They are not for no reason. By saying "he's retarded", that is implying that retarded is the same thing as stupid or any other derogatory remark, and it is most definitely NOT. It's just respect. And Ant, I'm not bashing you, we all slip, I'm just explaining why it's not for no reason.
SHit, it really does have the same melody. And the rhythm line is really similar too. Take the effects off the Coldplay song and that's what it would sound like...
Rules are rules. You agreed to them when you signed up for the forum. And you obviously have no idea who Joe Satriani is. How sad. He's played for Mick Jagger, Deep Purple, worked with members of Van Halen, played on albums by Alice Cooper, Spinal Tap, Blue Oyster Cult, and contributed to an album by Dream Theater. He's also the guy who has taught (and I'm taking this part from Wikipedia) Kirk Hammett (Metallica), David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind), Larry LaLonde (Primus, Possessed), Alex Skolnick (Testament), Rick Hunolt (Exodus), Phil Kettner (Lääz Rockit), Geoff Tyson, Charlie Hunter, Jude Gold, Steve Vai, and Adam Johnson (Ylond in Blue Galaxies). He definitely has enough money and arguably has more exposure than Coldplay ever will.
That may all be true but Joe Satriani still doesn't have half the exposure Coldplay does currently and I seriously doubt the amount of money. The majority of Joe Satriani's fanbase and listeners is people who play guitar and are into guitar-related stuff and he acknowledges that fact himself. As for the rules, I may have agreed to them, but that does not mean I am not allowed to critique them.
As far as his monetary situation is concerned, I'm sure he's got as much, if not more than, Coldplay. He's been playing a lot longer than Coldplay has.
all this talk of plagiarism reminds me of that time when nickleback tried to sue another band for writing all their songs using exactly the same melody and system as his... but than he realized that all those songs were actually his own...
[youtube]OEGGFJLpbu4[/youtube] Music teacher breaks it down. I love Coldplay to death, but this is far too similar to not at least be influenced by Joe Satriani.
Couldn't disagree more. We've already seen one group unsuccessfully sue Coldplay because they had a similar tune, and it sounded even more similar than these two. So, both Coldplay and the former band that sued them ripped off Satriani? Can't we ever just chalk stuff up to "great minds think alike"? Of all the artists out there, two well-known artists happen to share a riff that is somewhat similar. Four of the notes in a row, in fact, are the same (well, one is different in a minor way). Given all the artists out there, that's not exactly too hard to occur in my mind. I watched the video and it was interesting, but it didn't prove anything to me.
Don't forget Satch's side. Source: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/joe_satriani_talks_about_coldplay_lawsuit.html
So it seems that people have found one or two earlier pieces where the musicians performing them have somehow managed to rip of Satch BEFORE he released that track. How deep does the rabbit hole go? Seriously though, I think the amount of pieces that implement a similar part that have emerged just goes to show how easy it can be for things like this to happen by coincidence. I'm willing to bet this melody and progression have been used millions of times over the years, the difference being that now a song that uses them has ended up becoming extremely well-known. Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure the guitar from What I've Done's chorus comes pretty close to one of the main guitar parts from Blueprint by Fugazi, not to mention that Mike is a fan of theirs which means there is the possibility that it could have been inspired by that, whether consciously or not. I'm guessing Ian Mackaye and Guy Picciotto are just too trill to stir shit over it though.