All that video shows is that the two songs sound alike - wow, my ears told me that alot quicker than that video. I’d rather listen to Satch than Coldplay but he is kidding himself if he thinks that progression and melody are uniquely his. They’re not and 5 minutes on UTube shows this. There have been a number of songs over the years using the same chords and melody. Its not rocket science - Satch is being an egotistical tosser. Its all ego and greed.

There is a video on YouTube that I would suggest many of you check out about this by Creative Guitar Studios. He explains the theory against it and makes a very good case for Joe Satriani.

Anyways I find it funny how many I see saying the songs are in different keys as a back for Coldplay. Anyone who knows music knows just how common it is for a song to be transposed to a different key for many different reasons. It may be being played on a different insturment that makes playing it in say B flat easier than say C since it was originally composed on a Piano. Or perhaps the singers range doesn’t fit into the key that it was originally written.

I’m a Satriani fan, not a Coldplay fan. Why because the guys an incredible musician, and a true virtuoso of music. Does he need to money from this case, I doubt it, might he be just going for money perhaps, who knows I guess he does. I don’t think he deserves 100% of the profits, but there are some very striking similarities, and if Coldplay have an ounce of integrity they’d settle with him before this goes on for way too long.

My two cents

Being that music is so packed full of competitors, the chance that there are similarities becomes ever more present, the more music is put out. Its simple probability. On a personal note, Satriani is being a baby. Maybe his spotlight being dampened over the years has hurt his ego but he needs to get over himself and move on.

Hi everyone. For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
I am from Palestinian and also now teach English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: “If it isn and you have to move on, take time to be thankful for all the good you received from this person.”

Best regards , Dianne.

It’s true that alot of music gets “accidentally” copied or influenced by other music…I’d say the problem here is that they (coldplay, warmplay, whatever they wanna be called), outta RESPECT should have 1: responded so they could handle it in a private matter, and 2: should’ve acknowledged the similarities; and gave a nod to joe s….Sure I don’t believe coldplay intentionally did it…But how could they have not openly acknowledge it in the first place?? I don’t think Joe wants money either…Morons, he has enough….

All, both band are amazing in what they do. Yes it may be that Cold Play wrote the words and deserves that but that’s about it. When got to court and you have theory put in place then things don’t look good for Cold Play. It is what it is you can’t argue with theory even if it’s not intentional. Your teacher in school would have hacked your paper to death is you made something tooo tooo close to another article. So it’s the same with music just a bum deal. Again both wonderful musician but it you where in Joe Satriani’s position just stop and ask what would I do. Bet all of you would go after whomever stole you song.

Put the music on paper and let the results speak for themselves. I think Cold Play is way too talented to rip of Joe (and I’m a big fan of both). Let the corts decide, but in my humble opionion and I have a degree in Law, no way joe has a chance. PS. if you listen to Cold Play, you’re not gay! Sick of RAP and Britney Spears maybe, but not gay.

Satriani stole the riff from Enanitos Verdes, an Argentine rock band. Listen to Frances Limon.

This is not plagarism. Many, many songs have similar chord structures, progressions, melodies. Joe is desperate and clearly reaching.

I just wanted to say, from an artist’s perspective, Cold Play is a bunch of talentless rip-off artists. “If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental”, is a butt load of crap. I am ashamed that they come from the same country as I. If you want a real band check out Infant Sorrow. Cold Play does not deserve any grammys. Chris Martin should stick to sucking his wife and naming their children crazy names, not ripping off great musicians such as Joe Satriani.

I really love when people feel like they need to have opinions on things they don’t understand. Those saying Joe Satriani’s days are over, the 80’s are long gone. You f**cking morons, the guy tours constantly and fills his shows like you wouldn’t believe - I’ve been to many of them, so trust me. If you’re ragging on Joe, then you most likely wouldn’t recognize substance if it bit you in the ass, so continue living in your shallow little worlds thinking that you understand everything that goes on around you. It’s a healthy way to be.

First: On the notion that Coldplay is unfamiliar with Satriani, their guitarist (Johnny Buckland) needs to take a lesson from Satch….any guitarist will tell you only good things about Satriani’s musical talent….

This conversation piqued my interest, mainly because I’m trying to keep up to date on the Satch-CP case altogether. While I am a huge Satch fan from appreciating the guitar in my own free time as a 22-y.o. student, I also enjoy many of Coldplay’s albums/songs, namely the earlier ones. However, until hearing about the suit, I never noticed a similarity b/w the two songs in question. After comparing the two, it is evident that CPs is very similar to Satch’s lead in ‘If I Could fly.’ Did Coldplay knowingly copy it? Who knows…I doubt it though. But, when you cheat in school, if you happen to write the same thing as another classmate by coincidence, you’re punished for it (poor example, but you get the point).

