The courtroom battle of “Joe Satriani vs. Coldplay” might be getting a little more crowded. Yusuf, formerly Cat Stevens, says he noticed a similarity between his 1973 song “Foreigner Suite” and Coldplay’s Grammy-winning “Viva La Vida” as well. Satriani first accused Chris Martin and Co. off ripping off his song “If I Could Fly” for “Vida,” which resulted in a lawsuit.

 

“My son brought it to my attention and said, ‘Doesn’t that sound like ‘Foreigner Suite?’ ” Yusuf told Reuters. “The song definitely sounds like it. It has such logical chords and the melody has to be what it is.” While he hasn’t filed any legal papers, he hasn’t ruled out a possible future lawsuit either, adding that “it depends on how well Satriani does.” Satriani is seeking damages from the supposed plagiarism plus any royalties the song accrued which, considering it won a Grammy and soundtracked an Apple ad, is probably a lot of royalties. Conveniently, Yusuf chose the same week to both accuse Coldplay of aping his song and release his new album Roadsinger, which is released today.

 

While we can hear the obvious similarities between “Viva La Vida” and Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly,” the resemblance between “Viva La Vida” and Stevens’ “Foreigner Suite” is less apparent. “Foreigner Suite” is nearly 20 minutes in length, and it isn’t until the start of the 16th minute that something slightly comparable to “Viva La Vida” begins. However, it’s inevitable that a song that long and with that many shifts in style and genre will sound like other songs, and in “Foreigner Suite” we’re pretty sure we hear at least half a dozen Billy Joel songs, the piano coda from Guns n’ Roses’ “Estranged,” some King Tubby dub track and a passing hint of the Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done,” before the supposed “Viva La Vida” piano line even kicks in.

 

Do the two melodies sound similar? Maybe. Do they sound lawsuit similar? Absolutely not. Then again, Coldplay claimed that Satriani’s song “lacked originality” in court, so maybe that’s because “Foreigner Suite” was the original. If “Viva La Vida” is found guilty of plagiarizing Satriani, can Stevens then go and sue Satriani for the money he took from Coldplay? Stay tuned…

See, nothing is entirely new!

Coldplay drummer Will Champion has denied that the band have ripped off any other artists for their music, following Yusuf Islam's (formerly known as Cat Stevens) suggestion that they ripped off his song 'Foreigner Suite' for their own hit 'Viva La Vida'.

 

Furthermore, Chris Martin and co are being sued by guitarist Joe Satriani, who has accused them of plagiarising his song 'If I Could Fly' for the song.

 

However, Champion has insisted that the band are innocent, telling Hamptonroads.com that the band "haven't done anything wrong".

 

He said: "It's tough when people accuse you of stealing something when you know that you didn't. We accept that it's part of the territory and know it is only for some reason the successful songs that seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen. So you go figure it out."

 

The drummer added that he believed some kind of musical crossover between artists was inevitable.

 

"There are elements of our music that I've heard in other people's music," he said, "but a very difficult thing to define. There are only eight notes in an octave and no-one owns them. There are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression. I think it [plagiarism]lies on an intent to steal, which we certainly have never done and never would.

 

"It's unfortunate but it's the way people are. That's that. We're confident we haven't done anything wrong."

As a big fan of Cat Stevens, i am disspointed about his position. Champion is right - there are tausend, millions of songs - and the achords are limited. So , it is very posible to sound somehow similar :rolleyes: .