****ing brilliant person to be correct and tell him he's wrong. You should be Coldplays lawyer. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[therescue06]

Shangrila13579 wrote:

also Satriani being a virtuoso, I don't think he would want to sue because Coldplay is making a bunch of money over this or because he's bitter. Satch's fans contacted him about this and he stated he didn't care really much, but when he heard the song he saw musically how identical they were. Honestly Do you think someone as smart as Joe would try to sue coldplay if it might just be a coincidence. At first he just wanted Coldplay to recognize the issue so to ignore a lawsuit, but he got no reply and got the idea that Coldplay is jsut trying to sweep this under the carpet and wait for it to all go away. And if anyone thinks Satriani sucks i feel bad for your level of music apreaciation. Satriani is on the cover of guitar magazines, taught guitarists like Steve Vai, Kurt Hammett and more how to play, and is ranked by Guitar World as a top guitarist. ICedRth you probably listen to the Radio Dysney, who the **** would say Satch sucks. You can say your not into his music or that you dont like it but no one can merit the comment that Satch sucks, unless your ****ing Jimi hendrix and even he would go to a Satch concert.

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

PROVE IT.

Oh, yeah.

[FretboardToAsh]

They oughta piss off with the innocence crap, both the melody and the chord progression sounds the same. I hope Satch gets what's his.

[Msu_Man04]

life_247 wrote:

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

Thats called sampling, its credited you fool.

Led Zep "stole" loads of music. Stairway intro anyone??

The stairway intro simply arpeggiates barre chords while having a note constantly going down one half tone every 2 beats... that could've been stolen from the first person to ever BUILD a guitar.

[Lackesse]

mattiwillohouse wrote:

Noel Gallagher has been ripping off riffs and piano sequences for years (mainly Beatles, Lennon), it happens all the time. But this is nothing like that, it's just another bloody American filing a lawsuit. It's like a right of passage in America, and if you don't sue someone at least once in your life you're somehow not complete.

Shame on you Satch, you don't NEED to do this..

I totally agree with you.

[guitaringnathan]

i bet coldplay did steal it and heres my reasoning:

1. coldplay ignored satch when he tried to contact them and they ignored him, they only issued a statement when it hit the press.

2. satch's song came out first

3. satch is one of the more humble guys in the biz, he has amazing chops and knowledge but will still compliment others, thats how he has been for years.

4. coldplay have alot to lose and that is why they tried to ignore him and now are acting like this is no big deal they dont want their reputation tarnished.

[dethead666]

mattiwillohouse wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.
Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

he said the SONGS suck, not the artist, you pompus buffoon.

Good night..

[Ekoroski]

acade365 wrote:

ill make a run-down of what people's using to say this is or isnt a real plagiarism case.

"They share the same tempo"- False. The video that mixes the two songs has edited the songs to play along.

"They share the same key"- This is not relevant and also false. Key can be transposed easily and was also edited on the video previously mentioned.

"They share the same chord progression"- Again, not relevant and false. As i explained earlier,
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
Its not relevant because you cannot sue over chord progressions.

"Thay have the same melody"- False. They only share three notes of a little part of the melody. Now, before everyone goes jumping and flaming me, i suggest you transcribe the vocal line from coldplay's song and the lead guitar from Satch's song. You'll notice they are not the same, and they are quite far apart.

Taking all this into account, it doesn't matter if coldplay's guitarist does listen to satch (which is quuite possible, given that satriani is one of the best alive guitarist, if not THE best).

And last, let's remember that music existed way before copyrights and music label existed. lets just try to enjoy music, the best thing in the world i believe.

came here to basically say this.

[Kapalen]

Ragnorak6000 wrote:

This is complete coicidence tbh. As if they would do it on purpose if they knew theyd get caught out for it.

Of course they wouldnt do it if they knew they'd get caught. Noone would ever do anything wrong if they KNEW they'd get caught.

[dethead666]

pero_o wrote:

Are you guys ****ing retarded or willingly ignorant??? People who are saying "yeah well even if its a coincidence the melodies are the same" THE MELODIES ARE NOT THE FUCKING SAME. how about you stop being fanboys for a minute and look at the matter from a completely objective stance?? look at acade365 post for the actual proof of why satriani is pulling this lawsuit from his ass. sorry for sounding so ****ing angry but if one thing makes me mad is ignorance and spouting bullshit that you think is real as fact. and for people saying "both songs suck so i dont care" nobody needs you here, you have not added anything to the debate, you have just proven what a narrow minded dumbass you are.

things that piss me off is people who get in a uproar over something they chose to read.

[I am the Drake]

I heard them today in school and I think that Coldplay totally ripped him off. It doesn't really matter though. There are plenty of songs that sound the same. It's all about money really.

[ilsacrificio]

FretboardToAsh wrote:

They oughta piss off with the innocence crap, both the melody and the chord progression sounds the same. I hope Satch gets what's his.

No, wrong. The melody is only similar after a couple of notes. The chords aren't exactly the same either, but no one should be allowed to sue over a chord progression anyway. That's just bullshit.

I'm a big fan of both Coldplay and Satch, and personally... I think Satch is being a little ridiculous. If Coldplay says they didn't intentionally rip off his song, he should just accept it and move on.

[narcoticsfairy]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

Always wondered about the math.

[DZCunuck]

I see that it has already been noted but i just took a look at both the songs in GuitarPro5 and the acoustic guitar rythem parts in both (the ones that are being argued) are not even the same. So i don't know how well this will do in court. The jury is not going to be compose of music theory buffs and once the defense lawyer shows them that the two parts are not identical, it will be enough for them to decide in Coldplay's favour.
(btw I don't listen to either that much even though i respect Satch way more then coldplay)

[lopezmetalmunky]

Let me just say, that I really really like both Coldplay and Satch. I think that Satch is right, both songs are incredibly close, close enough to call suit, but I believe that so many artists have been ripped off, that the music industry is going to turn a blind eye to it.

[Rubber_Soul]

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

[MegaRon]

Caribousunking wrote:

I'll take Led-Zeppelin71's word for it that the guitarist for Coldplay is a fan of the guy complaining. If he is then he may have plaigarised the song subconciously which can easily happen without yourself noticing. Satriani claims he wants people to be made aware of his art and wants recognition for the music. Personally, i think he should stick his guitar up his ass and quit whining. Nobody gives a hoot.

I don't understand why he has to file a lawsuit. But I agree with the initial statement, that people can be subconsciously influenced by artists they like. For instance, I wrote a song that has a similar rhythm and chord-structure as "Broken Boy Soldier" by the Raconteurs. I'm not expecting Jack White to show up on my doorstep and slap me with a laptop. ... Though, if he did, I'd ask him to autograph the bruise.

[hailtheheelz]

Rubber_Soul wrote:

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

+100000
Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in.

[les allen]

F**K you coldplay! write your own material!

[Matt420740]

Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in. [quote][/quote

I doubt that Satch is jealous. He is recognized as one of the best guitarists in the world, so why would he be jealous over a bunch of peter puffers?

[HELLAWAITSU]

DimebagRob wrote:

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

That does sound like a very Ulrichy thing to do....

i dont think so cuz he should know that Trivium doesn't sound like metallica. It shocks that so many magazines say that trivium is the next metallica. just my opinion

[HELLAWAITSU]

guitaringnathan wrote:

i bet coldplay did steal it and heres my reasoning:

1. coldplay ignored satch when he tried to contact them and they ignored him, they only issued a statement when it hit the press.

2. satch's song came out first

3. satch is one of the more humble guys in the biz, he has amazing chops and knowledge but will still compliment others, thats how he has been for years.

4. coldplay have alot to lose and that is why they tried to ignore him and now are acting like this is no big deal they dont want their reputation tarnished.

I Agree

[maidenitalia]

hailtheheelz :
Rubber_Soul wrote:

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

+100000
Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in.

+100000 more. agreed

[MTVget0FFtheAIR]

I highly doubt Coldplay did this intentionally. I don't even like them, but I would bet my life they did not do so. If they were going to steal it, they would have at least changed it up a little. It's not a very creative or original melody in the first place...

[tanguyen]

if the actual guitarist of Coldplay wrote the song, Satriani would probably have a better case. If it was Martin that wrote the majority of the song (even bare minimum, he writes his vocal melody), then there isn't that much weight behind it. THere's a better chance that the guitarist would know who Satch is.

[Chevelle454]

they should probably just put the satch in the song, at least coldplay wouldn't suck so bad then

[4YSftwATLftw]

les allen wrote:

F**K you coldplay! write your own material!

Lol banhamer? j/k. But honestly. I haven't heard either songs, just to throw that out there. But Joe didn't invent the chord changes. Yes, he COMPOSED THE SONG, he put it together, and released it. But he didn't invent songs. Because look, this is like drum beats (I'm a drummer). The beats are used and over again. They didn't invent the beat, just like Joe didn't invent the chords. Just because another band uses the same chord changes doesn't mean they're worth sueing. I had more respect for Joe than this, but for him to do something as such a waste of time as this...discourages me from giving him my respect. So I'll cut him off and say he's a faggot for wearing those glasses.

[fitterhappier34]

coldplay doesn't get the respect they deserve just because they're popular. they're probably the only really mainstream artist i listen to a lot.
i don't see what the big deal is...first of all, similar chord progressions are used many times in different songs, even jazz. and 4-5 notes is not significant enough to be considered plagiarism. if so, the latin people in one of those youtube links have an even bigger case, seeing as that the melody in that song is also played in the same style on an electric guitar, not vocals. no matter what, coldplay is still one of my favorite bands behind the almighty radiohead and i do think that joe satriani is a godly guitarist. let's all be peaceful about this. i believe a collaboration would call for an EPIC WIN.

[conman5895]

Chevelle454 wrote:

they should probably just put the satch in the song, at least coldplay wouldn't suck so bad then

true so very true haha

[darth awsome]

Both of them should be smacked for writing such a cheesy melody over such a generic chord progression.

Whether or not Coldplay did it on purpose is irrelevant. Just because you didn't know that killing someone is illegal doesn't make it excusable. Satch shouldn't get any and all proceeds but he should get his name in the Liner notes and a small royalty from the album sales.

[MorbidBeliever]

maidenitalia wrote:

hailtheheelz :
Rubber_Soul wrote:

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

+100000
Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in.

+100000 more. agreed

Hey retard, Satch is a instrumentalist, obviously is not jealous of a stupid song that is famous just because as some lame ass vocals in it.
And is not using the same progression that is the problem, its using it in the same context, rhythm, melody, and the notes sang by the lead singer of coldplay are the same he does on the guitar... So stop listening to crappy bands or shut up!

[vIsIbleNoIsE]

i hope satch wins this. but only because he kicks coldplay ass.

[GIBSONroks6167]

this is NOT a coincidence. anyone who doesnt agree, go on youtube and listen to the songs played on top of eachother. its a PERFECT match...go satch. do wats right and defend ur art

[GuitarGod9876]

conman5895 wrote:

Chevelle454 wrote:

they should probably just put the satch in the song, at least coldplay wouldn't suck so bad then

true so very true haha. i like chicken noodle soup! screw me!!!! AGAIN!!!!

Wut the heck! Don't flame!