As far as Satriani being ‘jealous’ and wanting his song to achieve the popularity of Viva la Vida, that too is unlikely. Satriani is a guitar virtuoso, but primarily a guitar TEACHER at heart. He creates very technical, beautiful, face-melting works of art and its all for the appreciation of those who KNOW good music. He can compose very intricate songs that to someone who knows music (not just likes it) realizes they are very impressive and a difficult feat. Any guitarist (Even Coldlplay’s Buckland) knows that Satriani has his fame, and plenty of money from endorsments from huge music companies such as Peavey (subsidiary of Fender Guitars) and Ibanez Guitars. Satch just wants recognition that his tune was around first (and that these no-talent a55 clowns shouldn’t get acclaim for it). In short, it makes no sense to say he’s gold digging.

Bottom line: Quality of Music (Satriani) versus
Quantity of Fans (Coldplay)…there are more fan voices for Coldplay, yet musically (which is what this IS about) I speak for all musicians and say Satriani gets the credit. Thanks for letting me get my 200 cents in.

“You know how I know you’re gay? You listen to Coldplay.”

Joe Satriani has a huge list of songs that are truly original. It is ‘quite’ coincidental that Cold Play’s song matches so closely to that progression. In my opinion, they should settle, but I don’t think Satriani deserves 100% royalties. If you think about music theory, it all stems from similiar roots, whether classical, jazz or blues. Statistically, it it becomes more probable over time to arrange the same set of notes as someone else when songwriting.

Just as with ‘patents’, I believe the original creator should get some royalties, but in this case not 100%.

just joking, i´m bored

Rolling Stone stole Rolling Stones, yeah! ?

the songs don’t even sound alike. when they play them both at the same time, it sounds like they do but if they are played separately, they don’t. coldplay’s songs are better by a longshot. they shouldn’t get sued

Copycats

Hello, I Love You (Doors)
All Day & All of the Night(Kinks)

Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr.)
I Want a New Drug (Huey Lewis)

Last Night (Strokes)
American Girl (Tom Petty)

I believe that Ray Parker Jr. won or settled a suit vs. Huey Lewis.

Coldplay’s entire 3:30 song is built off of a 12 second hook from the Joe Satriani song. Therefore, Joe should get about 1/15th of the profits from the song. NOT! throw it out.

It’s similar but I don’t like either song. This happened because it’s hard to be original in rock music today. I could make a huge list of similar sounding rock songs. For example check out the Beatles “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” compared to the Offspring’s “Why don’t you get a job?”…that should be a law suit. On the other hand, most blues songs, along with many other genre’s, are pretty similar chord progressions and you don’t see blues artists filing law suits. That’s because blues has aged really gracefully and rock has aged pretty roughly. Rock artists filing charges against other rock artists just highlights the suffering state that rock music has been in for a while.

Satriani is a Burnout!

Greatly respect both bands and own both of these albums; I don’t think Satch can win.
No doubt, the melodies are similar, but they’re not identical, they’re in different keys and let’s face it, it’s just not that original.
If you copied, say, the baker street sax riff, ok i’ll pay that.

I do think, however, Coldplay should’ve dealt with Satch privately like he tried to in the first place, then they wouldn’t have a law suit on their hands.

Who are Coldplay?

The idea that anyone in Coldplay would actually listen to Joe Satriani in the first place is hard enough to believe. But that they actually heard one small segment of a very long boring, guitar-wanking song, and then thought “Ah that’s our next hit!” is beyond ridiculous.
Melodies and chord structures are far older than modern pop. Musicians have similar, coincidental ideas. Why isn’t Satch suing that New York band that also uses a similar melody/chord pattern? Gimme a break maaan!

The idea that anyone in Coldplay would actually listen to Joe Satriani in the first place is hard enough to believe. But that they actually heard one small segment of a very long boring, guitar-wanking song, and then thought “Ah that’s our next hit!” is beyond ridiculous.
Melodies and chord structures are far older than modern pop. Musicians have similar, coincidental ideas. Why isn’t Satch suing that New York band that also uses a similar melody/chord pattern? Gimme a break maaan!

The guitar melody and the vocal melody are close to identical also same key. The only thing one can really copyright in a song writing sense IS the melody and lyrics if applicable. Does not matter if the rest of arrangement is similar, he may have a case here but it MAY be an unintentional infringement since the melody is close to identical.

musicwinternoncom

“He obviously wants the attention since no one really likes him anymore”
Statements like that really demonstrate how un-knowledgeable you are… Listening to your music how you couldn’t tell talent if it seat in your lap!

