Coldplay says Satch isn’t original. Hmm, I seem to remember a saying having to do with a pot calling the kettle black. Joe Satriani has more originality in his chest hair than Coldplay has collectively.

Someone other band called Creaky Boards apparently said the same thing about the same song, and now retracted their claim and say it might have come from the video game The Legend of Zelda (see Wikipedia article on VLV).

I heard Satriani’s song, and it nearly put me to sleep. It was like something you’d use as background music for a slide show. Not sure if the claim has merit, but I wonder if Satriani played Zelda too.

Also there’s a funny video on YouTube suggesting that Satriani in turn may have stolen the riff from Enanitos Verdes.

I think I’m about to sue Chris Martin for looking like a complete douche and violating my eyeballs and my ears for the last few years. BTW – Chris, 1790’s France called and they want their jacket back.

Ok so lets break this down musically, Both songs share the same tempo, meter and groove at about 122 bpm and the bass kicks are in the same time

Both songs have the exact same chord progression and are in the same key and have the same rhythm

Both songs have the same melody,

In fact I laid on Chris Martin’s vocals and Joe Satriani’s “chorus” top of eachother and the vocal rises and falls are in sync with the guitar riff T

herefore, Chris Martin’s “originality” comment applies only to himself, and Satriani has a good case according to the music theory behind it

KIETH RICHARDS SAID “ADAM & EVE WROTE THE FIRST SONG EVERYONE ELSE RIPS THEM OFF”

Idiots.

Claim cryptomnesia. That’s probably what it is. Split the money, remain friends and not enemies, and no one cares anymore. Rod Stewart did it with Forever Young (him and Dylan split the money and they remain on friendly terms) and no one chides him about ripping people off, and Coldplay is idiotic to take that risk.

Also, way to feed the unintelligent people information, Rolling Stone. Coldplay meant that it lacked originality in that the chord progression originated somewhere else. They aren’t trying to prove that Satriani is unoriginal in order to win the case.

But if you ask me, both Coldplay and Joe Satriani are highly unoriginal, so whatever.

I love how people here claim to know shit behind music theory. A simple chord progression does not necessarily mean that it was copied, even if they fit on top of each other. Did you know that you could lay Smells Like Teen Spirit on top of Purple Haze to create a pretty bitchin’ song? Cobain ripped off Hendrix. The bastard.

On top of that, there’s the question of cryptomnesia, which is to plagiarize something without realizing it. Say that you heard something on the radio ten years ago and wrote a song today that sounded almost exactly like it. You might not remember the song, but you plagiarized it. Accidentally, of course. It’s hard to prevent cyptomnesia, especially because Joe Satriani isn’t exactly listened to by everyone.

The final question is whether Satriani’s progression is, in fact, original. It is entirely feasible that Coldplay (legally) borrowed a similar progression from a song that was released before Satriani’s.

You people have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.

I find it insane how crazy it is that I’m defending Coldplay, a band that I just don’t care at all for.

These are the facts, people. Don’t be mindless haters of lackluster bands and headless lovers of lackluster guitarists. Think for a god damned second.

As a final note, I will say that Satriani improves the sound of Viva La Vida considerably. Coldplay should ask him to join. Maybe two nothings could make a something.

chord progressions are not protected under copyright law. There are a finite number of chord progressions used over and over in popular music for years and years, and therefore only melody, arrangement, and lyrics are protected. The only stipulation is that a judge can find that a piece is so strikingly similar to another that it warrants a law suit. That being said, the chord progression, the feel, and big chunks of the melody of the 2 songs are eerily similar. I think it was totally accidental, but still….maybe satriani needs a paycheck.

Creative borrowing whether intentional or not has always been and will always be a part of music. If a song sounds somewhat similar, then that doesn’t constitute stealing. There’s no need to get into music theory or be pretentious music snobs. It’s really simple, ALL musicians take ideas from others. It’s called having influences.

WOW StrummerJones. Do you realize you just put yourself in that category of people that “claim to know shit behind music theory?”
Or do you have some validation the rest of us don’t have? I don’t care if you’re the ultimate guru of music theory, the cool thing about music theory is that more than one person can “know shit” about it. But thanks for your cocky comment!
PS, to make my comment more than an annoyed reply to someone else’s, I think Satriani lucked out that Coldplay’s song sounds so similar. Very few people would have even heard of it otherwise…

WOW StrummerJones. Do you realize you just put yourself in that category of people that “claim to know shit behind music theory?”
Or do you have some validation the rest of us don’t have? I don’t care if you’re the ultimate guru of music theory, the cool thing about music theory is that more than one person can “know shit” about it. But thanks for your cocky comment!
PS, to make my comment more than an annoyed reply to someone else’s, I think Satriani lucked out that Coldplay’s song sounds so similar. Very few people would have even heard of it otherwise…

GOOD LUCK’s all I can say.

