Comments on: Satriani vs Coldplay: court docs and audio links

By: Joe Satriani vs Coldplay: Court Documents & Audio Links : Coldplaying.com

Joe Satriani vs Coldplay: Court Documents & Audio Links : Coldplaying.com — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:33:35 +0000

[...] the full article and download all four filings in case CV08-07987 at kierenmccarthy.com here [thanks to Coldplayzone.it for the heads up about the [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:58:31 +0000

“a) Joe Satriani is a very known guitarist, and very famous in the US, but
b) If are British, you are unlikely to have heard of him”

What a load of crap, I’m English and I have been going to Satriani gigs since 1989, I now live in Sydney Australia where last year he sold out 2 nights at the Enmore Theatre and the previous year the Hordern Pavillion with his G3 concert.

By: bhupendra

bhupendra — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:35:30 +0000

I’m from India but working now Nepal now and in both countries Joe Satriani is very well known. He’s come to India a few times but never to Nepal but even young people who are not into rock music (but do listen to western music) have heard his name. I’ve been a fan since 1991 but I would have to say that unless Cold Play did it deliberately there is nothing wrong, and even if they did, how can you prove it? And I very much doubt Mr. Satriani would pull such a stunt for money or even publicity. That is absolutely absurd.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:21:29 +0000

Well, if you ask me the whole thing is silly. There are videos on youtube saying that Joe Satriani actually took his riff from part of Cat Stevens song Heaven. Who is right and does it really matter that much? I mean unless it is absolutly identical, then this just opens the door for thousands of lawsuits in which songs are similar.

By: James

James — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:03:40 +0000

Message to post 15

Navid!
How can you be a guitar player, read all the magazines and not heard of Joe!!!! I mean, come on! ! ! ! Im from the UK and hes bloody everywhere, all over guitar magazines! You must be a very new guitar player – in fact I find it hard to believe – you truly are WEIRD.

By: Nineteen

Nineteen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:26:59 +0000

The two songs coincidentally sound alike. They have different chord progressions, different instruments, different tempos, the key was changed in that video so that they would be the same pitch, and most importantly, for there to be a valid case, you have to have an exact 8 note phrase copied. The best thing about it all, is that Satriani didn’t even say anything about it until Coldplay was tapped for an award for the song. It baffles me why this has lasted as long as it has.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:44:07 +0000

“…for a band like Coldplay who are arguably the biggest band on the planet right now and with all their success, its impossible that they steal a song.”

So if you are famous, it’s not possible for you to steal something? This is by far the most ridiculous statement I’ve read all day…

Kieren- Great blog! One quick thing though, I don’t think it was the Supremes that Harrison got into hot water with. I think it was the Chiffons.
But as far as Chris Martin being a twat, you were spot on.

By: Miles

Miles — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:58:32 +0000

listen to the two songs back to back. how similar do they “feel”. So many make comments based on that youtube video and not actually listening to the two songs in full. The riff Joe uses is played twice in the song. Is that “substantial” in a 4 minute song? I don’t know. And Coldplay uses a similar one on the vocal line(far from identical), but its not even in the chorus. There is so much more to Viva la Vida than those 8 bars of music. It hardly makes up the basis of the song. These songs are a lot more different than they are alike. Last time i checked using a very common chord progression in music is not plagiarism. The riff, to me, isn’t similar enough. They start and end on the same note. The note they go up to is also a different interval. It’s not enough.

By: GC

GC — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:57:32 +0000

Thanks Kieran. Just to show that I am an ignorant Brit, I was over at a friend’s house in Boston the other day, he plays electric guitar casually, and we were discussing this case. After I told him I had never heard of Joe Satriani, he brought out a couple of Joe’s CD’s from his collection and told me that indeed he is very well known over here and well respected amongst rock guitarists.
I agree that Coldplay will probably bite the bullet and will come up with some sort of settlement to make this go away. I guarantee they will be much more careful with future recordings.

By: Navid

Navid — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:44:55 +0000

The fact that some people here are saying “…..if you are a guitar player you have heard of Joe Satriani….” is complete nonsense! I am a guitar player myself and indeed, read music magazines all the time and have never ever heard of this guy. Because of this case, I went around curiously asking people if they know him (my family, friends, my college mates, old school mates, my old school’s band members and even the guitar teacher!), and absolutely no one knew who he was. I live in UK and im sure that the only place people might have heard of him is America! What these Satriani fanboys don’t realize is that for a band like Coldplay who are arguably the biggest band on the planet right now and with all their success, its impossible that they steal a song. Coldplay only ever go to America for tours, and so im not even sure they have heard of him either! And as GC pointed out before, Chris would inform both the fans and the guys whom he has taken the riffs off, and get permission.

“Viva La Vida” is 4 minutes and 2 seconds long and every musical sound that you can hear in this song is entirely different and in another world, except probably about 15 seconds of Chris singing; which does NOT even “create the same ongoing emotion in both songs”!!! And yet some people are saying the main chord is the same! WHAT?!!! Have you even heard Viva La Vida?! Listen from around 1:10 and tell me what on earth possessed you to think that’s the same! What makes me laugh is the unbelievably ridiculously out of turn comments he’s made in the document : “the premiere rock guitarist in the past two decades” or “Coldplay copied and incorporated substantial, original portions of plaintiff’s composition”!!

Wake up people. When you read the document its impossible not to notice the fact that he’s after money; AND publicity! After all, me and billions of other people didn’t know who this guy was, but with suing a famous band like Coldplay, he made everyone to go and listen to his song!!!