[brocmartens90]

its the same even in metalcore, bands tune to the same tunings, use the same chords, its coincidence that the progression is the same, its like saying hey tht song sounds like as i lay dying, just lisn to songs and look for what you want to hear and ul find it, its not hard, and to all of you, obviously if the song is in the same key you use THE SAME EXACT NOTES tht fit perfectly in the key.

[EpiDot]

maidenitalia wrote:

hailtheheelz :
Rubber_Soul wrote:

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

+100000
Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in.

+100000 more. agreed

+100000 Satch is just trying to make money off of a common chord progression. He's just mad because the songs sound similar and his song didn't make half of what Viva la Vida made.

[soadguitarfan]

phishfan08 wrote:

Who would want to rip off Joe Satriani??? He's so boring. Widdly wah wddly widdly wah = Satriani's carrer.

this. as flamey as it is. funny stuff.

[Year Zero]

There is coincedence and this is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

Says the guy who has the name of a band that is one of the biggest rip off artits of all time. Look it up Led Zeppelin ripped off alot of songs.

[BaconFrenzy117]

Just because you don't like a band, doesn't mean they suck. Personal preference is far from truth.

Meh, I see both sides, but is there a court case? NO! Welcome to the music business Satch! You've been in it for how long? And you don't realize that this happens all the time!?! Popular overused chord phrases are popular and overused.

[i like techno]

Satch does a gig with Coldplay. Problem solved.

[B4Dkarma]

Saying Coldplay probably never knew of Satriani is stereotypical and ignorant. Just because Coldplay is mainstream alternative it doesnt mean they are completely ignorant and dont even know of the greatest guitarist of our era. I mean my MOM had heared of Joe Satriani.

On topic, I am completely on the fence about this case.

[acade365]

darth awsome wrote:

Both of them should be smacked for writing such a cheesy melody over such a generic chord progression.

Whether or not Coldplay did it on purpose is irrelevant. Just because you didn't know that killing someone is illegal doesn't make it excusable. Satch shouldn't get any and all proceeds but he should get his name in the Liner notes and a small royalty from the album sales.

have you just compared copying a song with killing someone?

[bmac85]

My take on it is yes, the songs are obviously similar and I do believe Viva La Vida was influenced by If I could Fly. That being said, I can't speak for the intentions of Coldplay, it very well could have been unintentional, doesn't make it right though.

[Guufasas]

Jimmy Page should sue Angus Young for the slide on "Rainy May Day".. The Scorpions should sue Metallica for "The day that never comes" (Big city nights?) Warren Zevon should sue Kid Rock..
Everybody sues somebody somtime.. Dean Martin should sue me !

[andrewAnimosity]

i hate coldplay
i love joe... but coincedences or however it is spelt happens...exspecially wiht this song, because this is the second time this has happened...and im pretty sure joe knows more about music than coldplaye ver could considering he has taught some of the other great players like kirk hammet

[Master Shake]

Year Zero wrote:

There is coincedence and this is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

Says the guy who has the name of a band that is one of the biggest rip off artits of all time. Look it up Led Zeppelin ripped off alot of songs.

Exactly. Even Deep Purple copied the riffs to what ended up as Black Night, Child in Time and god knows what else. Infact Blackmore openly admits all this in an interview. Even some that arent that close but sound similar like Catch the Rainbow to Hendrix's Little Wing. No where near the same league as LZ still.
How many people have ripped off what is known as the Ahmen beat while the guy doesnt get a cent and is left to clean tiolets for the rest of his life?
I think it is wrong to copy people and most people do, rearaning what is already there. Its easy and effective. But it shouldnt get to the point where the melodies are exact or everyone goes around suing everyone because they are all money hungry either. I think Coldplay have a bit to answer for but as the songs arent identical they shouldnt be sued for all profits as they arent 'all' exactly the same. That is unfair on their part (even though i hate them with a passion).

[samick007]

I have a great respect for both artists, and this could definitely go either way. But I think Satriani is making a bit too much of a money grab here for a few notes of a chorus (assuming that they did plagiarize it, which might not have even happened). Any and all profits is a bit much, considering the rest of the songs are completely different, and coldplay did for sure write the lyrics.

[Savage Animal]

vIsIbleNoIsE wrote:

i hope satch wins this. but only because he kicks coldplay ass.

This sums up 95% of the posts on here

[rebreh]

Yeah music only has so many chords so your bound to get similarities. Like Stairway to heaven ripped off tauros. Come as you are ripped off Killing Joke.Like a virgin ripped off billie jean.

[WALKE5]

Like I said before on these matters...Chuck Berry could sue every rock musician if he wanted too. There bound to be some repeat in rock music nowandthen, it would be a near on impossibilty for a any guitarist to know the so many millions of combinations of notes and chords not to be (and stay in tune).

Seriously I drend the day I attually manage to write a half decent guitar line, that gets recognised and manage to get somewhere in this world, cause someone else in the world would have had exactly the same idea as me and I would end up getting sued. It hard enough learning the guitar as it with the limited amount of time between work and other shit without having to worry about people sueing you every five minutes. Seriously if you not a complete viruosos who started playing when you were 1 years old, your pretty ****ed really. P.S. I apologise if this is too much of a rant.

[Divided_Eye]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

with the same tempo and duration too!

[WhereArtEsteban]

Cat Stevens should be getting in on this fo real.

[guitargodwannab]

ummm, Coldplay did plagerize.....sry to all fans of coldplay but ur fav band ripd off a great guitar player!!!

[M.O.P]

Wow.
What really annoys me is that everyone is calling Coldplay crap, and when someone calls Satriani crap, oh noes end ov teh wrld! There's no such thing as crap music. Different people look for different things in music and just because you prefer something over something else doesnt mean it's crap.
Anyway, I love Satch but I honestly hope he loses.

[Phoenix_24Leas]

twat wrote:

mikey son :
Sol9989 wrote:

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

that number is only 11 permiatations of 12. the number of combinations/permiatations depends of the number of notes you're using, and you can't just put any old notes next to each other, there are things called keys.

You do realize that you dont have to stick in the same key throughout a song
master of puppets has chromatics runs in the beginning riffs
sticking to a certin key is ok but its not set in stone

We aren't talking about a whole song here, just a small 5 or 6 note hook, of which there are more like 3 million possible (12 to the power of 6) and by the time you take into consideration the number that will actually sound good it is reduced hugely. Along with this any of these melodies can be repeated at any pitch and still basically sound the same (starting on any of the 12 notes, so divide the figure by 12), at this point we are looking at more like tens of thousands.

There are infinite timings for any of these notes. However once you are playing in rock 4/4 timing at around 100bpm this is limited (and not making every note last 8 bars each or 1.3677 of a beat or something).

And of those that will be memorable enough to make them into a recorded song that people will actually want to listen to the figure is going to be largely reduced again.

None of that actually contributed anything to this discussion but i thought i would have my input anyway. I don't think a popular music group would use a melody in one of their key album songs that had already been released on various occasions by other well known artists, it just seems too risky. The tune is quite simple so it is much more likely that it just came out of the chord sequence, which is quite common anyway.

I live up to my name.

This guy gets a +500000

Savage Animal wrote:

vIsIbleNoIsE wrote:

i hope satch wins this. but only because he kicks coldplay ass.

This sums up 95% of the posts on here

haha lulz so true

[fitterhappier34]

remember how George Harrison, the guitarist of one of the most legendary bands-i mean musical acts in history got sued for plagiarism and was found guilty? it can happen to anyone. i've come up with songs that sound amazing, and then i hear some other song i know and realize it was similar. then i get all pissed. it happens subconsciously.

btw, i lol'd so hard at "any and all profits." what ever happened to the original lyrics, and completely different remainder of the song? proof he wants as much money as possible, and not just public recognition and at least some profit.

[T1988G]

stupid inane lawsuits at their best...

[fitterhappier34]

M.O.P wrote:

Wow.
What really annoys me is that everyone is calling Coldplay crap, and when someone calls Satriani crap, oh noes end ov teh wrld! There's no such thing as crap music. Different people look for different things in music and just because you prefer something over something else doesnt mean it's crap.
Anyway, I love Satch but I honestly hope he loses.

No, disney channel produces crap "music." britney spears makes crap "music." coldplay and joe satriani make awesome music.

[bearcat25]

Someone please point out to me where it was ever said that Jonny Buckland (Coldplay guitarist) is a 'HUGE Satch fan"

[Sheogorath]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

But think of all the music written . . .

I also think it was a coincedence.

[jaxtheaxe]

Joe Satriani = Money grabber

[firsttoknow]

as much as i dislike coldplay, i think joe needs to stop being money hungry and arrogant and leave coldplay alone.

[mepmep]

H_ngm_n wrote:

How many of you people watched the video? At the very end they play the two songs over top of each other and it's the same chords, the strings in the coldplay song follow the drums in Satch's and then the vocals in Coldplay follow the guitar melody perfectly. So not only did they "Magically" write a song with the same chords, they just happened to use the same beat and the same melody...Don't think so.

Get 'em Satch.

If you had read into it, it says that he had to edit the tempo, and pitch so they would sync up. And the meoldee's also been done by that spanish band, cat stevens, and that band who wrote "The songs I didn't write". It's a common melodee, cant you think of just humming that, then seeing how to play it on guitar.
I vote coincidence

Also, because Satch is a instrumentalist, I can decifer that he clearly doesn't wish for fame, and he just wants to play his music. Why should he even care about Coldplay.

[Sp00nman94]

guitargodwannab wrote:

ummm, Coldplay did plagerize.....sry to all fans of coldplay but ur fav band ripd off a great guitar player!!!

i can't say it any better than that...just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

[Domine6377]

I never ever heard of satch before i began playing guitar and if he wants more musical credit then he should make an effort. on a public scale who is more well known coldplay or satch. and i can guarentee u coldplay is the correct answer. they should talk about the problem in person instead of having a bitch fest over the internet. joe is great at guitar and i do believe the songs are far too similar but if a bad as big as coldplay say they didnt do it and it was an accident i would look more into that before i started dropping 200000million dollar lawsuits.

[garf69]

in that video the keys are changed and the tempo is sped up

[AssassinLoki090]

Marty Balin

[sidvicious_91]

Okay, joe's being a vagina about this. its like with the chili peppers and tom petty, or green day and oasis. all of those bands are way too high profile to rip off another song. it will get caught by someone else. those are all common melodies. say someone writes a riff that sounds just like "undone" by weezer - now that would be cause for discussion. that riff is really unique, what with the purposely added accidental.

[epishredder]

man can't you people see they all copied dylan who copied Johann Pachelbel

[Nightmare4560]

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

he still sounds like a dumbass anyay , i agree with the dude , the lad is ignorant as hell , he probs one of those guitar hero geeks :P

[hurricane #1]

what a litigious fag.

[Aftertime]

whatsup with all this talk about satch's being a dick about it. it shows that every song deeply means something to him and he is merely protecting that feeling, like what all musicians should be doing.
if you wrote a song and somebody wrote pretty much the same music and you don't feel like you should be fighting for it, may that song doesn't mean much to you and just let the band steal it ay :\

[guitarsolo_17]

ok so the facts in this article are different from the other articles.....the other articles don't claim he's seeking all profits they've made, only the profits from the damages applicable to the copyright problems.