So, if Satriani wins does that mean Jimmy Page will finally have to give his millions of dollars to the families of all the dead black guys he stole from? Probably not….

Seriously though; if you could copy write a chord progression, melody, or any combination of the two than the family of J.S. Bach has a case against against just about everybody (yes, even The Beatles).

And yes, Chris Martin is the LAST person who should accuse anyone of “lack of originality”… Seriously, Coldplay is nothing but 1995-era Radiohead’s retarded and autistic little brother that is best left indoors away from society.

It’s plagiarism for sure!!!
Let’s put either heart and Coldplay fanaticism away from this!!! By the way, “lack of originality”(???)…waw….Chr is Martin should be crazy!!!!!

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

where would you hear the Satriani song, I am sure it wasn’t played on most radio stations… Chickenfoot will be though

If Satch’s tune “lacks originality,” what the hell does that say about “Vida”?!?!?!?! The Satch tune came out first and they sound too much alike.

Chris Martin is LAAAAAME!!!!

Satriani is a wining bitch! Anyway, Coldplay sucks ass!

strummerjones speaks about as much sense as anyone around these boards, but I have to say, the similarities between the two songs seems to stretch way beyond “happenstance”.

really, who knows?

Whatever the outcome is, it will never change the fact that Coldplay SUCKS

Call it “influenced by” or “plagiarized from” Satriani, at least Coldplay was “copying” from someone else and not just aping themselves (the way some insist that Vivaldi did in many of his 500 or so concerto gross efforts, and the way Snow Patrol appears to be doing lately).

Personally, I think Satriani deserves credit and $$ for the astounding similarity, regardless of Coldplay awareness or intention.

Strummer Jones is the man here – we should all shut up and bow to his greatness and musical prowess! Although he makes good points, I will point out that he still comes off rather douche baggery…

Obviously I’m not THE SUPER GURU OF MUSIC THEORY, but it seems to me like some people are just trying to speak about without thinking about it first. I know enough music theory to know that the chord progression in question has been done to death. Cat Stevens, Satriani, and now Coldplay have all used it. What I’m saying is that just because they sound strikingly similar does not mean that they’re all even that close.

And yes, I realize that I’m coming across as a know-it-all with too much time on his hands here, but wow. Some of the comments here were just disturbing. Good to see that since I posted the smarter people seem to have come into the thread.

Coldplay is the biggest fraud in music. This is not the first time they have been sued for stealing a sound in their career…..Coinsidence? Hardly!

I remember reading an article about coldplay making their new album and they were bragging about stealing stuff from other people. I can remember them saying they were taking stuff or imitating stuff from Jay-Z’s reasonable doubt album, which i thought didn’t make sense.

First of all I listened to satrianis song and it sucks. And the similarity between the two peices makes up a very small part of Coldplay’s song. I don’t care for Coldplay, but damn, whatever they did in writing Viva la Vida, they wrote one of the best peices of music ever. That is one talented work.

Give him the credit

Give him the money

The 2 greatest names in the history of music, fighting over the greatest piece of music ever composed. And its the rest of the world that suffers. Please resolve your differences so we can get back to living our little lives…

Cold who? The one hit wonder band.Now everyone knows how they found a song.P.s. Jimmy Page paid those black musicians!

“He also hinted that the new Chickenfoot guitarist would be willing to settle the matter out of court, a signal that either Coldplay wants to put the whole copyright incident behind them or Satriani thinks his case won’t stand up in front of a jury.”

But Satriani wanted to settle this out of court for half a year before he filed suit. And it doesn’t say anything about Coldplay at all. I really don’t get this last part at all.

not good!!!!!!!!! a TON of my bffs

I like this claim a lot – “That song our song sounds like? It’s totally unoriginal, but our song is like… wait…”

Honestly, I’m no Satch fan, but Coldplay bore me so much that I’d love to see them lose this.

Again, unoriginal doesn’t imply lack of talent in this case; it implies that Satriani wasn’t the first to use the melody.

Satch would settle with Coldplay taking Chickenfoot on tour.

Of course it’s not the first time the band has been sued for “stealing music.” They are the biggest band in the world and everyone wants a piece. In Satriani’s case it is completely undeserved. Give me a break. It’s 4 notes. It’s all similar.

