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Joe Satriani claims Coldplay plagiarism was a 'dagger through my heart'

Guitarist breaks silence after announcing lawsuit against Chris Martin and co

December 8, 2008 | 15 Comments
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Joe Satriani has broken his silence for the first time after it was announced he is suing Coldplay for plagiarism.

The guitarist claims the British band copied elements of his 2004 song 'If I Could Fly' for their track 'Viva La Vida'.

However, speaking for the first time about the case, the guitarist insists he did not want his claims to come to court, but that Coldplay ignored him.

"Everybody assumes I'm trying to go after these guys in Coldplay, as if I'm doing this with malice, that's the furthest thing from my mind. I'm just doing what I need to do as an artist, to protect what's mine, to protect those feelings I put down in song," he told Musicradar.com.

"I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But Coldplay didn't want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don't know. But we're talking about a piece of art that I created, and that's something I feel is important. I think everybody should feel that way."

Satriani said he recognised his work in Coldplay's single the moment he first heard the song.

"I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," he said. "The second I heard it, I knew it was [my own] 'If I Could Fly'.

"Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, 'Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off man.' I mean, I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I received. Everybody noticed the similarities between the songs. It's pretty obvious."

Coldplay have yet to respond to the guitarist's allegations.

See what you think listen to Joe Satriani and Coldplay's songs back to back now on the NME.COM Video Blog.

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Comments (15)

Add a comment

Willy Plonka

Dec 8, 2008

I've heard it back to back, and no wonder Satriani is pissed off. Its virtually the same. ..........i dont like either of them, but Satriani has a point.

aphexbin

Dec 8, 2008

ive just seen a photo of joe satriani, wow, what a tool. And check out his guitar!- and I thought coldplay looked ridiculous in those costumes... you know whatever the outcome of this case, its a guaranteed a win-win situation for the public- either coldplay or this chrome dome geek are going to be seriously humiliated

adam_seckel

Dec 8, 2008

I like bashing Coldplay as much as the next guy, but Satriani is SUCH a whiner, no wonder Coldplay didn't listen to him, i wouldn't either. Secondly it took Coldplay to make a success out of it: you didn't hear " if i could fly" playing on every radio and in al the shops now did you?

aphexbin

Dec 8, 2008

oh and 'this little guitar player' has 14 grammy nominations? (never won one though) and obviously has a bit of money... listening to the songs whilst I see similarities I cant see a musicologist ruling that one is plagiarising the other due to, er, well, similar chord progression? I mean if thats the case surely every rock band would be sueing each other/?Could this be a publicity thing maybe?...maybe? hmmm?

demophobya

Dec 8, 2008

lol

rendall99

Dec 8, 2008

So your coldplay preparing your new album. You've sold over 25 million albums, probably one of the biggest bands in the world. What do you choose for the leading single of your new album? Of course! Someone elses music! That makes complete sense considering you have Chris Martin in the band, who whether you like him or not, can clearly write massive singles. Like a dagger in your heart? Clearly not as painful as spending a career constantly on the cusp of success.

MIllaDumpsPaul

Dec 9, 2008

I always thought coldplay was very over rated and once you had heard 3 or 4 songs from the band you really had heard what every cold play song sounded like. I did think the new song was a step aside what they have put out in the past but it is like vanilla ice stealing the bass line from under pressure and saying it was not ripping off anything. It is obviously the exact same cord progression the beat is slightly changed to be more straight forward thats about it

Stevie505

Dec 9, 2008

Ive seen Satriani play and he is a Legend. Ive not seen Britpop Coldplay perform as they are worthless. They did ripoff Satriaini and thats a fact. Who gives a sh-t about who did or did not win a grammy here. Coldplay ripped of Joe Satriani and thats the fact of the whole case. And screw Coldplay for doing so.

whatawasteoftime

Dec 9, 2008

Joe Satriani just wants some free money, the cheesy fucking freeloader.