Yeah, K, it’s a good thing that their DIRECT lifting of Lennon’s “Imagine” for “Don’t Look Back in Anger”’s intro is viewed by limey d-bags as a loving tribute and not a ripoff. Right?

To some detractor comments. My point is that the melody from Satriani is in the solo, not really in the chord progression. You cannot trademark a jazz solo just like you cannot trademark a guitar solo. I am sure that some of you really like Satriani, perhaps I was a bit to negative. However, he has benefited tremendously from this. My problem is the “any and all profits” sentence. He could sue for 5% or something? Think about it. He obviously wants the attention since no one really likes him anymore, save some left overs from years past. I applaud his talent, just not a fan of his song writing.

bluesman56, bassists have been detuning down to D many years before Creed ever did. Just off the top of my head, I can recall Pink Floyd doing it on Relics. That was 1970ish.

Wow….sounds the same.

At least it’s not my beloved Oasis being picked on!

Wow….sounds the same.

At least it’s not my beloved Oasis being picked on!

I like coldplay, but they did steal that song, even if unintentionally, which as a song writer I can say that does happen. Their responce is funny enough that it sounds like they didn’t even check how close the songs are, and don’t care to either

Good god this is ridiculous. I’m a musician myself, do you know how many times I’ve written a song and then realized that it sounds a lot like some famous band’s tune? It’s purely accidental. That’s because there is no new chord progressions people, everything’s already been done before. Still, there is no way JS can win. If he does, there are a MILLION other bands who deserve to win this sort of lawsuit, not Satch. And for the record, if Coldplay really stole JS’s song, they would have acknowledged it, considering they did so on X&Y (something by Kraftwerk I believe).
Jesus, do artists really need to be constantly looking over their shoulder now everytime they write a song because they might accidently provoke a lawsuit? Give me a break. This reeks of PR bullshit. Shame on you Satch.

Satriani has a point!!! He doesn’t need money or publicity, he´s a remarkable musician and he´s been a influence for a lot a guitar players over the last 15 years. He is in a different league beyond Coldplay… The similarites are too obvius !!! Go ahead Satriani, i hope you win…

Last year after hearing all the hype about these guys I tried to listening to one of their live concerts online. I couldn’t do it. I kept skipping ahead for something good, unfortunately I never found it. All I remember was that it was extremely boring. It all sounded the same and none of the songs has any cool guitar, or anything cool at all for that matter.

The only value to the concert was that in the 15 minutes it took me to speed though it I discovered that I will never need to waste another minute listening to them ever again. They bite.

Okay here is what Joe Satriani is really trying to say on a psychological and emotional level: “Boo hoo hoo, somebody please notice me… boo hoo, I need my name in the mags again and I’m running out of cash.. boo hoo hoo. Maybe I should accuse Coldplay of stealing my melody.. boo hoo *sniff* *sniff*. “

These guys are complete frauds. Coldplay is the biggest hype in years. All moaning, droning, crappy songs, idiot lyrics and no real depth. Chris Martin is so desperate to be Bono and yet he couldn’t hold Bono’s toilet paper. The big surprise in the whole Satriani accusation is when U2 will join on too, because I think they really have a case. However, Martin couldn’t hold a note like the B-Man if his life depended on it. Well got to go my French Revolution outfit needs to go into the dryer.

Obviously Coldplay has not heard the original song, because they state “Joe Satriani is a great musician”

Joe may not by a household name to the causal fan, but isn’t hurting for cash. Not only is he a much in demand studio musician (who has recorded and toured with the likes of Mick Jagger) but he usually does a summer tour with other guitar players that fills up medium sized halls, has endorsement deals with Ibanez guitars, Peavey Amps, Planet Waves accessories and Vox electronics and his records are consistent sellers. At least as much or more then Britany’s blackout CD.

And I’m sure if the former guitar teacher really needed the money; he could phone up one of his former students (take your pick: Kirk Hammett (Metallica), David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind), Larry LaLonde (Primus,), Alex Skolnick (Testament),) and get a check.

Even though are no words there is no denying that the chords structure, melody and even the key is the same. (You’d figure if someone in the Coldplay camp really knew, they would have at least tried to get them to change the key.)

So while it’s been 20 years since he’s been the flavor of the month, Satriani as well as the suit is about musical integrity. Something a lot of us sick of seeing Ms. Spears on the cover for her 6th comeback try wish Rolling Stone would get back to.

crappy band, crappy songs, crappy crappy crappy. these guys are,,,,stupid.