The biggest band in the world? I’m sorry, no.

My Sweet Lord…I’ve heard both (like most of you) and it sure sounds like a rip-off. It’s way too close to be coincidental, in my opinion.
They should, and probably will, make nice.

Coldplay is the soundtrack for balding middle-aged men having mid-life crisises while driving their red convertible cars through the Hollywood Hills fantasizing about banging their secretaries.

Satriani is one of those wanks from G.I.T. or M.I.T. that line up on New Release Day at the record store anytime Dream Theatre releases an album. That “Chickenfoot” band is the sound of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse coming. Seriously, people, the Golden Trumpet has sounded.

Screw the court case – George Harrison got slapped for “My Sweet Lord” being ripped from “He’s So Fine”, so the legal precident has been set. Let’s just rub these Big Boys down with a can of Crisco and turn ‘em lose in a U.F.C. cage match – Last Man Standing gets credit for a completely retarded piece of music.

Amen.

Perhaps it´s a coincidence…But they have to pay Satriani. If someone suddenly name his band “Coldplay” because he didn´t hear about their Band: Will they allow him?

And what happends with “Creaky Boards”?

By the way…”Prospekt’s March” ends very similar as Weird Fishes – Arpeggi of Radiohead begins! (Just to mention a Radiohead’s song)

Anyway I like some Coldplay´s records!!

Nice slap in the face to Satch on the way to court. You know your too full of yourself when Bono (who is trying to save the entire world and never said a bad word about anyone before) calls you a wanker.

I like the idea of fighting it out. I say let the rest of Chickenfoot (Sammy Haggar, Mike Anthony and Chad Smith) join Joe in the ring. The only thing better then seeing Chris “Wanker” Martin lose a ton of cash is to see Coldplay get their butts kicked by a bunch of over the hill rockers.

A “lack of originality” means that Coldplay’s lawyers have found lots of songs that use the said melody, which were written before Satriani wrote his song. There is certainly a song by a Brazilian band that is EXACTLY like Satriani’s track – so maybe Satriani should be a little careful who’s he’s accusing of doing the stealing…

Satriani may have wanted to settle out of court but obviously Coldplay feel they didn’t copy him so why should they give him money? They want to fight so there is no doubt that copied. Good for them. Satriani is just out for cash… that’s why he’s been trying to make the most publicity with all his ‘well-timed’ media announcements…

The Creeky Boards guy publicly admitted that he was wrong so that was just another publicity stunt…

Coldplay saying that Satch lacks originality. Who the hell are they to talk? Coldplay is overrated to the moon.

And to the idiot calling himself John Petrucci. Quit being a douche. JP and Satch are good mate hence performing at G3 a number of times already.

hmmm…dullard stunt guitarist accuses candyassed U2 wannabes of cultural theft. frankly, i’d rather listen to their monotonous courtroom submissions rather than the blancmange shit they both palm off as music.

Chord structures in both songs are about 98% identical. That is the matter here that may or may not be debated in court. Many songs over the years sound similar, but in this case a scientific analysis can be used. Satriani writes his own music. Coldplay is handed music from record execs that they later claim to write.

Chord Structures can not be considered for Copyright Infringement. There are really only so many chords before they become similar. I respect Satch, but I don’t think his case will win. Bytheway, the “lack of Originality” means, there are other songs similar to his song besides Viva la Vida that came before his. I think that he really should watch himself before he accuses like that.

With regards to the chord progression, there is definitely room for debate, but the similarity between the vocal and the lead guitar solo is unmistakable.

There’s definately a series of notes that are similar, but big deal. Not enough to lose a court case and not enough to get your shorts in a knot over.

Mr. Fact, what a name, I don’t think that you stand up to it.

i’ve been in the music biz for a while. And although there are some chord progression similarities here, So freggin what. Those chord structures are very pleasing to the ear and neither Satriani nor Coldplay are the only people using them. Shit,I wrote about 5 songs that might have these progressions, satriani, you just went down a notch in my book

I think this guy is trying to get extremly rich. I see no simularities between the two songs. i love coldplay and they make this satriani dude look like an idiot. And why did he wait for the song to be a HUGE hit….$$$$$$$! The creaky boards are out of there mind those songs have absoloutly no simularities! and where the heck do you hear “If I Could Fly” on the radio? Anartica! Coldplay Rocks!