[SgtBlarg]

i honestly doubt that coldplay just 'coincidentally' thought of the EXACT same chord progression and sound, but i think the guitarist in coldplay might have done it by accident, like he loved the sound of it and was trying to build off of it. its not exactly plagiarism, but it DEFINITELY isnt an original coldplay song. and i DO have a feeling joe may be just a TEEEENNY bit jealous of coldplays popularity surrounding this song XP

[Darkkon]

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

Shut up now fool.

Yes, Satch has a big case here, and he has every right to sue Coldplay.

[Victor Escobar]

Sue them anyway

[sounforgiven]

RichieJovie wrote:

Dear Coldplay, this isn't the first plagiarism case against yourselves. Kindly admit that you are talentless chancers pay up and never record again as long as you live.

dam rite

[Shamanic Rhythm]

A little more food for thought. In his autobiography, Eric Clapton admits that he unconsciously ripped off Stairway to Heaven in his song Let It Grow from 461 Ocean Boulevard. If you listen to it you'll notice that it's only really a guitar riff which has a few similar arpeggios to the intro of Stairway. And yet he was prepared to own up to that.

So unconscious plagiarism can happen to anyone. However, Zeppelin never sued over it, probably because they were too rich to care, or didn't want any attention drawn to all those blues staples they had 'borrowed'.

So you know, it is possible that while Coldplay thought they were being completely original, they were actually just remembering something they had heard somewhere along the line. Is this grounds for suing? Not really. There's really not enough similarity musically for the song to be considered a rip off, and working against Satriani's case is that he doesn't have any lyrics, so he can't argue that the theme of Viva La Vida is similar to If I Could Fly. That only leaves him with the fact that the beat is similar, the chord progression is similar, and that the chorus melody has a few common intervals.

That isn't enough to prove intentional plagiarism. Of course, I'm being an armchair lawyer when I say that, but UG seems to specialise in armchair experts, so what the hey. I mean, think about it. Why would a band that has hinted about retiring in two years need to rip someone off? It's not like they're desperate for hits to keep them going. Seriously, there are so many sheep out there that Chris Martin could write something called The Vegemite Song and people would still buy it, just because it's Coldplay. They don't NEED to rip anyone off. They may have done, unintentionally, but that's not good enough grounds for a lawsuit.

[2muchTV]

benjibreeg wrote:

sigh...it might have been influenced. Sadly coldplay pretended that they havent even heard the song before...

I've lost a lot of respect for coldplay after their previous album...i still wonder how listeners bought the hit "speed of sound" which is basically "clocks" tuned in a different pattern :S

O my goodness, I thought I was the only one who thought that! I thought clocks was alright and then Speed of Sound came out and I was like, how is this in any way new? it sounds like clocks. I think it's taking it to a whole new level when you can copy yourself and get away with it.

Ya Satch has perfect grounds to sue, although he could be less of and ass about it, but I think Coldplay shouldn't be asses about it either. Everyone should just lighten up and make it less of a business, more of an art in my opinion.

[dan4ftball14]

Personally I don't care much for either band/guitarist

So trying to sound unbias here, that guitar riff does sound very similar to Coldplays vocals in the song, but at the same time they're completely different genre's. Also, one is just a guitar riff, while the other involves actual lyrics the guy had to write.
Not as simple as just playing something someone else did, which goes down all the time and no one cares
I personally think to guy sueing is just taking advantage of this song because it's apparently the "biggest song of 08," for both the publicity and profit
But maybe they really did copy it and they deserved to be sued, we'll probably never know

[wildwildwes594]

They have the exact same chord structure and melody. It's blatantly obvious that it was plagiarism. I am a fan of neither artists, so I'm not biased

[Deep*Kick]

"With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations,"

If coldplay weren't such bigots and actually talked it out with Joe in the first place they wouldn't be getting sued.
The songs sound far too similar for coldplay to have written it completely themselves, and to win awards for a song without giving credit at all to the original composer is just dumb really.

[stringsquealer]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

hah! COlplay is only popular because of Viva la Vida, so they have no credibility whatsoever

[JuliaAnne]

Since when could creative practices become plagiarised? Like, good god, it's music. People need to stop being so bloody greedy and just enjoy the music. As a teenage girl, growing up I wouldn't sue girls if they wore a very very similar outfit to what I'd worn a couple of days before, I'd just shrug and be slightly flattered that they decided to copy me. Although completely off topic, I hope I make my intentions clear with that example. I mean, I think Coldplay should have shown some sort of recognition, but whatever, they didn't and now its a big deal and suprisingly, people like me still don't give a rats ass about either the band or the artist in question.

[Plarx]

RichieJovie wrote:

Dear Coldplay, this isn't the first plagiarism case against yourselves. Kindly admit that you are talentless chancers pay up and never record again as long as you live.

THIS!!!!

[acade365]

wildwildwes594 wrote:

They have the exact same chord structure and melody. It's blatantly obvious that it was plagiarism. I am a fan of neither artists, so I'm not biased

but if you read posts before yours you would know that youre not biased but you are talking nonsense.

acade365 wrote:ill make a run-down of what people's using to say this is or isnt a real plagiarism case.

"They share the same tempo"- False. The video that mixes the two songs has edited the songs to play along.

"They share the same key"- This is not relevant and also false. Key can be transposed easily and was also edited on the video previously mentioned.

"They share the same chord progression"- Again, not relevant and false. As i explained earlier,
IV-V-I-vi (Coldplay)
ii-V-I-vi (Satriani)
Its not relevant because you cannot sue over chord progressions.

"Thay have the same melody"- False. They only share three notes of a little part of the melody. Now, before everyone goes jumping and flaming me, i suggest you transcribe the vocal line from coldplay's song and the lead guitar from Satch's song. You'll notice they are not the same, and they are quite far apart.

Taking all this into account, it doesn't matter if coldplay's guitarist does listen to satch (which is quuite possible, given that satriani is one of the best alive guitarist, if not THE best).

And last, let's remember that music existed way before copyrights and music label existed. lets just try to enjoy music, the best thing in the world i believe.

[acade365]

stringsquealerhah! COlplay is only popular because of Viva la Vida, so they have no credibility whatsoever

really? never heard of yellow? or clocks? or violet hill? or...

[metallinescence]

str84ever wrote:

Powerhouse wrote:

This lawsuit is absurd. If Coldplay rips off anyone, it's U2 or Radiohead. I doubt Coldplay ever heard a single piece of music by Satriani prior to this accusation.

It's a coincidence. It happens. There's no way Coldplay seriously thought they could rip off that song and get away with it.

Oh my god. Someone with sense on this website.

Who seriously thinks Colplay listen to or draw influence from Satriani.

Even the thought of it is hilarious.

I know, rite?
And, even if, for some reason, these girly-men ripped off Satch, it's not like this doesn't happen all the time in rock/metal. Example: listen to Smoke on the water and Fight for your right to party (by Beastie Boys). Is that or is that not a very similiar riff? Or pretty much any Metallica riff has been ripped off.
Or like one tme I made a simple riff, and then, a year later, Life is Beautiful came out. Now I'm sure Sixx:AM didn't plaigairize me. It's just entirely coincidental.

[thereverendsoup]

jshwak wrote:

thereverendsoup :
Geeks Gone Bad wrote:

How many guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

I'm not. Most of my friends play guitar, and among them, there's one person who might have a passing interest in Joe Satriani, but doesn't own any albums or anything. Only person I know who actually owns a Joe Satriani album doesn't play guitar.

Just because I play guitar doesn't mean I automatically like listening to music made by everyone who's good at playing guitar.

correction after reading this... "How many DECENT guitar players do you know that AREN'T Satch fans?

Good call. Because obviously the only worthwhile use of a guitar is to start crappy shred bands. Clearly everything I've done up to this point is meaningless!

I've never met a decent guitarist who's into Joe Satriani. Just lots of bedroom wankers that are completely worthless when you try to actually play music with them because they never play with other people.

Besides, my statement stands. As far as actual similarity to the Coldplay song, Cat Stevens has a case long before Joe Satriani does. At the very least, Joe has no rightful claim to the melody or the chord progression because he didn't write either of 'em first, either.

[Benmarkk708]

Azuro wrote:

Well I'm a huge Satriani fan. But obviously he didn't "invented" this melody.

Well, I've heard three songs so far that all sound the same: Viva la vida by Coldplay, If I could fly by joe satriani, The songs i didn't write by Creaky boards, and love/heaven by cats steven. I'm sure that there are more that sound much like this. So I'm just thinking that since there only if there are twelve notes the probability of getting the same song is 1 to 479001600 (12P12). Acordding to statistics there is a good chance that it can occur. That is a huge fraction- remember the smaller the number the high the possibility and the higher the number the smaller the possibility because the number you figure is the denominator. In statistics, 1 to 479001600 is a good chance: a very good chance I as far as I can see.

[Benmarkk708]

Ooops I also forgot to add that nothing is orginal. Everything has been inspired by something.

[Teh Skisgaars]

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

ahh but no, see he said copy SOMEONE that is decent
he is calling satriani crap
and if IcedRth thinks satriani is crap he
doesnt deserve to be a member of UG
there should be a vote to kick thing on forums
cause that douchebag should be banned
satriani gives many millions of guitarists
and musicians inspiration an hope

[thereverendsoup]

Benmarkk708 wrote:

Azuro wrote:

Well I'm a huge Satriani fan. But obviously he didn't "invented" this melody.

Well, I've heard three songs so far that all sound the same: Viva la vida by Coldplay, If I could fly by joe satriani, The songs i didn't write by Creaky boards, and love/heaven by cats steven. I'm sure that there are more that sound much like this. So I'm just thinking that since there only if there are twelve notes the probability of getting the same song is 1 to 479001600 (12P12). Acordding to statistics there is a good chance that it can occur. That is a huge fraction- remember the smaller the number the high the possibility and the higher the number the smaller the possibility because the number you figure is the denominator. In statistics, 1 to 479001600 is a good chance: a very good chance I as far as I can see.

But you also have to consider that different styles of music drift toward different types of melodies and that any given chord progression is only going to harmonize well with certain scales. I'd say it's pretty difficult to figure out mathematically the probability that someone would land on a similar melody, but I'd say it depends totally on the type of music being written.

To be honest, Viva La Vida just sounds like dance music reworked into a poppy dad rock thing to me.

[TravuhsWree]

Yeah Benmarkk, true. But there is a huge difference in being inspired by a dishwasher, as an example, than being inspired by a band, or a writer like Joe.

I don't know what will happen, Creaky Boards has a similar song too but Satchmo recorded If I Could Fly long before Viva la Vida. SO yeah, I'm rooting for Joe.

[zyprox]

If I write a book identical to per se, The Wizard of Oz, but change the names of the characters and publish it, unknowing of the original book's existence, would I be free and clear?

Progression
IV III II I (Satriani)
VI III II I (Coldplay)
^ chord substitution makes these fairly similar.

Tempo is within about 135-140 on both songs and the melody obviously has some similarities. The genres are irrelevant to a court; theoretically, music is not bound by genre.

