I am sorry to double post my blog, but this really made me smile.

I am presently interested in music rights because of a book I am writing so it was quite ironic to discover this little gem:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/05/coldplay-yusuf-islam

The offending snippet of tune is based on the piano riffs some 5 minutes and 20 seconds into the song. The song in question is a very long folk/jazz opus full of acoustic guitars and Cat's snatchy vocal sighs that runs in at about 18 minutes in total. (Yusuf Islam is perhaps better known as Cat Stevens....)

"There's been this argument about Coldplay stealing this melody from Joe Satriani," Islam told the Sun. "But, if you listen to it, it's mine! It's the Foreigner Suite. It is!"

However, Joe Satriani is suing the British band, claiming that the same melody (Viva La Vida) is really If I Could Fly, an instrumental recorded in 2004.

In my humble opinion, all of them need to listen to Rachmaninoff. (Or perhaps they did and then jazzed it up a bit!!!) Shame he is too dead to sue anyone.... he could have been extremely rich with all the accidental quotes from rock, pop and jazz bands if only he'd been alive enough to pursue the music rights!

Oh well....