Trust me this is a stolen song by cold play. Satriani deserves all the credit for ownership of his original composition, that is until someone can prove that he stole it from them. (Cat Stevens are you next in line?) Its just too bad that Cold Play did not ask Satriani for his song and shared the prophits evenly. Maybe the Label and Cold Play thought no one would notice. I guess thats what justice is for. Cold Play now has to face the music and lose. Welcome to the real world. Next time try a little harder to be original.

Look at the picture of CP’s lead singer, and notice his “clown” attire, and now please tell me that he is not a fraud. Can’t speak to the music, never heard of them. Can’t get past the picture though – it speaks a thousand words, and a story, it is precious. LOL.

Case dismissed.

Now we can all move on to debating whether or not my poop looks like your poop and if so, how much of my poop do I owe you?

I think Satriani is jealous that he could never produce a grammy award winning song. Even his song that supposedly sounds similar to Viva La Vida didn’t amount to much. The entire song consists of about four chords–I didn’t know you could copyright chords… This whole issue is yet another example of an inferiority complex leaching off of the success of others. The fact of the matter is that Coldplay made a whole lot more out of those four chords than Satriani could have ever dreamed to have done himself.

I wondered why there was only one good song on the Coldplay album.

For the folks who think there’s only 4 notes that are the same, you either can’t count or you’re tone deaf.

That said, Satch doesn’t deserve any and all profits from it. Coldplay added lyrics and took it mainstream.

“krumb | 6/17/2009, 6:28 pm EST

Case dismissed.

Now we can all move on to debating whether or not my poop looks like your poop and if so, how much of my poop do I owe you?” ROFLMAO

They stole it. Satch didn’t write the tune. He got it from someone else, but like a good boy he gave them the props they deserve. Now, we should do the same for him. He has earned it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I don’t care if they out sell his records; the fact still remains he is a talent that left his mark on the music world. Where would the music world and Metallica be without Kirk Hammet? I’ll tell you where…awarding Jethro Tull with the best metal band ever to blaze across the world. Everyone has heard of Metallica. And Metallica has made a helluva dent in the music world. Joe taught him how to play. ‘Nuff said. Any comments Anty??

just to enlighten those who are not so open minded there is not only one good song off of coldplays newest album there are several singles on the album that have been well recieved by many non coldplay fans joe is just angry no one knows who he is and he wants money from a riff he obviously did not create

Satriani can’t prove coldplay stole plus he should be worried about stevens suing him, satriani is a washed never has been who just wants atention before he and chickenfoot launch, Viva la Coldplay

P.S Van Halen Sucks

They said G F Handel plagarised. They also said he took other mens pebbles and polished them into diamonds. Now they say,’Where there’s a hit there’s a writ.’ Only the lawyers will make money out of this. I remember Barney Kessel saying, in one of his seminars, ‘There are only eight chord progressions.’ So we’re all plagarists to some extent. Grow up Satch.

They said G F Handel plagarised. They also said he took other mens pebbles and polished them into diamonds. Now they say,’Where there’s a hit there’s a writ.’ Only the lawyers will make money out of this. I remember Barney Kessel saying, in one of his seminars, ‘There are only eight chord progressions.’ So we’re all plagarists to some extent, and we’ve all riffed on the same two chord vamp. Grow up Satch. Coldplay sound nothin like you.

Same distinctive chord progression, same hook in the melody – open and shut, it’s stolen; obvious to any musician. Whether Coldplay heard Satriani’s tune, absorbed it unconciously then reproduced it without realising where the idea had come from (I’ve done this myself, only to find later I’ve just reproduced something I’ve heard somewhere before), or thought that they were too big for Satriani to dare to sue, I don’t know. If I were him, though, I’d be mad too, and would at least want acknowledgement from Coldplay – it’s the principle, not the money. It’s his idea, and they’re profiting from it – hugely!

Why do I keep hearing a bunch of you arguing about it merely being a “chord progression”?

Stop trying to act as if you know anything about music. Coldplay ripped off the melody, note for note, it is not an issue of only being the chord progression.

“coldplayfan”

You’re an idiot.

You are all lame, get over it…
Satch is a ‘clown’ too, just look at his latest group.

When they say ‘lacks originality’ they are refering to the fact this ‘melody’ has popped up in numerous songs, not just Coldplay’s or Satch’s. Do a little research, if Satch can sue Coldplay, then there should be numerous reasons for other artists to sue Satch. There are songs before his that sound the same too…

VVIA LA VDIA IS ASMWEOE IT IS SO COOL
SO COOL TAHT IT IS AZINMAG
I KONW RHIGT
DO YOU AREGE
I DO
DUH
HA HA HA
SO FNUNY