ErosNightleaf Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I'm curious about the true story of what happened with the whole problem with Viva La Vida and If I Could Fly sounding suspiciously familiar. I know coldplay got sued and I think lost the sure but what happened exactly? I've heard a couple different stories but I'm curious as to what actually happened and if they ever said why they did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc90 Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viva_la_Vida#Plagiarism_allegations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I ran away Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I think the settlement is the reason Chris altered the melody of the respective lines in life performance (I used to rule the world => I used to rule......the world! / I sleep.......alone !) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldplayisawesome Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I think the settlement is the reason Chris altered the melody of the respective lines in life performance (I used to rule the world => I used to rule......the world! / I sleep.......alone !) maybe even the accusation alone, because i think he started to sing it differently before they actually settled. it's a shame :P 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cp3176 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I think the settlement is the reason Chris altered the melody of the respective lines in life performance (I used to rule the world => I used to rule......the world! / I sleep.......alone !) Ahhhh that would make sense! Always wonder why he did that... Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Coldplaying mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselbenz Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I think the settlement is the reason Chris altered the melody of the respective lines in life performance (I used to rule the world => I used to rule......the world! / I sleep.......alone !) Never really thought of that, I always just figured it was for dramatic effect. I'd have a hard time imaging that was a stipulation of the settlement because of how hard it would be to monitor. But maybe he did it on his own. He does sing it the same way as the studio version (if I understand what part you're talking about) in some performances since the settlement, like Glastonbury 2011 ( ). As I understand they were not required to admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. but don't think anyone knows what the terms actually were? I personally don't think Satriani had a particularly good leg to stand on ... it seems to be a melody that he wasn't the only one to come up with in the first place (two other bands went after Coldplay on this too ... so ... maybe not a very rare chord progression). That gives some weight to the coincidence argument. But I don't know anything about how that kind of case works. There have been a lot in history against a lot of popular bands and I may be wrong, but I think the accusers rarely win. To me it's believable that more than one musician could randomly come up with the same tune, or at the very worst, one could hear a tune and later entirely subconsciously duplicate part of it when writing what they think is there own ... that's an easy thing for the brain to do; I've done it with writing and fortunately noticed it (like, realized a phrase I wrote was something I read somewhere and not mine). I can imagine it's a very slippery area of law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cp3176 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 This brings my mind to another example of this. Anyone interested, look up "Over My Head" by The Fray. Listen from about 3:30 till the end of when most of the instruments drop out. Take note of the piano melody in the background. Then look up "Closer" by The Chainsmokers if you haven't heard it already. The main melody in the chorus of that song is virtually the same as the piano melody just heard earlier in The Fray's song. It's funny because I never even really noticed that part of the song before until now as being something catchy pop wise, even until a while after Chainsmokers song was released. Only just recently did I notice when I was listening to Over My Head that that part was the same. I'm not sure if there's anything happening or that has happened legally speaking between the two yet, after all it could be another coincidence because the melody in question is quite simple and I'm sure more than two artists have came up with it on their own. But that's a whole nother case so I won't say much more about it. Just throwing another example out there to show that similar melodies in completely different songs style wise isn't exclusive to the main case in this thread. Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Coldplaying mobile app 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselbenz Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I can definitely hear what you mean. I notice these sorts of things in other people's songs here and there too and a lot of times it seems like no one ever notices it. An example I can think of is The Last Shadow Puppets "Sweet Dreams TN" (amazing song btw) has almost the exact same chords as Roy Orbison's "Running Scared" ... there's nothing really that wild about said chords so it's believable to me both songwriters came up with it independently. Or maybe it was intentional and they got some kind of permission. I think these things just happen coincidentally A LOT though. Led Zeppelin and The Beatles have been sued for this reason. Oasis was too. The latter two settled and LZ won (that was this year I think?). I wonder how many cases have actually been won by the plaintiff. Edit: Just remembered and confirmed that one who actually lost was Radiohead, for Creep. It's funny no one seems to ever mention that, but people pick on Coldplay for it all the time ... heh. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMDB9 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I always thought the end credits song for the show Undercover Boss sounded a lot like Viva la Vida. I can't find any youtube videos about it, but here's someone asking about it on yahoo answers: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110115162528AAdMOBT It's not a remix like the person says, but it is very similar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fakfak Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 Since the settlement was sealed and neither party can now talk about it without exposing themselves to liability, we'll never know exactly what the terms were, but it's fairly safe to assume that it was at least relatively favorable to Coldplay. If Satriani's camp thought they could win at trial (which requires some very specific proofs of willful plagiarism), they likely wouldn't have offered a settlement at the point they did. Also, the fact that the writing credits for the song were in no way changed means that the band retained all rights. Most likely, they were convinced to put up a token sum to make the whole thing go away and avoid a trial that could well have dragged on for years. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fakfak Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 It is worth noting that the band does play the song live now tuned down from the majority of their live set. (most easily seen by the fact that Guy switches to an alternate P bass for this song) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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