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Joe Satriani vs Coldplay - check the similarity of their songs

Posted: 14 years ago
Joe Satriani

OK, so up until now, I've not really been following the Satriani vs Coldplay case, which seems to have been dragging-on forever, simply because I gave it no countenance. But now, I've heard the two songs on this excellent article by Dolphin Music (check the link to the right), and I'm no longer so sure.

The similarities are pretty amazing, and the un-initiated that heard electric guitar virtuoso Satriani's song 'If I Could Fly' after Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida' (ie. most of us) may well have thought that his was an improvisation of the Coldplay song - they are that similar (check the video in the Dolphin Music article).

Seems to me that Chris Martin and co. would have to be morons to rip-off such a high profile artist, and they're clearly not. Could they have heard Satriani's song and been subliminally influenced? Well, that's clearly a possibility, as Derren Brown has formed a career out of tricking the public in similar ways.

I suspect that Coldplay will lose the case, though, but I'm not sure that justice will have been done... tricky one...

Daniel O'Connell