That's looking at the alleged *portions* of each piece from a theoretical stand point without claiming wrong in either direction. No one will ever know if any members of Coldplay intentionally copied that piece or any other pieces except for that band. I'm not familiar with their creative process, but unless they compose in a group circle, would it be entirely impossible that the similarities were incorporated by one member without the others knowing?

I also highly doubt Satriani is motivated by money or fame considering his natural talent and learned skill could take him extremely far if he ever decided to create music on a commercial scale. He could just jump on his involvement in creating Kirk Hammett's 'Metallic' style, if he really wanted some publicity.

Satriani's statement claimed he attempted over a fairly large period of time to initiate some contact with Coldplay to no success. A press release on their website is very crude.

[tbarrettl]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

That comes with the assumption Coldplay has ever heard much of Satriani, they aren't even of the same genre nor do I expect they have any virtuoso guitar influence, rather check their "Talk's" comparison with a Kraftwerk song which is far more similar.

[A-440]

Led-Zeppelin71 wrote:

There is coincedence and there is coincedence!!!!
Coldplay went to far and their asses should be sued off the planet
some people will argue that coldplay have prob. Never heard of satch but the guitarist for coldplay is a MASSIVE satch fan!!!
go on joe!!! Sue their Asses

hahaha....ironic coming from someone with LED FREAKIN ZEPPELIN in their username

[JParalyzer]

Satriani for the win.

[BassFishin]

i heard the two pieces played on top of eachother on q101, and i gotta say it sounded like one freakin song

[bearcat25]

tbarrettl wrote:

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

That comes with the assumption Coldplay has ever heard much of Satriani, they aren't even of the same genre nor do I expect they have any virtuoso guitar influence, rather check their "Talk's" comparison with a Kraftwerk song which is far more similar.

Good god people Talk and Kraftwerk are not similar it is the SAME riff. Viva La Vida and If I could Fly are Similar. Reason Talk is the same is because they asked for and received written permission from the band. Being a "fanboy" I know that Chris and co. are the first to admit what "influenced" their work whether it be an artist or song(and what comes out doesn't even sound like what it was influenced by). This leads me to believe if they outright were "influenced" by Satch they would have made it known. Viva La Vida was probably influenced by everything BUT Satch.

[dmiller1126]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

It's the rythyms that play into it too. Think Metallica sueing one band from going E to F for example: that has no basis unless it's a carbon copy of the riff in rythym as well as in transition.

[tarazena]

guys if you watch the youtube video its very identical
i think joe satriani should sue them

[Afi_rocker_91]

I hate fall out boy

[Iriathz]

I hope Joe Satriani wins.

The songs even have exactly the same tempo and timing!

[JuliaAnne]

Afi_rocker_91 wrote:

I hate fall out boy

Man, the discussion was getting so heated and then this. You make my life.

[Rubber_Soul]

MorbidBeliever wrote:

maidenitalia wrote:

hailtheheelz :
Rubber_Soul wrote:

This is such bullshit...Joe Satriani is an egotistical clown if he thinks he has the right to claim this chord progression/melody as his own...not to mention that they aren't even exactly the same. Joe did not create these notes and chords, he simply put them together in a nice sounding way. Coldplay did the same and it happened to be a bit similar, so what? They are totally different types of music/instrumentation anyway. I don't know anything about music copyright laws, but if Joe wins this case I will be assured of how utterly clueless those lawmakers were. Coincidences like this happen all the time in music, and the progression in both songs is a pretty simple one. You could probably find hundreds of songs that use it. Same thing goes for the melody. I bet most of you have made up a progression or melody only to realize it sounds quite like a song that's already been released. This proves Coldplay's case. Even if they did copy it (which I don't believe is the case), props for them for hearing a good-sounding riff and making something different out of it. Satriani should be flattered, after he gets his head out of the clouds.

+100000
Satch is probably just jealous that "Viva la Vida" was so successful and is trying to cash in.

+100000 more. agreed

Hey retard, Satch is a instrumentalist, obviously is not jealous of a stupid song that is famous just because as some lame ass vocals in it.
And is not using the same progression that is the problem, its using it in the same context, rhythm, melody, and the notes sang by the lead singer of coldplay are the same he does on the guitar... So stop listening to crappy bands or shut up!

Oh no, not the same rhythm! It is in 4/4 time, which is the time signature that most songs are in, so that point is irrelevant. Secondly, the melody is NOT exactly the same, just because it starts out similar. Open your ears. (Also I have no idea what you mean by context..if anything). Also don't tell me to "stop listening to crappy bands or shut up", because I don't listen to crappy bands.

[Rubber_Soul]

after giving it another listen, its not even the same rhythm at all

[istegal]

does anyone else think Coldplay and Satch should do the songs together? that would kick so much ass...

[thereverendsoup]

istegal wrote:

does anyone else think Coldplay and Satch should do the songs together? that would kick so much ass...

I would like to see that.

[Exxol]

i still think they sound way too similar to be chance... you people getting all bent out of shape is hilarious though..

i like a few coldplay songs, and i think satch is an amazing musician - i wouldnt call myself a fan of either

the lyrics follow the lead guitar from satch almost exactly.. the version with them put together is almost the same, except satriani's has more heart

[dualblade6]

i just hate coldplay

[vitriolis]

Guys i had and have a respect for both Coldplay and Joe, but i heard both songs and the similarities are way suspicious.I agree Coldplay have a history and success and have no reason copying somebody's art.Although i feel they did based on "if i could fly" to create their song!!!

[RMckeehen]

Fritz621 wrote:

Say said in "The 40 yr old virgin" ....
"Wanna know how i know your gay?"
"How?"
"You like Coldplay"..... Thats sums up about everything

THANK YOU

[rocker91]

It's way to similar to be a coincidence. And this isn't the first time this has happened. Also, they took forever to respond to satch, which doesn't help their case at all. I'm with Joe on this one. Sue their asses!

[SL!!!]

Personally, my opinion is who cares? The only way i could ever see justifying a lawsuit over something like this is if they copied the song EXACTLY, as in they took a piece he wrote, and then said we wrote it. And that is the only way he would have a case. Most likely, there is still a chance he could win something, but probably not. I mean there has been much worse plagiarism in history, and in classical music composers often borrow melodies or have hints at other famous compositions as a sign of respect, or whatever. Basically, this is a blip, but i guess to Satriani it means something, like maybe he can get his name out there, hahaha. I could understand how he might want some of Coldplay's success though, since he is not as well known, and if he thinks they stole his song, but i guess that would just show he's a tad insecure. Coldplay has been accused before of heavily borrowing from other artists melodies and styles too, so who knows.

But anyway, who cares. I hope this story goes away quickly.

[Afi_rocker_91]

RMckeehen wrote:

Fritz621 wrote:

Say said in "The 40 yr old virgin" ....
"Wanna know how i know your gay?"
"How?"
"You like Coldplay"..... Thats sums up about everything

THANK YOU

haha amen!

[Capt.Crunch]

I never heard of "Coldplay" before any of this....
hahahahahahahahahahaha.....
...what have we learned? hmmmmm 8)

[guitaringnathan]

Shamanic Rhythm wrote:

A little more food for thought. In his autobiography, Eric Clapton admits that he unconsciously ripped off Stairway to Heaven in his song Let It Grow from 461 Ocean Boulevard. If you listen to it you'll notice that it's only really a guitar riff which has a few similar arpeggios to the intro of Stairway. And yet he was prepared to own up to that.

So unconscious plagiarism can happen to anyone. However, Zeppelin never sued over it, probably because they were too rich to care, or didn't want any attention drawn to all those blues staples they had 'borrowed'.

So you know, it is possible that while Coldplay thought they were being completely original, they were actually just remembering something they had heard somewhere along the line. Is this grounds for suing? Not really. There's really not enough similarity musically for the song to be considered a rip off, and working against Satriani's case is that he doesn't have any lyrics, so he can't argue that the theme of Viva La Vida is similar to If I Could Fly. That only leaves him with the fact that the beat is similar, the chord progression is similar, and that the chorus melody has a few common intervals.

That isn't enough to prove intentional plagiarism. Of course, I'm being an armchair lawyer when I say that, but UG seems to specialise in armchair experts, so what the hey. I mean, think about it. Why would a band that has hinted about retiring in two years need to rip someone off? It's not like they're desperate for hits to keep them going. Seriously, there are so many sheep out there that Chris Martin could write something called The Vegemite Song and people would still buy it, just because it's Coldplay. They don't NEED to rip anyone off. They may have done, unintentionally, but that's not good enough grounds for a lawsuit.

your point makes no sense to me at all

1. many of those blues staples led zep borrowed, millions of other bands borrowed em as well

2. it doesnt sound like coldplay borrowed a chord progression or a melody, the songs sound freakishly alike.

3. why wouldnt chris martin rip off another, just because he's famous doesnt mean he wont. he probably knew he needed to keep writing songs that would keep the general population hooked, so he ripped off a song that he knew he would

4. and lastly you stated that eric clapton borrowed the intro riff thing, and owned up to it. i think the law suit is more on a grounds that joe just wants credit where credit is due. if coldplay did % ly" rip off the song, they should own up to it as well.

[MaxPower007]

It doesnt matter if it was intentional or not. If you didnt really mean to kill some one youre still going to prison. The songs sound way too similar. I think the jury, unless they're gayass coldplay fans, will go with Joe on this one.

[FMNStratGuy]

Honestly, I don't see it being plagiarism, and it may be coincidental, but if the matter is resolved, I think a remix like "Viva la Vida+" or "Viva la Satch" would be pretty spiffy to see. I think they'd sound great.

Also, I think Satch has forgotten that what Coldplay has made is THEIR art as well. Not right to take away the profits someone has made for something they've worked hard at.

[metalgirl0]

This is too similar to be just a coincidence

[dannyisokay]

Seems like Satch's fans are very biased. This band wrote this song at least 2 years before Satch wrote his. I know it's been posted, but it seems like evidence the Satch fans won't just listen to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

[Aerotides]

He is suing for ALL the profits they made for it? On TOP of damages? he's really trying to take them to the bank. is this guy not making enough money or something?

[darrenjables]

bearcat25 wrote:

If Coldplay is guilty, than Joe is guilty, then the spanish band is guilty, and Cat Stevens will be the next one to eventually be proven guilty.

Whether Coldplay did it or not, and intentionally or not, I don't think thats a wise road to go down.

Good point. Forgot about those songs... Up next "Old Beethoven songs found to be identical to Cat's!"

guitaringnathan wrote:

4. and lastly you stated that eric clapton borrowed the intro riff thing, and owned up to it. i think the law suit is more on a grounds that joe just wants credit where credit is due. if coldplay did % ly" rip off the song, they should own up to it as well.

Most artist who steal (on purpose) say that they never heard the song before, because they think that their fans will just walk away and they're trying to prevent a lawsuit.

Same with Coldplay, they might have stole the song, or did unconsciously, and they're trying to defend themselves.

[IUseAPurplePick]

I don't see it as plagiarism, and it's probably a coincidence, but, as far as I'm concerned, that's just way too close. If i was Satch, i'd probably do the same thing.

