- Jun 1, 2008
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According to the BBC:
Grammy nominees Coldplay have been sued by rock guitarist Joe Satriani, who claims the band's song Viva La Vida uses one of his riffs. In court papers filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, he said the song used "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly.
The vocal line of the chorus of Coldplay's Viva La Vida does appear to follow one of the riffs from Satriani's If I Could Fly watch the video above to hear the case rather convincingly presented. (Let's forgive the poor punctuation.)
But before we fly off to wild conclusions (especially those of us seeking new reasons to dislike Coldplay) it should be said that it's surprisingly easy to unconsciously steal melody ideas. It's called cryptomnesia and it's happened before.
k.d. lang successfully got a retroactive song credit from the The Rolling Stones for probably accidentally recycling the hook from lang's 1992 hit Constant Craving in their 1997 single Anybody Seen My Baby. George Harrison was found to have unintentionally ripped off The Chiffons' He's So Fine with his 1970 track My Sweet Lord, marking the only known instance of a girl group pop number forming the basis of a hymn to the Hindu deity Krishna. Finally, Paul McCartney sat on Yesterday, one of the biggest pop songs ever, for a month while he tried to figure out whether he'd unconsciously stolen it. (He hadn't.)
And if you're wondering who Joe Satriani is, he's a technical genius well known to professional guitarists even if not a star to everyone else the sort of figure Fellini is to film directors. Coldplay axeman Jonny Buckland is likely to have at least a passive familiarity with his work.
Update: The Satriani-Coldplay affair has unearthed a 1980s single by Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane fame. Called Hearts, some believe it sounds like Viva La Vida and If I Could Fly. Watch and listen below.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/12/07/216213.aspx
Grammy nominees Coldplay have been sued by rock guitarist Joe Satriani, who claims the band's song Viva La Vida uses one of his riffs. In court papers filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, he said the song used "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly.
The vocal line of the chorus of Coldplay's Viva La Vida does appear to follow one of the riffs from Satriani's If I Could Fly watch the video above to hear the case rather convincingly presented. (Let's forgive the poor punctuation.)
But before we fly off to wild conclusions (especially those of us seeking new reasons to dislike Coldplay) it should be said that it's surprisingly easy to unconsciously steal melody ideas. It's called cryptomnesia and it's happened before.
k.d. lang successfully got a retroactive song credit from the The Rolling Stones for probably accidentally recycling the hook from lang's 1992 hit Constant Craving in their 1997 single Anybody Seen My Baby. George Harrison was found to have unintentionally ripped off The Chiffons' He's So Fine with his 1970 track My Sweet Lord, marking the only known instance of a girl group pop number forming the basis of a hymn to the Hindu deity Krishna. Finally, Paul McCartney sat on Yesterday, one of the biggest pop songs ever, for a month while he tried to figure out whether he'd unconsciously stolen it. (He hadn't.)
And if you're wondering who Joe Satriani is, he's a technical genius well known to professional guitarists even if not a star to everyone else the sort of figure Fellini is to film directors. Coldplay axeman Jonny Buckland is likely to have at least a passive familiarity with his work.
Update: The Satriani-Coldplay affair has unearthed a 1980s single by Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane fame. Called Hearts, some believe it sounds like Viva La Vida and If I Could Fly. Watch and listen below.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/12/07/216213.aspx