Listen to the actual songs not that stupid youtube clip. There’s just not enough there to sue someone over - it’s ridiculous. The melody just isn’t that complex to begin with; it’s good and memorable, but not so unique that someone else couldn’t have come up with it.

The timing of this guy’s suit it suspicious too, right before the Grammy’s for the most possible attention. Give me a break. If this guy was so concerned where was this rage the day after the song came out? He’s just getting a mountain of free PR, which is exactly what he wanted if he didn’t get any money. Win-win for him, but it’s still a joke and he looks like he’s pandering for money/attention to me.

There’s a really funny series on Youtube called Metal That Sounds Like Other Metal. They play a clip from one song, and then a clip from a later song (or songs) that sound similar and sometimes identical to the original. Some if it will make your draw drop but most of it is just hilarious.

Many great musicians readily acknowledge that they either lift or “nick” things they like from other artists - the difference to me is whether they use an idea as an inspiration for a new song or just try to reproduce the original song and call it their own.

Either way, y’all should search for the Metal that Sounds Like… on the tube it will definitely give you a good laugh.

Coldplay is a great band.

But other than monetary reasons,
I can’t imagine why anyone would
want to take credit for writing that
piece of crap of-a song.

“hi, I wrote viva la vida.”
(kick to the face)

I like the way they say, “unfortunately we have to respond publicly…”

The reason these tools have to now respond publicly is because they’ve been IGNORING Satriani’s attempts to deal with this in a private manner. Just read the original story.

Sorry Coldtools, even if it is just coincidence, you’re gonna have to pay up. These songs sound just WAY too similar.

Steve Vai didnt need David Lee Roth to let his talent shine. He was a great guitarist when he was solo. And you probably have no clue who Frank Zappa is for that matter.

Everyone steals from everyone (influenced)

“Say it ain’t so Joe”

Good Luck, JS Rocks !!!

Actually, Shemp . . . you need to show the alleged infringers had access to the work. If coincidence is found, there is no infringement.

Basically,good old rock and roll died a long time ago. Fact #1;EVERYBODY sounds the same!Ever since Creed de-tuned to D and bass players suddenly found a 5string bass not much has changed.The only thing left for these tab reading idiots is to steal material.This should be a slam dunk case of plagerism in any court in any country.Even by a jury who has ever heard either one of them.Go Joe!!

Uh, I doubt very seriously that Chris Martin and Gwyneth sit back and rock out to “Surfing with the Alien”….Sheer coincidence.

can’t we solve this in a way that makes everyone happy, execute all the members of coldplay, and load all their cd’s into a rocket and launch it into the sun?

Coldplay’s is an unverifiable claim, and a toothless one at that. Go ahead, prove you never listened to “If I Could Fly”. Even so, copyright infringememnt protects a song even from unintentional plagiarism, right? No shit, Satriani didn’t write Viva La Vida, he wrote a song that has the same melody. Of course it’s coincidental, that’s why copyrights exist in the first place. Is the copyright law crass? So be it, but Satriani has a point, and I hope he soaks these sanctimonious fucks for all they’re worth.

Musicwinter:

Looks like you’re trying to gain publicity yourself given your name and comment. “No one wants to hear a solo guitarist” is quite possibly one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever heard. I have no idea what your site is about, but if it’s about music, God help you. “Your song is actually pretty bad” - Can any more ignorance pour from your fingertips??

haha well said jere..

Ugh, please. It’s not like that riff is so unique that other bands couldn’t come up with it without hearing Satriani’s song. Plus, I don’t see the members of Coldplay sitting at home listening to Joe Satriani albums.

musicwinter.com,

You are a fool if you think that all Joe wants is publicity…gimme a break. If you cannot hear the similarites between the two you are ‘Deaf, Dumb and Blind’…sorry…I just HAD to steal that from ‘The Who’…at least I gave them credit!

Hello,
Well YouTube has a clip that overlays Cold Play and Satriani. And boy they sound great together!!

But seriously, if George Harrison lost his case on My Sweet Lord -v- He’s So Fine. They Cold Play are toast.

Coldplay stole the melody from him and they think they can get away with it because they’re famous. I hope Joe wins his case.

How I miss the 90s. If this came up against Oasis, their response would’ve probably been “Yeh? And what of it?”

Very cool handed response. I think that Satriani has benefited from the publicity of this quite enough now. Joe, drop the suit. Your song is actually pretty bad, give it up. No one wants to hear a solo guitarist, 80’s are long gone. You should have joined a good band and let your talent shine like Steve Vai.