[DonCorleone72]

coincidence?...BS.
may the money go to the clearly better musician.

[ethic]

Of course Satriani is seeking a Jury trial. As evident by the comments here, most people don't know anything about music and would likely side with him; despite the fact that it IS NOT PLAGIARISM.

[KsE60]

I love that people are getting extremely polar about this. Although, I side mostly Satch, I think he should settle with the apology...and maybe a remix where he can solo the crap out of it. Just a thought.

[rocking bassist]

You do realise that it is the melody is the only part of the song under musical copywrite? Lyrics are under the literature section but that's a different story.
So, as Satch published the melody before Coldplay, he has all rights to said melody.

[guitardudezach1]

i hate coldplay. go joe!

[rocking bassist]

darrenjables wrote:

bearcat25 wrote:

If Coldplay is guilty, than Joe is guilty, then the spanish band is guilty, and Cat Stevens will be the next one to eventually be proven guilty.

Whether Coldplay did it or not, and intentionally or not, I don't think thats a wise road to go down.

Good point. Forgot about those songs... Up next "Old Beethoven songs found to be identical to Cat's!"

Beethoven's music is part of the public domain, so seeing as no one owns the copyright I don't think there will be any lawsuits filed.

[fridge_raider]

This is ridiculous. On that clip at the top, they sound remotely similar, but that's because the key and the tempo has been changed to match.

There's only 3 notes that match the vocal melody. It doesn't even sound that similar. Ridiculous.

[halfstacked]

Songs are going to sound more and more alike as time goes by it is inevitable.

I wonder if Pearl Jam could sue Creed for trying to sound like them.

[Regression]

untalented wrote:

I'm not a fan of either and I hate both songs but...
I think that satriani's song must have had some influence on them. Whether it was directly copied or indirect (as in they heard it first and then accidently repeated it years later) is another question. The timing, rhythm, chords, chord changes and melody, timing of the melody etc. are all too similar for it to be a complete accident - although his singing does sound like typical chris martin.
Overall, I think that satriani shouldn't sue on the basis that he is a guitarist and guitarists steal ideas off of each other all the time. It's not as if anyone gets sued for doing copies of beethoven's 5th symphony or evanescence will get sued for butchering mozart's lacrimosa. All satriani should ask for is recognition.

That's because there aren't copyrights on those pieces any more.

(may never have been, I'm not sure when the idea of copyrighting stuff came about)

[Iraave]

i doubt the plagiarism was intentional. both songs, viewed strictly as art, were created intending to express different ideas and emotions and feelings. aside from satrini's lawsuit being tactless and wasteful of resources and time, it makes me question his integrity as an artist and musician.

[Mr.LeadGuitar]

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

479001600 combinations, factored into thousands of years of humans making music, and hundreds where the music was mainstream. especially since records and tapes and CD's and such, that's at least like 4 songs per record, times the number of records released by one artist, do the same for every other artist to do the same thing and add it all together. You'll find that those statistics can be reached pretty quickly. Also, the whole plagiarism thing is bullshit. It's got a three not simmilarity per phrase, and frankly satch is wasting his time. I kinda hope coldplay does what George Harrison did and ends up with the rights to both songs. And, just fyi, screw Plagiarism: the US national anthem's melody was taken from a drinking song!

[Mr.LeadGuitar]

*note^

[Iraave]

dont forget those note combinations can be played with different timing, but different instruments, at varying velocities, within different contexts, for different demographics, and with intentions to express different ideas.

[Mr.LeadGuitar]

fridge_raider wrote:

This is ridiculous. On that clip at the top, they sound remotely similar, but that's because the key and the tempo has been changed to match.

There's only 3 notes that match the vocal melody. It doesn't even sound that similar. Ridiculous.

THANK YOU!!!!! GOD, I'VE BEEN SAYING THAT ON THE PAST 2 ARTICLES ABOUT THIS TOPIC!!!!! THANK GOD SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE SENSE TO NOTICE THAT!!!!!

[mercedesisbenz]

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

wonderwall is the name of george harrison's early solo album and boulevard of broken dreams is a line from an allman bros song. neither of them were really original to begin with.

[Mr.LeadGuitar]

Iraave wrote:

dont forget those note combinations can be played with different timing, but different instruments, at varying velocities, within different contexts, for different demographics, and with intentions to express different ideas.

if that's a responce to my comment, then i have yet another rebuttle: both these songs have different note lengths, note combinations, with different instruments (vocals for coldplay/guitar for satch), different speeds, different keys (the pitch and tempo were altered so they matched in the clip above), different contexts and different intentions, yet satch is still pushin' for lawsuit. jesus, he's worse than Palin: "SUE SUE SUE!" (argue as much as you want, it's just an analogy)

[rocking bassist]

fridge_raider wrote:

This is ridiculous. On that clip at the top, they sound remotely similar, but that's because the key and the tempo has been changed to match.

There's only 3 notes that match the vocal melody. It doesn't even sound that similar. Ridiculous.

It wouldn't be the first time that an artist changed the key and tempo of a melody they ripped off to not get caught.

[D3AD_L3TT3RS]

well that sucks for Coldplay but i hate Coldplay cuz their music is annoying.

Go Satriani!

[matosh.lee]

yeah. apparently this happens. it pisses me off too. cause i played this song i made that was the exact same of some other band my singer recognized that i havnt even heard of. pissed me off.

[nevin021s]

I have both cds. They really don't sound that similar at all. this is bullshit on satch's part, as much as a i love him.

[smackjack29]

this is ridiculous guitar players rip off music all the time. If Eddie Van Halen sued for everytime a guitarist used tapping he'd be a billionaire.

[Bunyip]

Sol9989 wrote:

ESte wrote:

Gein wrote:
Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff)..

Well you get 479001600 combinations out of 12 notes so i would say the chances for making the exact same notes are pretty slim.

that number is only 11 permiatations of 12. the number of combinations/permiatations depends of the number of notes you're using, and you can't just put any old notes next to each other, there are things called keys.

your missing the point. its got nothing to do whith keys what he is saying is that there is not an infinate amount of melodies you can make with 12 notes at some point things are going to be repeated.

[Shredder Guitar]

smackjack29 wrote:

this is ridiculous guitar players rip off music all the time. If Eddie Van Halen sued for everytime a guitarist used tapping he'd be a billionaire.

this is probably the most true statement i've read in awhile.

[Shamanic Rhythm]

your point makes no sense to me at all

1. many of those blues staples led zep borrowed, millions of other bands borrowed em as well

2. it doesnt sound like coldplay borrowed a chord progression or a melody, the songs sound freakishly alike.

3. why wouldnt chris martin rip off another, just because he's famous doesnt mean he wont. he probably knew he needed to keep writing songs that would keep the general population hooked, so he ripped off a song that he knew he would

4. and lastly you stated that eric clapton borrowed the intro riff thing, and owned up to it. i think the law suit is more on a grounds that joe just wants credit where credit is due. if coldplay did % ly" rip off the song, they should own up to it as well.

1. And as people have pointed out on here, some of Joe's songs sound a lot like those of certain other artists. The point is that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

2. Again, point is that it may have been unconsciously plagiarised.

3. So what you're saying is that a little known song by a rock guitarist would make a perfect pop song if you added some lyrics. That's like saying that Vivaldi's Four Seasons would make an excellent dance tune if you added a drum machine.

4. The point is that Eric Clapton thought he had come up with it on his own, and several years later realised he hadn't (read his book to learn more). Had someone come to him at the time and made that allegation, he probably wouldn't have believed them, and defended himself the way Coldplay are now.
I'm not saying that Coldplay did or didn't unconsciously plagiarise this song, but that if they did, they're not likely to admit it because it's very easy to feel like you did in fact write it completely on your own. If you've ever tried writing songs before, you might understand what I'm getting at. So really a lawsuit isn't the way to handle this.

[donnishanis]

well i believe in coincidences, but the chorus was the same exact note pattern as joes guitar lick, thats no coincidence

[rocking bassist]

Shredder Guitar wrote:

smackjack29 wrote:

this is ridiculous guitar players rip off music all the time. If Eddie Van Halen sued for everytime a guitarist used tapping he'd be a billionaire.

this is probably the most true statement i've read in awhile.

Do you know anything of musical copyright? It has nothing to do with techniques, or even chord progressions, it's all about the INTERVALS of a melody.

[.N30C0N.]

Well... If I was getting accused for stealing a satch song for sounding familiar... I would die and go to heaven, I ****in wish to play half as good as the Satch!

[donnishanis]

im taking rock and roll history right now, and from what we learned your allowed to take 3 seconds of a copywrited song, thats it, coldplay took a whole chorus

[Divinity Within]

sorry satch, but you cant take four chords and say "nobody can ever use these again" because you played the most obvious scale over them

[chris1415]

i think they should take all the earnings from the song and give it to charity. that way everyone is happy. and if joe doesnt agree with that hes just a douche

[dannyisokay]

Divinity Within wrote:

sorry satch, but you cant take four chords and say "nobody can ever use these again" because you played the most obvious scale over them

word, very true. and props for protest the hero name.

This melody has been done many times before. Humans are obviously apt to write it, because it's catchy. Go on youtube and searched plagiarized music. You probably won't feel the same way about this case anymore.

[rocking bassist]

chris1415 wrote:

i think they should take all the earnings from the song and give it to charity. that way everyone is happy. and if joe doesnt agree with that hes just a douche

Good call.

[TheAugustSun.]

The chord progression is the same....woo.
I don't like either, but Joe Satriani can shove it up his ass. I think Joe is pissed because his song is selling millions. the chances of making something that sounds similar is very high. Personally I think all of Coldplay's music sounds the same and all of Joe Satriani's music is just beefed up scales with a simple 1-3-5-1 chord progression.

[.N30C0N.]

Regression wrote:

untalented wrote:

I'm not a fan of either and I hate both songs but...
I think that satriani's song must have had some influence on them. Whether it was directly copied or indirect (as in they heard it first and then accidently repeated it years later) is another question. The timing, rhythm, chords, chord changes and melody, timing of the melody etc. are all too similar for it to be a complete accident - although his singing does sound like typical chris martin.
Overall, I think that satriani shouldn't sue on the basis that he is a guitarist and guitarists steal ideas off of each other all the time. It's not as if anyone gets sued for doing copies of beethoven's 5th symphony or evanescence will get sued for butchering mozart's lacrimosa. All satriani should ask for is recognition.

That's because there aren't copyrights on those pieces any more.

(may never have been, I'm not sure when the idea of copyrighting stuff came about)

It is stated that once a piece becomes at a point of age. It is known as traditional music and Copyright infringment is no longer a problem for those who wish to record. Or something like that lol

[nirvana-ejh]

I am siding with Coldplay. Satch is just a douche and he needs to get over himself. Shit happens and Coldplay didn't copy on purpose.

[.N30C0N.]

TheAugustSun. wrote:

The chord progression is the same....woo.
I don't like either, but Joe Satriani can shove it up his ass. I think Joe is pissed because his song is selling millions. the chances of making something that sounds similar is very high. Personally I think all of Coldplay's music sounds the same and all of Joe Satriani's music is just beefed up scales with a simple 1-3-5-1 chord progression.

