Coldplagiarism? Say It Ain't So, Joe!
While there was admittedly some resemblance between the two tunes, nothing came of this. Coldplay went about their lives, racking up Grammy nominations and selling millions of records, and Creaky Boards simply creaked back into obscurity. But now a more prominent artist, guitar virtusoso Joe Satriani, is lobbying the same sort of charges at the Britrockers. Satriani has just filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Coldplay in Los Angeles federal court, and he may have a better case than Creaky Boards did.
Before you continue reading, check out this other video comparing and contrasting "Viva" with Satriani's 2004 instrumental, "If I Could Fly":
Now, first of all, there's no denying the similarity--it's a lot stronger than the one between "Viva" and the Creaky Boards song (that mashup at the end of this video makes a particularly convincing point). The songs in fact sound so much alike, if we'd wandered into a Satriani concert and heard him noodling away during "If I Could Fly" onstage, we'd admittedly mistake it for a guitar-wanky "Viva La Vida" cover.
Of course, the similarity could be a coincidence--and therefore the sonic resemblance isn't enough for Satriani to collect the "any and all profits" he is seeking in a jury trial against Coldplay. Another crucial aspect of his case is whether or not Coldplay had the opportunity to steal the song.
In the case of Coldplay vs. Creaky Boards, it was kind of difficult to believe Chris Martin would randomly pop up at some unknown band's CMJ showcase (Chris publicly denied he attended the gig in question). So it was almost impossible for Creaky Boards to prove that Coldplay had had ample opportunity to hear (and subsequently plagiarize) "The Songs I Didn't Write." But the Satriani album on which "If I Could Fly" originally appeared, Is There Love In Space?, came out four years ago on Epic, a major label...so it is more feasible that the members of Coldplay did have some chance to be exposed to it.
Although, of course, it's also kind of hard to imagine that Chris Martin lounges around his London mansion with Gwyneth, Apple, and Moses, attentively listening to Joe Satriani jams with notepad in hand. But hey, you never know.
Anyway, whether or not Coldplay are guilty as charged, they certainly were aware of Satriani's accusation before the lawsuit was officially filed this week. Just wait for the 3:30 mark in the video below for Chris Martin's sly mention of a mystery man whose name rhymes with "Moe Batriani"...along with his impassioned insistence that "Viva La Vida"'s resemblance to any song, by any artist living or dead, is purely coincidental:
uh ohhh =/
VH1: You’re always hinting that maybe this might be the last Coldplay record.
Chris: We’ll wait and see. I sometimes think we’re just a one-hit wonder and that’s it for us. Other times I know that it’s not true. Being in Coldplay is what I live for, and I’d be gutted if people didn’t want us around. This is getting depressing! This is going to be on VH1’s 100 Saddest Stories: the day we gave up because no one liked us. Get Joe Satriani to comment on that!
http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1456997/08122002/coldplay.jhtml
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He mentions Joe. How can he say he doesn't know him?
Oh yeah...the Monkees were great!
Although Satriani has a genuine beef here, Joe is going to have a tough time winning this case because he has to prove that they stole it. That particular melody calls for those chords under it, so coming from a songwriter, it is somewhat possible that Coldplay came up with that on their own. When you layer the songs together though, they are undoubtedly the same, almost as if it was all recorded as one song. Joe used guitar solos, and Coldplay used orchestra hits.
If Coldplay did in fact steal here, it would be very disappointing to me. They've written some great songs in the past, and resorting to this in order to get a "hit for the record" would seriously taint their credibility.