Viva la Lawsuit! Less than six months ago, guitar icon Joe Satriani filed a claim seeking "any and all profits" for the piano-rock superstars’ "Viva la Vida," stating that the Grammy-winning smash contained "substantial original portions" of the track "If I Could Fly," from his 2004 album Is There Love in Space? album. Now, Coldplay may be facing more legal problems — for the same song.
Legendary bearded folkie Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens, has accused the band of jacking his 18-minute-long 1973 epic "Foreigner Suite" for "Viva," telling the U.K. Sun, "There’s been this argument about Coldplaystealing this melody from Joe Satriani. But if you listen to it, it’smine! It’s the ‘Foreigner Suite,’ it is!" And Islam has successfully sued before; in 2003, he won split profits from the Flaming Lips for their Soft Bulletin song "Fight Test," because of the track’s similarity to his campfire classic "Father and Son."
Let’s take a listen, shall we? First, the Stevens track (in this excerpt, skip to about the four-minute mark):
And next, a handy little side-by-side with Satriani and the ‘Play (thank you, enterprising YouTuber Fmbloxghost!)
What do you think, readers? Court-worthy, or just melodic coincidence?
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Comments (1-15) of 33 Add your comment
I wish Cat Stevens was making Cat Stevens instead of being the hypocritical Yusef. I hate Coldplay.
In these cases, I’d be looking for near-exact similarities (I’m looking at you, Vanilla Ice). I don’t think there’s enough from Cat Stevens or Satriani. Back away people, nothing to see here.
Completely agree with Jim. There is a vague similarity at best.
So why aren’t Satriani and Cat Yusuf suing each other if all of these songs are so similar? Oh, because Coldplay is still relevant.
If you gave any songwriter the same chords they’d come up with a similar melody. And these are all basic chord progressions. Each chord is the obvious successor to the last.
SATRIANI — Get it right!
Unless Coldplay said somewhere that Cat Stevens was one of their favorite artists and they were compulsive listeners to all of his tracks I don’t see them just happening to catch one of Cat’s lesser known songs and waiting 4 minutes into the track to bite a very typical pop phrase that didn’t have any of the propulsive motion forward that Viva La Vida has.
very good point. It’s basic logic.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Vanilla Ice win that lawsuit and its exactly the same song??? These sound similar but not enough to say its stolen. Still love Coldplay and kinda like Joe Satriani’s song now
Viva la Vida has been out for nearly a year. Why did Yusuf Islam wait so long to comment? Did it take this long for someone to put a microphone in front of him? Or is his song so obscure that it took even him 11 months to connect these dots?
They were also accused back in 2008 by a The Brooklyn band Creaky Boards says they stole the melody from Viva La Vida. The video and evidence is pretty convincing.
http://talentnetworkinc.blogspot.com/2008/06/coldplay-accused-of-stealing-song.html
George Harrison famously lost a huge lawsuit for lifting the melody of “My Sweet Lord” from “He’s So Fine” – but I don’t think anyone believes George Harrison just sat down and said “I’m going to steal this melody.” It’s not conscious. It’s kind of weird to think you can be taken to court by someone because you dared to allow their music to enter your subconscious. Now sampling – that’s what Vanilla Ice did, and it’s different – that’s a copyright violation. Different kettle of fish.
Vagur similarity? Coldplay is caught red-handed. Poor Gwyneth will have to blog on her copycat hubby.
I love Cat Stevens and it never occured to me that viva la vida sounded like the foriegner suite. I think their are similarities but its not a ripoff.
The sequence is Cat Stevens (as was) ,Joe Satriani and then Coldplay. So Yusef should be suing Satriani. That would be the logical step. If he wins Satriani would lose any damages they might have won from Coldplay. Then he can sue Coldplay but he then has to prove they copied from him rather than Satriani. As usual only the aspirin manufactures an lawyers will make any real cash.