Songwriting in the dock: Satriani vs. Coldplay case
I’m sure lots of our community will remember the recent Satriani/Coldplay case
.
To summarise the story for those who don’t, Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ bore melodic and harmonic similarities to an instrumental composition called If I Could Fly by Joe Satriani.
Musically, here’s a summary of the context of the case.
Coldplay’s song uses a 4-chord loop that goes
||: Db †| Eb † | Ab † | Fm † 
|
(IV – V – I – vi in the key of Ab major)
And the ‘Rule the World’ melody line starts on a C natural – the major third of the home key, creating an interesting major-7th sound to the first chord.
Satriani’s piece (the relevant passage can be heard here and starts at 0:50) uses a not dissimilar harmonic loop, and a melody that also starts on that major third (creating an interesting E minor 9th chord):
||: Em † †| A † † | Dmaj7 †| Bm † |
(ii – V – I – vi in the key of D major)
Put them both in the key of C and simplify the chords to make the maths easier, and you get two similar chord loops
Coldplay – ||: F † | G † †| C † †| Am †:||
Satriani – ||: Dm † | G † | C † †| Am †:||
So what, you say? You can’t copyright a chord loop, especially not one that’s been used thousands of times already? Well, the harmonic context is only part of the story. A very quick listen to the tune, starting on that ‘quirky’ major third note (E natural in this transposed version) reveals a marked similarity – an exact match for the first three notes, rhythmically, contextually and melodically.
Coldplay themselves eventually responded publicly on their website, denying it all as a coincidence. Satriani had apparently planned to serve the papers live during last night’s Grammys, but backed off from this for reasons unclear. Disappointingly, some of the more entertaining mashups that YouTube users created have now been taken down; the best ones used some digital pitch and tempo mapping to make the similarities clear. This one is rather well-done, albeit poor quality technically.
Coincidence or plagiarism? To answer this question we need to know – how likely is it that two songwriters could come up with this exact melodic/harmonic combination? Effectively this is a collision between the infinite monkeys theorem and our own knowledge, as songwriters, of what goes on creatively when one devises melodic material over chord loops (I’m willing to bet that this is how both pieces were written – sounds like loop-based writing to me).
I have my own view, but won’t reveal it just yet – I’m interested to see if there is a weight of opinion from songwriters. Over to you – please comment… now!
Very, very similar. However it happened (and I’m with your loop theory Joe) Satch got there first and the ball is in Coldplay’s court to disprove it. You can deny it off course but how many of us remember melodies or parts of them at least we’ve heard years ago even though we might have only heard song the a couple of times.
If I may quote the great Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks “originality is the ability to hides ones sources”.
I bet Coldplay end up settling out of court.
Anyhow I was listening to She’s Electric (Oasis) and With a Little Help From my Friends (The Beatles) Check out the endings, talk about Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. As friends I’m sure Macca and Noel sorted it all out over a pint.
” Buy us a pint Noel and we’ll call it quits Noel? O.K. Macca” (allegedly)
Whatever the legal case, Coldplay showed how that melody could have been developed. Satriani, as usual, just wound it up until it sounded like Paganini in a biscuit tin.
Obviously the above critic has not heard If I Could Fly by Satriani. Satriani’s playing is quite subdued and soulful on this song and he is more concerned with embelishing the touch and tone of the melody than playing a thousand notes per second.
I feel it is unfair to label all virtuosos as redundant musical expressionists. In any case, Satriani has his roots planted in blues these days moreso than in the old virtuosic rock idiom. Just take a listen to his self titled album, Joe Satriani, to here some very expressive blues playing.
Went off on a slight tangent there…
I’m not sure the similarities in the two songs justify a court case in all honesty. The melodies are about 85-90% the same but my mind cannot rule out the possibility of coincidence. I also cannot imagine how Coldplay would become exposed to Satriani’s music, but having said that I don’t doubt that there are a large number of session and professional guitarists and musicians in the industry that draw inspiration from Satriani’s guitar playing.
I wonder if Sony music, Satch’s current record label, are paying for any of the legal costs at all? There’s no denying the potential for marketing in this court case and the cynic in me would say that Satch is just playing the game to boost album sales, though I’m sure that’s not the case.
You’ve made several logical errors. First you presume that someone who doesn’t have the same opinion as you is not informed – I know the track, and the whole body of the man’s artistic output. Second, you set up a straw man by saying that I label “all virtuosos as redundant musical expressionists”, which I didn’t do. I happen to be a big fan of excessive guitar widdle, just not Satriani. My point is that Coldplay developed the basic idea very nicely. But you’re perfectly right to pick me up on it as I was hardly a considered argument – my throwaway Satriani put down was just for humorous effect.
All truth is a lie. Did Coldplay even write the lyrics if they stole the melody?
I’m no expert but I know well Satriani’s music. “If I Could Fly” is much better than “Viva la Vida”. Anyway, Satriani has a career of more than 20 years and he did write many outstanding, beautiful tunes. He is a great song writer first and only after that, a virtuoso.
In comparison, Coldplay’s music is boring and even this “Viva la Vida” is lame.
Too bad that it won Grammy “Song of the year”
Song writing is in a dismal state if such a song won a Grammy.