Guitar Legend Joe Satriani : Coldplay Plagiarism Was "Like A Dagger Through My Heart"
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Artist:
Guitar legend Joe Satriani has broken his silence for the first time after it was announced he is suing Coldplay for plagiarism.
The guitarist claims the British band copied elements of his 2004 song 'If I Could Fly' for their 2008 track 'Viva La Vida', which was recently nominated for a Grammy as "Record Of The Year".
However, speaking for the first time about the case, the guitarist insists he did not want his claims to come to court, but that Coldplay ignored him.
"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," he told Musicradar.com.
I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But Coldplay 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."
Satriani said he recognized his work in Coldplay's single the moment he first heard the song.
"I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," he said. "The second I heard it, I knew it was 'If I Could Fly'.
"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.' 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 respond to the guitarist's allegations.
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Comments (7)
i want to hear what Chris martin has to say. Their camp ios taking a while to respond publiccally, which is making me think they are just going to keep quiet indefinitely. or will maybe did in fact copy the tune and are thinking of a good way to admit it.
I think I know what Chris Martin would say,
"I am honestly shocked. We had no intention of ripping off Mr. Satriani. Since the inception of Cold Play we have always been focused on becoming the closest thing to a poor man's Radiohead. That is, of course, when we aren't writing music to sound like a rich man's Maroon 5."
"I am honestly shocked. We had no intention of ripping off Mr. Satriani. Since the inception of Cold Play we have always been focused on becoming the closest thing to a poor man's Radiohead. That is, of course, when we aren't writing music to sound like a rich man's Maroon 5."
Well played, sir.
I do what I can
When you listen to these songs they are VERY similar. I don't belive that they necessarily sat down and tried to copy it but once someone pointed it it's the SAME SONG, I think they should have said something like "oh, well we like Joe. I'm sure some of his music made it's way into this album."
It doesn't sound like Joe wants more than acknowledgement and manybe a couple of points against sales. Who knows...
Joe's tune and listen to the guitar melody that starts around :50 sec:
Coldplay - listen to the vocal melody (and remember that Joe's guitar IS his voice:
What do you think??
Too close for me....
I'll tell you what I think. I think it sounds like New Order should be suing these guys too.
Oh come on… BOTH of these songs are SO simplistic and common. There's no plagiarism going on here. And that's what this is about; PLAGIARISM, not to be confused with COINCIDENTAL SIMILARITY.
Coldplay is one of the hottest bands on the planet. Do you they ---with the proven ability to crank out hit after hit--- had to plunder the catalog of a relatively obscure instrumentalist to come up with that trite melody?
These occurrences are more common when the music involved is more simplistic, which I think BOTH of these tunes are. When the music is more striking, it's far less likely to be tied to a previous work. I don't think anyone HAD to hear another piece of music to come up with this tune. It's just so basic. (And to insinuate that the DRUMS ---a ubiquitous 2-4 pattern--- and the extremely common two chord pattern were lifted is just plain ridiculous.)
Sorry, Satch…