They just can’t win. As reported here on Friday, UK ballad-producers and castoff-military-gear-sporters Coldplay had their highest-profile plagiarism accusation to date when guitarist Joe Satriani filed suit against the band, saying they’d ripped off one of his songs. Well, Coldplay have responded, calling any resemblance between “Viva La Vida” and Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” “entirely coincidental”:
“If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him,” the band said in a posting on its website.
“Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song ‘Viva La Vida.’ We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours.”
So, take that, right? But Reuters can’t help but have some fun, describing the band in a way that’s gotta make Chris Martin wince:
Coldplay, whose soaring atmospheric tunes have been unfavourably compared to those of U2, brushed off the allegations.
“Unfavourably”? Is that really necessary? I mean, yes, totally, but that doesn’t seem like, you know, reporting. But hey, if Reuters says it, it must be a fact. Either way, it’s a good excuse for me to run my cute Photoshop collage again.
