Coldplay Sued Again: Unknown Singer Claims Band Stole Songs

Coldplay have weathered copyright infringement claims over the past two years, when Joe Satriani, Cat Stevens and an obscure indie band all claimed authorship of "Viva la Vida." Now, Chris Martin and Co. are facing their most preposterous lawsuit yet, via a man named Sammie Lee Smith who claims the band ripped off his music for their hits "Clocks," "Trouble" and "Yellow," according to TMZ. In the lawsuit, Smith claims that since 1976, he's recorded roughly 4,000 songs on 100 tapes, and three selections from these private sessions wound up on Coldplay albums. Smith is asking the group to stop performing those songs, plus requesting some monetary compensation, of course.

Go backstage with Coldplay on their Viva la Vida tour.

We were able to suspend our disbelief when it came to the Satriani lawsuit because, however unlikely it was that Coldplay actually heard Satriani's "If I Could Fly" before penning "Viva La Vida," it still was marginally conceivable. When the Brooklyn indie band Creaky Boards alleged that Coldplay ripped off their song "The Songs I Didn't Write" for "Viva" after Chris Martin supposedly saw the band in concert, it was similarly unlikely but minutely possible. But Smith is alleging that Coldplay stole songs off cassette tapes that the band couldn't have heard. We're no lawyers but we're going to chalk this up to a "well-talented but unknown" Smith just trying to direct some attention his way after 35 years of recording.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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