How about you can just shut the hell up... Joe is probably one of the best guitarists living. When I got to meet joe when he played edmonton. He was the most soft spoken person I have ever met. I was scared of breaking his hand when I shook it! lol So everyone should get the mentality that he is a strict person out of there head. Ten bucks says that it's his label or his management thats fighting. Not him.

[tigerking615]

Go Satch

[[ LiAm ]]

H_ngm_n wrote:

How many of you people watched the video? At the very end they play the two songs over top of each other and it's the same chords, the strings in the coldplay song follow the drums in Satch's and then the vocals in Coldplay follow the guitar melody perfectly. So not only did they "Magically" write a song with the same chords, they just happened to use the same beat and the same melody...Don't think so.

Get 'em Satch.

and i dont know if its edited but big coincedence its the same tempo

[TheAugustSun.]

"When I got to meet joe when he played edmonton." What? I'm sorry he's not that good. He's good, he's overrated though. There are many guitarists who are more innovative and better. He is not one of the best he is playing the same ol' scales of the same ol' chords that have been played by solo guitarists forever.

[STPilots17]

I love this. People jump all over Oasis when they blatantly say they do rip something off and Coldplay does it and people freak out that it's no big deal and they didn't really do it and what not. I don't really care if they did take the song from Satch or not.It's a very catchy melody and they wrote a good tune with it. I wish the world of rock/pop music were more like the classical music genre where stuff like this really doesn't matter to much and it is done as artistic tribute or to portray a story in the song, or something where the first thing an artist thinks is "hey that's mine I demand money for it". If musicians want to be called artist then they must act as such and remember one of their goals is to inspire.

[blindfatkid23]

TheAugustSun. wrote:

"When I got to meet joe when he played edmonton." What? I'm sorry he's not that good. He's good, he's overrated though. There are many guitarists who are more innovative and better. He is not one of the best he is playing the same ol' scales of the same ol' chords that have been played by solo guitarists forever.

there's a lot more to it than "same ol' scales and chords" dude. each one of his songs creates a different musical universe and tells a story without even having lyrics. joe is a genius and his music is awesome. if you can't see that, i think it's pretty sad but that's just your perception. i also think coldplay's response was full of crap.

[T1988G]

crazy ass lawsuits are a blast huh? lol at asking for all of the profits. thats hilarious. so are the fans on both sides of this dumb ass argument. the most that will happen are the two parties settling out of court, and satch not being credited. moreover, somebody is gonna end up looking like a huge douche, and i bet it wont be coldplay. that is not to say that satch is a douche, just that he will most likely be viewed as one.

[TheAugustSun.]

His songs do not open any new "universe". the sound the same. It sounds like any other solo guitarist. Joe is not a genius. He may be a nice guy and he may pretty damn good, but his playing is not innovative and is not different. I do not think that Coldplay are better musicians, but they sure as hell didn't steal the song.

[ibanezplayer147]

untalented wrote:

I'm not a fan of either and I hate both songs but...
I think that satriani's song must have had some influence on them. Whether it was directly copied or indirect (as in they heard it first and then accidently repeated it years later) is another question. The timing, rhythm, chords, chord changes and melody, timing of the melody etc. are all too similar for it to be a complete accident - although his singing does sound like typical chris martin.
Overall, I think that satriani shouldn't sue on the basis that he is a guitarist and guitarists steal ideas off of each other all the time. It's not as if anyone gets sued for doing copies of beethoven's 5th symphony or evanescence will get sued for butchering mozart's lacrimosa. All satriani should ask for is recognition.

thats because there is something that lets you copy dead peoples songs or something, also it isnt plagarism if the give recognition, and i think satch is just gonna get that.

[Machine Gun Cat]

1, Coldplay are beneath contempt and their mainstream alternative garbage isn't worth listening to

2, They ignored at first, very bad conduct

3, STOP FEELING SORRY FOR THEM they're rich and committed plagiarism

[ZeljkoIvanek]

Fuck you Joe Satriani!!!

[chris.ms92]

layzejerze20006 wrote:

Eh, coincedences happen but i think this is just too close.

I'm on your side!

[mrpotter]

ok lets not be biased guys. satch is amazing no dout. and hate to say it, but coldplay are also very good musicians and composers. but there are so many instances of this case it's rediculous. should satch sue coldplay, sure why not? there's much more things that people are getting sued over, like mcdonalds coffee too hot and yada yada...so on and so forth. but as a musician, i find myself playing somethin rockin and then i think to myself, "crap this sounds just like (insert song here)." maybe the heard it, and since it wasnt a real popular satch song, they might not have realized it...do i wish them to get sued, no but i dont think it's fair they get credit which satch wrote and copyrighted before them. even though we all struggle with it, it's hard to not be biased here. but i wish the best of luck to the both of them...agree? disagree? lemme kno P.S. dont knock me for my spelling yo!

[Sdooper_Man]

ZeljkoIvanek wrote:

Fuck you Joe Satriani!!!

Fuck you ZeljkoIvanek

I havn't even listen to the songs but It is totally possible to re-create an already used riff and use it in a song. It's happened time and time again.

I say musicians need to stop being bitches in general. There have been too many cases in the last five or so years that ar just rediculous...

[ILoveGuitar07]

Does anyone have any proof that anyone in coldplay is a satriani fan?

----I believe they stole satches song.
The chances are slim, but it is possible coldplay wrote the song themselves.

Its all odds.

[tarlkea]

Half of the replies to this so far make the user seem borderline mentally retarded. Guys, grow up and stop saying "Fuck coldplay" or "Fuck satch". It's rediculous, moronic and immature.

I believe that Satch deserves some recognition for it from Coldplay, but suing them for any and all profits is overboard.

[Cobalt Blue]

It does seem odd for Coldplay to purposely rip of a Satriani song... but then again ripping off somebody fairly obscure would be the perfect crime. eh who knows, I haven't looked into it, but apparently they're beyond similar.

[mitchrz]

Some people need to wake up. Yes, you can defend Coldplay all you want but these "coincidental" instances are not coincidental at all. All it takes is for one of Coldplay's bandmates to listen to the song ONCE to prove this case had some inspirational effect which resulted in the song in question.

Now, musicians all over the world have heard of Joe Satriani's name before and most certainly the name has crossed paths with popular guitarists in our time. Joe is a legend - plain and simple. It's like Gretzky in the NHL, we all know he played fantastic hockey and probably had a special move he used to do to score all those goals in his career(almost perfect hand eye coordination).

In this case, as guitarists we've heard the name Joe Satriani before, we've probably looked at his special bag of tricks to see what we could learn from it, and certainly we idolize those who posess more skill in an area we want to be good in.

So what does this have to do with this case? It's simple: one of their band members has heard 'If I Could Fly' before. It might of happened while he was listening to his iTunes on shuffle! The point is that even if it occured randomly, the event had occured in the past and MOST LIKELY IT HAS. If I argued this as a lawyer, a jury would have enough common sense (and maybe a small lesson in statistics) to see that it is definitely within reason that such an occurence has happened.

I'm not sure about you guys, but when I create riffs or music I always ask myself if it's something related to what I've heard before and most times it is but just not exactly played or different key, etc. Follow up a good idea with some feedback from the band and BAM you have a song. Include a producer who has a knack for good music and VOILA you have a Joe Satriani lick which was spawned from the legend himself.

To say that Coldplay could not have heard 'If I Could Fly' in the past before creating the song would be complete bullocks. For those who believe this is truly the case: you are blind - wake up. Perhaps get educated some more as well. I don't want to be offensive but these similarities are outstanding and to an ear/mind who knows something about creating music it doesn't take a PhD grad to realize this is the same riff.

To Coldplay: lick nuts.
To Joe: you rock, have fun with this case because you're going to be seeing the most BS thrown at it that you'd never expect. Good luck and I hope you get to rip the lick in the courtroom and blow away everyone's face off!

[Muramasa]

tands wrote:

They both could like Cat Stevens - Love / Heaven so he should sue them both!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXda-RTE_c#t=3m15s


i think it could be coincedence but at the same time chris martin seems like the type of guy who things he can get away with anything, coldplay should return to the rush of blood to the head days IMO

^ this man is right, Cat Stevens should sue both of them. Maybe coldplay should get a hold of this clip and say that Satch stole that progressing. He even copied his name. Cat Stevens, Satch, he just rearranged the letters of his first name,the beginning of his last and added an "H" to try to be original (this whole part is a joke just so you know).

[Rusty2008]

tands wrote:

bearcat25 wrote:

The Drums in Viva La Vida are the same? Have you watched the music video or their live performance?!?!?! The drums consist of a Timpani and Church bell!!!! Pardon me but I don't think Joe Satriani is that creative....

thats not creative at all, when Pink Floyd did 20 years ago it was creative

+1

[2Luke]

plain and simple, satriani is looking for cash. no offense.

[speedylocs]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

i think its called sampling... all electronic music, techo, dance, does this..... yes that nine inch nails also..,

[Potato_Souffle]

Maaaaan, and here I was hoping that Coldplay would just come out and say theirs was a parody of Satriani's, so it would be okay.

[undeadcorpse]

good, i hate cold play

[BlisteringDDj]

Coincidence or not, they say they have great respect for Satriani, but they wouldn't even talk to him a little while ago. That's why Satriani had to go as far as suing them.

[grunger]

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

Are you serious? provide evidence now!

[AXmichigan]

i kinda dont like em both
i respect satriani as a guitarist but think his music sucks
coldplay i dont care much for

i think satriani should just say **** it and steal a coldplay song but not pay them and say he created it

alls fair right

[Sonic Blast]

It doesn't matter who was first outside of this situation. Cat Stevens may have been first, but that is irrevelant to the case at hand. Satriani was before Coldplay. That's what matters here.

[Purple Platypus]

this is a joke. the melody syncs up for maybe a bar...out of the 12 notes we have similar stuff comes up all the time. get over yourselves...

imagine if albert king had sued eric clapton...what kind of world would we live in?

[SOADriff]

im rooting for satch after i heard them both at the same time.. im sorry but that is TOO similar.

[MuddyBuddy]

Well Satriani stole it off me so wheres my money

[luckyshot60]

Purple Platypus wrote:

this is a joke. the melody syncs up for maybe a bar...out of the 12 notes we have similar stuff comes up all the time. get over yourselves...

imagine if albert king had sued eric clapton...what kind of world would we live in?

[Hirvikala]

So many good points posted in here. This is going to be very interesting. When is the court going to be?

[Hirvikala]

BlisteringDDj wrote:

Coincidence or not, they say they have great respect for Satriani, but they wouldn't even talk to him a little while ago. That's why Satriani had to go as far as suing them.

Ye, and not to mention that they have bashed Satriani in this http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1456997/08122002/coldplay.jh tml interview and this http://whyfame.com/gossip/coldplays_alleged_plagiarism_was_a _dagger_through_my_heart_joe_satriani_says_chris_martin_deni es_wrongdoing_8955 , keep in mind that these both interviews took in place before Satriani had given his own interview, so I would say that Coldplay has a very odd image of word "respect".

