Follow-up: Maybe Coldplay copied Satriani, after all

In our most recent episode of Sac in Stereo, we discussed songs that sound similar to each other (click here to listen). One of the similarities we mentioned was Coldplay's megahit "Viva la Vida" and the two other songs that sound suspiciously like to it - Creaky Boards' "The Songs I Didn't Write" and Joe Satriani's "If I Could Fly."

Maybe Satriani's lawyers were listening. The day after our podcast was posted, Satriani officially sued the British band for copyright infringement.

The guitar icon said hearing Coldplay's song was instantly very painful for him.

"I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," Satriani told MusicRadar.com. "The second I heard it, I knew it was (my own) 'If I Could Fly.' "

He said the most painful thing about Coldplay's alleged ripoff was the fact that his song took over 10 years to craft, and was a love song dedicated to his wife, Rubina.

During, the podcast, we played the following mashup track, courtesy of YouTube user Matt Bethel, aka iGotSpaceLikeNasa:




During the podcast, I suggested that maybe all these musicians just happened upon this fairly simple melody in a bit of coincidence. Satriani and Bethel seem to disagree, and more and more people have been hearing their case: Bethel's original video comparing the two songs has been viewed almost 1.5 million times.

Coldplay hasn't officially commented on the lawsuit, although frontman did "promise" in a recent Q&A session (video at the bottom of the page - skip to 3:30) the band didn't borrow the melody from anyone whose name "rhymes with Moe Batriani."

Oh, and Joe, if you'd like to tell us what you think of our comparison, our e-mail address is podcasts@statehornet.com.

[photo courtesy flickr user Giandomenico Ricci]