Journal dedazo's Journal: It Sounds Like... Joe Satriani Files Suit Against Coldplay 7
I'm sure some Slashdot users are fans of Joe Satriani (at least maybe those that are closer to my age). I'm sure a few more are also Coldplay fans. Well, it turns out Joe has filed a lawsuit claiming Chris Martin & Co. lifted the riff from Satriani's If I Could Fly piece from 2004 and made it into their Vival La Vida hit.
There's a comparison up on YouTube and indeed, the opening riff from Satriani does match the Coldplay song. But I don't think Coldplay was ripping anything or anyone off.
Many musicians (especially mainstream ones) inevitably tend to do things like these. They have influences, they listened to the same artists when they were coming up the ladder, etc. Sure, Kraftwerk didn't sound like anyone else, and neither did Nine Inch Nails or any of those edgy groundbreaking acts. But Coldplay is the result of pop/rock evolution. It's inevitable that they will sound like someone else at some point.
Joe Satriani's music is part of the soundtrack to some of the best moments in my life. I hate it when my heroes do things like these. Is he not selling enough records now or what? I buy them all. C'mon Joe, that just sucks.
Maybe they should've... (Score:1)
...simply asked for permission first. Given the choice between an action that will make someone feel like you're ripping them off, vs. one that will make them feel honored, ...
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So you do think they ripped it off? I mean, as in "hey, this Satriani track is cool, let's use it"?
As opposed to this just being a coincidence?
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No need to set up strawmen -- it was prolly more like "hey, this riff I'd heard before is cool, let's basically use it". Like Mr. Vanilla Ice.
Old Joe prolly worked pretty hard coming with original tunage over his career. (Apparently very hard [mtv.com] on this particular tune and album. And it's quite an admission on the band's singer's part in that article that they're being sued by about a dozen people over that one song.) ColdPlay can work hard to keep it original as well. Or pay up.
(And I don't know enough about
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I think that was a joke. It follows that Satriani would have no basis to sue them if that was the case, unless all those 12 people were suing for Satriani.
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I think that was a joke. It follows that Satriani would have no basis to sue them if that was the case, unless all those 12 people were suing for Satriani.
It may have been only a joke. (The kind the band's record company's lawyers would like to strangle him for!) It does not follow that Joe would have no basis to sue then, as the other 11 or so litigating parties could be doing so over other parts of/melodies in the song. (So when I read that article, I was envisioning a Frankenstein's monster of a song wit
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I'm the last person on Slashdot to follow the "IP is teh evil" bullshit party line, and I believe people should be compensated for what they do, even if some retard kid on teh internets claims it's "imaginary property" and no one gets hurt, but my point is that this could be simply a coincidence. I guess I was just disappointed. I can hear Satriani and many other influences in newere music nowadays. Pink Floyd. The Police. It's nothing new.