[The UG Squirrel]

It's a pretty generic melody with a common chord progression, so it's reasonable to believe that it's coincidence.

[The UG Squirrel]

Actually, after listening to the entire song (rather than just the main melody)I reckon Satch has a serious case which he could win.

[ginger ninja102]

if he wins the court case that means kid rock can be sued for all summer long cause thats more stolen from more songs eg sweet home Alabama, werewolfs of London

[mitch311]

Satch is a better musician then all of us. I think he has a better judgement for plagiarism then most of us clueless people

[grunger]

mitch311 wrote:

Satch is a better musician then all of us. I think he has a better judgement for plagiarism then most of us clueless people

second. The melody, time, and keys all fit in perfectly. But their is still that chance of coincidence at the same time.

[true_bacon22]

To coincedental.

[Iliaz]

Yeah, a chance like Jesus pay'd a beggar to do that "crusification-thingy" and (beeing imortal as he is) got a job at coca cola in the late 40's to play Santa Claus 'til 2014.

[rocking bassist]

ginger ninja102 wrote:

if he wins the court case that means kid rock can be sued for all summer long cause thats more stolen from more songs eg sweet home Alabama, werewolfs of London

Kid Rock not only credited the previous performers but he would have to give them parts of the royalties he recieves for "All Summer Long"

[CradleOfAwesom3]

Sandon8 wrote:

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I agree

As do I

[ShootToKill]

CradleOfAwesom3 wrote:

Sandon8 wrote:

GuitarJames wrote:

Although I respect Satriani, I do believe that coincidences happen a lot.
It's like with Wonderwall and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
I seriously don't think someone as popular as Coldplay would rip something like that. They surely have others great ideas for songs and don't NEED to rip a song.

I agree

As do I

Me too. I don't see why Coldplay would need to plagiarize. They're one of the biggest bands in the music industry today, why risk everything for something as dumb as that?

[Caribousunking]

mitch311 wrote:

Satch is a better musician then all of us. I think he has a better judgement for plagiarism then most of us clueless people

How very presumptious of you. In todays climate I simply find it all very amusing that people don't have bigger concerns on their minds. Originality in music is extremely rare. Its all the same format. Everybody is up for plaigarism if you sing in a verse, chorus, verse formula.

Satriani, you didn't invent music. Its a universal art and you can't prove Coldplay stole your music. I'm not a fan of Coldplay but they did acknowledge that the Kate Bush track "running up that hill" was a primary influence in their song "clocks." so if they have intentionally ripped Satriani, They'd probably have nodded some recognition in his direction.

Anyway, to sum up, they're both shit. Its as if 2 people farted and they're fighting over who did it whilst the rest of us cover up from the smell we could have really done without in the first place.

[Caribousunking]

mitch311 wrote:

Satch is a better musician then all of us. I think he has a better judgement for plagiarism then most of us clueless people

How very presumptious of you. In todays climate I simply find it all very amusing that people don't have bigger concerns on their minds. Originality in music is extremely rare. Its all the same format. Everybody is up for plaigarism if you sing in a verse, chorus, verse formula.

Satriani, you didn't invent music. Its a universal art and you can't prove Coldplay stole your music. I'm not a fan of Coldplay but they did acknowledge that the Kate Bush track "running up that hill" was a primary influence in their song "clocks." so if they have intentionally ripped Satriani, They'd probably have nodded some recognition in his direction.

Anyway, to sum up, they're both shit. Its as if 2 people farted and they're fighting over who did it whilst the rest of us cover up from the smell we could have really done without in the first place.

[ginger ninja102]

Pumpkins4Life wrote:

Hip-hop producers have been stealing tons of music lately. Maybe its catching on in rock now. It sounds way too similar to me to be a coincidence. I hope Satch wins.

its been going on for years with movies making and crap

[Masterbeefy]

I think we at Ultimate Guitar should all sign up to be their lawyers. It would lead to an interestign court hearing.

[Xtremer.pt]

Plagiarism or not...
The melodies are the same, and satch create (played, made, whatever) them first...

It's like when you make a paint, a cake, or something else.

Joe Satriani is a musician that no one in coldplay will ever be. Shit happens, but in this case coldplay must move their asses and say sorry...

[punkforlife93]

Iliaz wrote:

Yeah, a chance like Jesus pay'd a beggar to do that "crusification-thingy" and (beeing imortal as he is) got a job at coca cola in the late 40's to play Santa Claus 'til 2014.

...what?

On the other hand, I think Satch is BSing it, anyone could make up that rythym.

[Daleymo]

Coldplay; aside from their musical success; have been a relatively "out-of-the-limelight" kind of band. There is absolutely no reason that they would draw negative attention to themselves. Satch should just quit having a whine and accept that the songs are similar, or that these guys
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

should sue him.

[bass_emagdnim]

Since when does standing on a stage shredding for half an hour solid count as being a musician?

Satriani's an egotistical prick and this just shows off that fact once again.

Like he doesn't have enough money as it is!

Wanker.

[bfchead]

How would you feel if u created the monalisa, and someone took it painted eyebrows on it and called it their own?

[Fender6]

I think the chances are greater for Coldplay to have copied Joe Satriani, or Coldplay could have been influenced by Joe and write the song like that unintentionally. Either way, I think it's good that Joe is suing Coldplay.

[Fender6]

Masterbeefy wrote:

I think we at Ultimate Guitar should all sign up to be their lawyers. It would lead to an interestign court hearing.

I agree!

[The_Metalfreak]

To whoever it was that said "complex" with regards to that melody...um, no.

When you write songs that use four chords and simple melodies you are BOUND to stumble across something that somebody has used before. This happens all the time in music across history, especially with such simple pieces. This is so far from plagiarism its not funny. I really hope this doesn't become a common occurance...if it does music is going to go massively downhill from here. No respect, Satch.

[Pete24v]

phishfan08 wrote:

Who would want to rip off Joe Satriani??? He's so boring. Widdly wah wddly widdly wah = Satriani's carrer.

do better yourself then

[Pete24v]

bass_emagdnim wrote:

Since when does standing on a stage shredding for half an hour solid count as being a musician?

the same can be said about chris martin standing on stage depressing us with his depressing compositions

[Pete24v]

Rubber_Soul wrote:

after giving it another listen, its not even the same rhythm at all

try one more time....

[rocking bassist]

bass_emagdnim wrote:

Since when does standing on a stage shredding for half an hour solid count as being a musician?

Because that is such a solid comment. "This rhythmic pattren is shit because he is playing semi and hemi-semi quavers at an moderate to fast tempo"
Before you rip on shredding you may want to think about what you're actually saying.

[mudswitch]

matosh.lee wrote:

yeah. apparently this happens. it pisses me off too. cause i played this song i made that was the exact same of some other band my singer recognized that i havnt even heard of. pissed me off.

Yeh well thats what happens when all you write is breakdowns..
On topic, the songs do sound very similar. Of course Coldplay are going to defend themselves, who in their right mind would say 'yes we copied Satch's song'?? Satch should get recognised at least..
Oh and btw

bass_emagdnim wrote:

Since when does standing on a stage shredding for half an hour solid count as being a musician?

Satriani's an egotistical prick and this just shows off that fact once again.

Like he doesn't have enough money as it is!

Wanker.

Noob. Satch is one of the best guitarists in the world. How about you actually name a time he has shredded onstage for an hour and a half. His name isnt Michael Angelo

[CoreysMonster]

OMGz they stole like 4 notes from my song, its a ripoff!

joe, get off your high horse, even if they did take 4 notes out of your song, move along and stop making an ass of yourself over nothing. hes turning into ****ing lars ulrich here!

[Rocker3829]

satchs song has a 4731 progression while coldplays has a 6731 progression(form of chord substitution) along with the SAME melody, Coldplay is screwed!

[ViciousKillgasm]

dethead666 wrote:

pero_o wrote:

Are you guys ****ing retarded or willingly ignorant??? People who are saying "yeah well even if its a coincidence the melodies are the same" THE MELODIES ARE NOT THE FUCKING SAME. how about you stop being fanboys for a minute and look at the matter from a completely objective stance?? look at acade365 post for the actual proof of why satriani is pulling this lawsuit from his ass. sorry for sounding so ****ing angry but if one thing makes me mad is ignorance and spouting bullshit that you think is real as fact. and for people saying "both songs suck so i dont care" nobody needs you here, you have not added anything to the debate, you have just proven what a narrow minded dumbass you are.things that piss me off is people who get in a uproar over something they chose to read.

Snap xD

[Emenius Sleepus]

I recall someone saying "even bad publicity is good publicity"...

[oosabaj]

Personally i love coldplay's music, but they do plagarise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZJBd81XOPM ...in this vid they talk about how they attempted to rip off a kate bush song to make speed of sound. that being said, if it's a good song , ill listen to it! and coldplay do make/plagerise good songs!

[henkka_potku]

Gein wrote:

It's really not hard for these types of coincidences to happen in music. Think about it; every song ever written is just a combination of 12 notes (excluding experimental stuff). Not saying they didn't copy Satch, just saying these things can happen.

only 12 notes?

[MetalDog]

Why do people support Coldplay? HAVE YOU SEEN THE END OF THE VIDEO? Even the TEMPO is 100% right! ITS A TOTAL RIP OFF!

[jmetalf]

Teh Skisgaars wrote:

str84ever wrote:

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

He said the song sucks not his playing ability dumbass.

ahh but no, see he said copy SOMEONE that is decent
he is calling satriani crap
and if IcedRth thinks satriani is crap he
doesnt deserve to be a member of UG
there should be a vote to kick thing on forums
cause that douchebag should be banned
satriani gives many millions of guitarists
and musicians inspiration an hope

amen dude the point I was trying to make. Obviously he's an instrumental musician so his music will not be highly accessible to the general public, but getting onto these forums and posting highly opinionated arguments that are bound to piss people off, with no other purpose than to piss people off is an apparent sign of immaturity. Oh well it's not my place to judge other people. My point though is that Satriani is a legend and even though we may not like the music that he makes we should at least respect his music and the copyrights to his music, because without him many of the guitarists in the bands that we do like would most likely be different musicians than they are now. I'm not saying that without him rock or metal wouldn't exist... obviously not that falls to zep and the beatles, but he has definitely had an impact on guitarists and that is indeniable.

[Onetonkilla]

for one coldplay is a horrid band, two any guitar player who has played for any period of time has heard/listens to joe satriani. Satch isn't one to sue for personal gain, he guinuinly cares about music. Coldplay on the other hand is a pop band who by nature are only going to be around as long as society likes one of there songs, so they have to cash in as much as they can. But not so mainstream but infinately better satrinani will be around as long as he damn well pleases!

[brentondig]

I think it could be a coincidence, but it's funny cause they would never admit to plagiarism if there was any, probably because of how successful the song "Viva La Vida" became.

[Slicer666]

bigshoes= wrote:

whil i agree there is a case for this, i donmt think Coldplay did intentioanlly steal the song. and being that Viva La Vida was the biggest song of 08 i sense sour grapes here

+1

[Andy2k64]

Jimmy5790 wrote:

Andy2k64 wrote:

lank81 wrote:

Here is another instance of Cat Stevens using this progression on the Piano - this is in the 70s mind you so maybe Cat should sue Joe and Coldplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08W9O60g44. Check it out after 3:10. Oh, or maybe someone stole it from these Argentinians. http://www.youtube.com/v/G57CgtX-BsI&hl=en&fs=1 - Man that sounds a lot like If I could fly or maybe it was Viva la Vida...hell I don't know. Screw you Satch!

