As previously reported, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani revealed that he is planning to sue the band Coldplay on charges of plagiarism. Satriani claims that Coldplay’s song "Viva La Vida" sounds a bit too much like his own song "If I Could Fly". You can be the judge and hear the two songs, back to back, here.
In exclusive
Musicradar.com interview conducted by
Joe Bosso, the guitarist claims that taking the band to court was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was tired of being ignored.
"Everybody assumes I'm trying to go after these guys in Coldplay, as if I'm doing this with malice, that's the furthest thing from my mind. I'm just doing what I need to do as an artist, to protect what's mine, to protect those feelings I put down in song," Satriani says.
He added, "I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But oldplay didn't want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don't know. But we're talking about a piece of art that I created, and that's something I feel is important. I think everybody should feel that way."
According to Satriani, there were never any doubts in his mind that "Viva La Vida" had taken elements from his own song. "I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much. The second I heard it, I knew it was ‘If I Could Fly’," he says. Satriani isn’t the only one who hears a similarity; he says his fans do to. "Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, ‘Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off man,’" he says. "I mean, I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I received. Everybody noticed the similarities between the songs. It's pretty obvious."
Coldplay have yet to release a statement regarding Satriani’s lawsuit but this isn’t the first time the band has been accused of plagiarism. Earlier this year the lead singer of The Creaky Boards accused the band of stealing "Viva La Vida" from one of their own songs, ironically titled "The Songs I Didn’t Write". The case fell through when The Creaky Boards couldn’t offer sufficient evidence that proved their accusations.
Report by David Lowe-Bianco.
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