dm99jme

Dec 9, 2008

This is ridiculous. The sad fact is that, as a musicologist myself, I can confirm that the chord sequence "IV, V, I, iii" is not and never has been the property of Joe Satriani. I guarantee that with a couple of hours' halfhearted research I could find countless other artists, all the way back to and possibly including JS Bach (though he wasn't fond of chord iii old Bach), predating Joe Satriani and proove that he, in turn, had "ripped them off" with little-to-no effort. Without casting aspertions on the worth of either Coldplay or Joe Satriani the direction this should go is that someone else who previously used the sequence should sue Joe, they in turn should be sued by someone else and the chain should go on forever, ending with the music buying public sueing them all and giving them a good kick up the arse for being lazy, obvious 'tards.Having said that, it's a great chord sequence and they both made good use of it. Other people will too in the future, and they won't even know they did and they will be "plagiarising" just as much as Coldplay.As a parting shot, if Joe only has enough in him that it takes his heart and soul to think of those 4 chords and string them together and guitar-jizz all over the top of it then he's got bigger things to worry about.

Lydian5

Dec 9, 2008

dm99jme: You are most certainly not a musicologist, because your argument reveals an infantile understanding of the creation of music. First of all here, there is more than just a similarity of chord structure here. And yes, no intelligent musician would argue that anyone 'owns' a very common chord structure. The most important thing at hand here is the obvious parallels of the two melodies. They are nearly identical. Not only in note, but in articulation and expression. Even the 'cry and sing' nature of way each note is bent into is nearly identical. Then you add the fact that the chord structure is the same. That it's in the same key. That it's nearly the same BPM (beats-per minute) and in the same overall rock vibe, and you can easily defend that the overall execution of Satriani's song is mirrored here in near identicality. Now, I don't think Satriani is saying they INTENTIONALLY ripped of his song. (Nor should anyone assume Satriani is accusing them of such malice.) More likely they just accidentally ripped off the song. Here's what likely happened: At some point, Coldplay heard Satriani's song--whether in a bar, on the radio, in a movie soundtrack, at one of the 100 studios they are in every year, whatever. Then they forgot about it. Then a year later or so, Chris Martin (and whoever else does the writing) sits down to write a song. They stumble on to this fairly familiar chord progress, and even start humming this melody, and "wow, this song is coming REALLY easily. I'm really 'on' today!" they think. They flesh out the song quickly and think they're all geniuses. And sometimes, they're right. They ARE creating something original. But not this time. Satriani's melody was in the memory banks somewhere, and subconsciously his musical instincts dragged it out once those chords started flowing. But Chris had forgotten he'd heard Satriani's song and just assumed he made it up. As a songwriter, I've been guilty of this dozens of times--in songwriting only. So have all my songwriter friends. The key is to RECOGNIZE IT and admit it's not really your own material and scrap it. But Coldplay didn't. And what's worse, I guarantee you one of the few hundred people in Coldplay's corner knew they were ripping off Satch's melody, but didn't mention it. Or did mention it, but Coldplay arrogantly said, "who cares, no one ELSE will realize that..." Of course this is conjecture, but other musicians will nod their heads approvingly at what I'm saying.

thepopcop

Dec 10, 2008

I can't see it myself. Why has nobody mentioned the fact that Coldplay ripped off the Scottish band Grace Emilys for Life In Technicolor? You can hear it for yourself here: http://thepopcop.blogspot.com/2008/12/great-coldplay-swindle.html

ACOUSANNIE

Dec 12, 2008

love/heavenheartshistoire simplefrances limon,dagger through my heart indeed!

omenman

Dec 13, 2008

Lydian5 I have to agree with this guy above!I to am a PRO singer and I have also wrote songs and thought wow this is a great song and after a few days tols my keyboard player "Jamie that song is to muck like ...." Fleetwood Mac's SARAHs picking notes are almost identical to LIONEL RITCHIES Stuck On You opening chords did they pinch it from each other NO !Its a case of musical similarities HELL Ritchie Blackmore form DEEP PURPLES licks are the same as some clasical stuff and he has alledgedly been known to admit to it!!So come on Joe...I love that rack of yours its brilliant but I went to see COLDPLAY the tonight and that song is awesome yes its similar but its NOT the same!! You should be flattered anyway!! I would be if it was my song someone sounded like!after all MARGERINE is MARGERINE and there are SO MANY similar brands out there BUT NOT THE SAME!!!