Its the melody too not just the chord prog. Chord progressions can easily be coincidentally copied but melody can't that easily. sorry dude

I disagree yeah Joe can make a case about the melody, but i mean really anybody could have came up with that Chris Martin did it with his voice Satch did it with a guitar,now it could be one of those sub-conscience things, i mean when i first leanred an E and an A chord i thought i wrote like twelve songs right off the bat but they all turned out to be ACDC songs.In that case though he shouldn't be sueing for any and all profits but maybe songwriting credits and some royalties.Why do i keep defending Coldplay?I better quit before i grow a vagina.Before anyone say's anything i'm not saying that because of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Coldplay are just a femenine band.

tbh i know what ya mean. ive done it a few times with chords etc. i just think this argument will really divide ppl.

[TWISTEDFender]

This is getting ridiculous. Is there nothing better happening in the music world that UG could report?

[Skreet_skater]

yeah I don't like coldplay....not my kinda stuff.

[Mechanixx]

its not even that their that similar, beyond the "I used to rule the world" part. Which is only a little lick. Hardly likely that it was stealing.

Joe Satriani sounds like hes being a moneygrabbing douche. For some real theft look at timbaland arab music on youtube.

[jcthomasva]

Actually, it sounds like Satriani tried to resolve the issue outside of the courts, Coldplay and their lawyers rebuffed, and now he's taking their asses to court. Satriani in his interviews has said there was an opportunity for both parties to discuss the matter civilly.

Artists borrow from one another all the time, that's a given. But sometimes artists might feel they have been borrowed from just a bit too much. I think Satch has got a pretty good case.

[kunkushin]

I hate Coldplay, droning dull pop that does nothing for me. Satriani is a legend, but I cant support a lawsuit over it. In the 1950's, what if people started suing over common blues progressions in the key of A between x and x b.p.m.... music evolves and unless you throw all collective knowledge of it out the window, anything you make is bound to sound like something that has existed. Nowadays we have computers and mp3's and information exchange rates that help us realize how many songs sound alike... the underlying question, do we really think someone would not buy a Satriani album because the new Coldplay song satisfies their desire for that melody??? NO, different genres different vibes different demographic. well thats my opinion.

[damskippy]

Everything has been done already. Pretty convincing stuff though.

[Nightfyre]

I don't think it would have been nearly as much of an issue if Coldplay had actually responded to Satch when he first contacted them about it... they gave him no choice, and now they're just trying to cover their asses. I've heard the two songs, the harmonic progression being the same isn't grounds to sue but the fact that the vocal melody is a direct ripoff of Satch's melody is. This is as open-and-shut a case as Ice Ice Baby and Under Pressure.

[Rockyosoxoff]

Good luck to Coldplay! Sorry Joe, but I disagree.

[shreddymurphy]

Same chord progression could be coincedence, same melody could be coincedence, same tempo could be coincedence. But add all three together.... Hmm...

[E-dogg66]

Satriani's Version is way better even though they both suck if I had to listen to one it would be that one!!!!! And I Think They totally Ripped him Off I bet in there band Practice they accually said "we'll I'll sing the guitar melody and no one will ever know"

[lethaldosage45]

Yeah. Seems Joe is being a baby. No one cares for his instrumental music compared the success of Coldplay... hes just looking for some extra dough. IF joe was a cool guy, he would offer to collaborate! cos the two together are wicked

[Jau_Peacecraft]

lethaldosage45 wrote:

Yeah. Seems Joe is being a baby. No one cares for his instrumental music compared the success of Coldplay... hes just looking for some extra dough. IF joe was a cool guy, he would offer to collaborate! cos the two together are wicked

You can expect a mashup to appear at some point due to all of this press. Then maybe Joe will bitch at the one guy who got a good idea & made something constructive out joe's whining, & joe will finally get the sum of the 10,000 dollars the guy who made the mashup was saving up for college.

THE END.

[zian615]

Fuck Coldplay for making bad music and **** Satriani for being a douche. Music inherently will sound similar occasionally; artists should deal with it IMO.

[judgedeath2]

still waiting for nickelback to sue themselves for plagiarism....

[gitarzero89]

I don't really buy this. It's like what happened a few years ago with "Dani California" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance." There's only so many melodies that sound good and with all the songs that are written there's a good chance of the same path being walked twice. And anyway I don't think Coldplay would be into Joe Satriani. It's a bit out there for them.
-
Also, let me throw something in:
Just because some boob on a message board says that Coldplay's guitarist is a "MASSIVE satch fan!!!" doesn't mean its actually true, so stop trusting it until you see actual evidence. I've seen like three posts in reading the first 1/4 of the comments saying something along the lines of "Well, we've established that Coldplay's guitarist likes Satch." Until someone puts up some definitive proof then i'm not going to trust a post from someone who is most likely just a teenage Satriani fan.

[padgea7x]

Nick_porter333 wrote:

Did i miss Metallica sueing Trivium over 'The Crusade'...?

I dont know did you?

[b_flo]

I think I heard this on some porn flick....c'mon, how many songs are there that have the combo of E,A and D. It's bound to happen...and for all guitarists out there, if they heard that progression, what kind of improv would you play over the top of that? Satriani is in my Top 10 as far as guitar greats. Some of Coldplay's songs are good. It's like Satriani making a cameo at a Coldplay concert, inserting a guitar solo in the middle of Viva La Vida. I think this publicity has already helped Satriani's track become popular.

[DELTA-MALE]

I think theres a medical explanation for this.Whoever came up with the lyrics and melody for Viva la Vida mustve heared satrianis If I Could Fly, and forgotten it.But when he wrote the song, it came from his subconcious, and he never even thought bout the possibility of it being a copy.Im a big Coldplay fan, and this is the first time ever i heared Joe..But i still think Satriani has a right to SOME of the profits to the song.Its sad and perhaps a bit unfair towards Coldplay, but thats business?

[DELTA-MALE]

Just want to add this..Why would a band as big as Coldplay deliberatly copy someone as big as Satriani? Its suicide.They both obviously have massive fan basses, and someone would be bound to hear a distinct coincidence like this.I hope that this can be sorted out a.s.a.p (with the best possible outcome for both parties),so that they can all go back to making great music.

[yarzo]

I'm not a fan of either, but I chalk it up to coincidence. They sound similar, but wouldn't say they are identical. You can't copyright a chord progression, and the melody is similar, but again not identical. Don't you need 8 consecutive notes or something? I'll be surprised if it goes in Satch's favor?

[Machine Gun Cat]

Imagine if they tried to rip "Surfing with teh Alien"
*string quertet synth plays rocky bluesy rhythm*
*singer somes in and sings " woah woaah woaw wow woaaaow "

[ham-of-god]

well i dont kare if they did rip him off or not viva has a harmonic pattern that is curently under copywrite protection by satch and crew therefore satch has a case and is within his writes to take legal action if viva just had one note a lil flat or sharp from satches than they could get off on technicality but they harmize when played together so they evidence stacks heavily in satches favore its not about ripping off its about a harmonic pattern that has been copywrited

[JTAman]

Coincidence. Thats all this is. Coldplay had came up with a killer song, and Joe had decided since they're making so much money off it, to claim that a small riff he did was actually their entire song. Just let it go. There is no point in fighting about it.

[praystation2]

Why this guys can´t do a music by themselves? they have to copy from big artists? it´s like red hot chili peppers. Listen to All Around the World! It´s an obvious copy from breadfan - Budgie (cover by metallica). I hate plagiarism. I support satriani! it´s one of the biggest guitar players ever!

[The_Fuzz22]

jmetalf wrote:

IcedRth wrote:

both songs should just be banned for sucking. copy someone that is decent for christs sake.

Wow... if Satriani sucks at guitar then the rest of us should just quit... in fact 99.9% of guitarists in the world should just quit because none of us will ever match his knowledge and technique. by the way, the ultimate sign of ignorance is claiming that something is bad just because you don't like it. the end.

+1

[omarisun17]

donnishanis wrote:

well i believe in coincidences, but the chorus was the same exact note pattern as joes guitar lick, thats no coincidence

you do realize that the portion that is the same isn't a chorus in coldplay's song right? that melody is all verse. the chorus is completely different.

also...satch cannot claim the whole song is his. he can ask for a portion of royalties...maybe but not for the whole song. besides enanitos has a song that's very similar tooooo. that's all i got.

[29guitarman]

wel done coldplay doin what they should do and thats takin it to the public. i think its true it is truely coincidental and it should all be dropped and left, its bound to hapen with music, many songs have the same chord structure and song structure.
its goin to happen!
Coldplay Rule!

[Loco23]

Completely agree 29guitarman
Its pure coincidence I very strongly doubt that Coldplay actually sat down and took parts of the song out i mean its just a coincidence and i think Joe is a scab trying to get money by whatever means

[donnishanis]

dannyisokay wrote:

Seems like Satch's fans are very biased. This band wrote this song at least 2 years before Satch wrote his. I know it's been posted, but it seems like evidence the Satch fans won't just listen to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

a re you kidding? viva la vida came out this year, 2008, and if im not mistaken satch wrote if i could fly in 2004 or so

[Red Exodus]

There's a video about how the chord structure is similar but not exactly the same. If you ask me, Joe is just looking to get even because the song is popular. If the song was unpopular he probably wouldn't give a damn.

[oiiopo]

I guess Satch might be right, but what's the reason to sue Coldplay for all the profits Viva la Vida made, if Coldplay never released Viva la Vida, I doubt satch would have made all the money that Viva la Vida made, there's no terrible damages, there's no need for that kind of crippling sueing.

[andrewdewitt]

Satriani's song is nothing but instumentation and of course coldplay is a radio song with lyrics music and all the rest. Sure they sound somewhat similiar but the fact that coldplay sings in their songs totally voids out all acts of plagerism. Unless I am mistake if you change one lyric of a song(note or whatever) then it is not plagerism. Besides who cares if coldplay gets sued then we might as well knock out almost every hip-hop artist and get this country out off debt. Basically forget about satrianni close but no cigar.

[yellowshirtguy]

andrewdewitt wrote:

Satriani's song is nothing but instumentation and of course coldplay is a radio song with lyrics music and all the rest. Sure they sound somewhat similiar but the fact that coldplay sings in their songs totally voids out all acts of plagerism. Unless I am mistake if you change one lyric of a song(note or whatever) then it is not plagerism. Besides who cares if coldplay gets sued then we might as well knock out almost every hip-hop artist and get this country out off debt. Basically forget about satrianni close but no cigar.

You are indeed mistaken.

[Cyborg Slunk]

Take a good listen to both of them being played at the same time. The chords in the back are exactly the same, at virtually the same tempo. It's not right. It really isn't. But if they are telling the truth and it's a coincedence, then it's a damn good one.. Because it sounds the same. Only difference: Words, and guitar improvisation.