Tuesday, 17 Jun 2008
File this under N for Nuts:
New York-based Creaky Boards claim that frontman Chris Martin was spotted attending one of their gigs and his band went on to use one of their melodies for a track on their latest LP.
Songwriter Andrew Hoepfner said: “We were flattered when we thought we saw Chris Martin in the crowd that night. He seemed pretty into it. Maybe too into it.
“The crazy thing is that my song is actually called ‘The Songs I Didn’t Write’.”
The above video was created by Andrew Hoepfner to support the claim that Coldplay ripped off one of his songs at an October 2007 CMJ gig. Now, upon first listen, it is amazing how similar the melody is. I’d be inclined to call foul on Chris Martin. But the fact is, his counterclaim makes a lot of sense.
“Viva La Vida was written and demoed in March 2007, which is more than six months before this band claim Chris went to see them!
Martin is also denying he was even present at the gig, saying he was actually in London at the time. Of course, if that’s true, it really takes any and all weight out of the claim. And even if he was, I find it difficult to believe that he’d steal the melody, pen lyrics and have it incorporated into the album that quickly, as Viva La Vida was more or less finished in December of last year (according to Brian Eno).
All of this glosses over the fact that neither song is terribly good. Viva La Vida is probably the most boring track on Coldplay’s newest record, and the song by Creaky Boards is just…well, kind of annoying. But hey, interesting nonetheless, right?
MP3: (International) Noise Conspiracy - Capitalism Stole My Virginity
MP3: Georgie Fame - Somebody Stole My Thunder
- Sean
June 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Most boring track? Really? Have you not heard the album? Even if you hate the album, you’d know it was the least boring track. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
*yawn* PR stunt. It reminds me of when Soul Asylum issued a statement following the Tommy Lee/Pamela Anderson sex tape leak saying that, despite Misery playing during the car ride part, they did not, in fact, soundtrack the tape :) ‘course Soul Asylum had tongue firmly in cheek, a state I’m not entirely sure these Creaky Board chaps are in.
I heard a Telemitry remix of Viva La Vida which is fun. And quadruple kudos for the (International) Noise Conspiracy track inclusion - one of my favorite bands!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Smarmy, (great name, BTW)
While I agree that typically I do not, in fact, know what I’m talking about, I’m standing by my statement. I think ‘Viva La Vida’ is THE dud on an otherwise solid album. It’s so by-the-numbers that if I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed it was written for the iTunes commercial. In fact, it’s the only song I consistently skip.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
hear hear sean its the weakest track on an otherwise excellent fourth album anyone else think it sounds a little pink floyd ala division bell?
June 17th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I heard Ben’s Brother whilst in the produce section of my local grocery store today. Just thought you’d be interested.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I don’t know if I’m interested but Mark might be! ;)
June 18th, 2008 at 12:26 am
It is a very tenuous link, as it should be easy to show that Chris Martin was or was not in the US on that day. As for the similarity, yes it’s striking. But that happens. If they think it’s a serious possibility the song was lifted, they had better come up with something a bit firmer.
A friend of mine that writes for cartoons got an e-mail message from a composer one day claiming that a song he had written was on the web since some date and did he copy the song off the web for the soundtrack?
June 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am
London Calling - YES on the pink floyd!! :)
As for the similarity, the similarity is shaky at best…1-the beat, and melody (maybe) but it’s nothing earth shattering and not out of the realm of possibility that two separate musicians having never met each other (gasp) write a similar beat and melody to a song 2-what reason on earth would Chris Martin have to steal a song from a band from Brooklyn no one’s heard of….before now.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Rhythmically they are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, not to mention scale step wise vocally. They start on the third, but then move in a different direction from there, Coldplay to the upper escape tone ending on the 5th of the V chord, the other song going to the lower escape tone and ending on the 7th of the V chord. They remain to differ from there. Also the bass line in the Coldplay tune is 4 measures (IV, V, I, vi), while the other is 8 (ii, V, I, vi, i, ii, V, I, I). WRONG.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:33 am
To be honest, I’ve never been a Coldplay fan, so this unknown band from NY sounds much better to my ears than the CP song (songs, all of them actually). Hope this controversy will be sorted out. Good luck to Creaky boards!
June 19th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
hey they admit to plagiarizing, Chris Martin has said it directly so I think that that adds a lot to the Creaky Board’s Claim.
“We’re definitely good, but I don’t think you can say we’re that original,†he notes. “I regard us as being incredibly good plagiarists.â€
you cannot deny that.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I don’t think a bit of self-deprecating from Chris Martin really sells me on direct theft. He makes remarks like that all the time, and I don’t think they’re necessarily meant to be taken as literal truth.
Right now I’m with Tenordiddle above - on the surface, the similarities are there, but when you look a bit deeper the two songs are really not that alike.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
wow, um just because they have the same melody means nothing!
whenever i write songs i may unknowingly use melodies i’ve just heard.
they’re not even about the same thing!
and i like coldplay’s “version” better.
whatever.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I’m not a Coldplay fan, but I seriously think this is a matter of coincidence.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
They just had an interview with the Andrew kid on G4 and he seemed really unsure of himself when he was being questioned. That or stoned. He denied outright accusing Coldplay of plagiarism, claiming the title of the YouTube was “a bit of sensationalism to draw them in.” I think that and his frequent ‘um’s and ‘er’s interspersed with his words, constant fidgeting and inability to look at the camera for any real length of time, even (or especially) while speaking. If this was all PR (and I suspect it was) it certainly worked.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 am
This makes one more troubling coincidence as a blog exposed their patent plagiarism of the artworks and title of Viva La Revolution, a CD released in 1999 by Japanese rap band Dragon Ash in 1999!!!
Read it here:
http://sweethomenashville.com/?p=147
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
Sorry Roger, but that link is even more tenuous, as Ash Dragon clearly ‘borrowed’ their artwork from Delacroix as well. And Coldplay made no secret as to the inspiration for their cover art, so that’s hardly plagiarism.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am
I recently heard the song Computer Love by After Dark VA and the song sounds just like Coldplay’s Talk
July 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Christina, ‘Computer Love’ is a song by Kraftwerk, which Coldplay sampled for ‘Talk’.
November 4th, 2008 at 11:17 am
There’s some crappy Joe Satriani song that sounds like these 2 songs too. It’s not so striking a coincidence that songs can sound the same. George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord anyone? There are only a certain number of combinations that can be made. I liked Viva La Vida, that other song sounded stupid. That chorus was shit, even if Chris Martin had stolen it, he improved it.