andPOP » Joe Satriani

13 Songs That Famously Ripped Off Others

@coltondaniel — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:27:43 +0000

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There’s a fine line between sampling a song and straight ripping off someone else’s artistic integrity. Imitation is recognized as the highest form of flattery – but at what point does it go too far?

Most recently, Madonna finally spoke out about her insane influence of Lady Gaga, with focus on ‘Born This Way‘ and it’s similarity with Madge’s 1989 hit ‘Express Yourself’. And in the spirit of that buzz – we’re delighted to bring you a little sampling, thirteen songs that famously ripped off others (and were pretty successful in their own right). Some of which dealt with court settlements and others were able to slip through the legal cracks. For those arguing that the likes of Hammer and Vanilla Ice had the right to sample – both were busted by the predecessors for their use. Ice even argued in an episode of VH1′s ‘Behind the Music’ that it was completely original and the sampling accusations were bogus.

Tell us what you think! Below are thirteen examples, first being the song that ripped off the following song:

Jennifer Lopez “On The Floor (Ft. Pitbull)” VS. Los Kjarkas “Lloranda se fue”

MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This” VS. Rick James “Superfreak”

Sean Kingston “Me Love” VS. Led Zeppelin “D’yer Mak’er”

Sum 41 “Pieces” VS. Coldplay “The Scientist”

Ray Parker Jr. “Ghostbusters” VS. Huey Lewis “I Want A New Drug”

Red Hot Chili Peppers “Dani California” VS. Tom Petty “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”

Flo Rida “Right Round” VS. Dead Or Alive “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”

The Offspring “Why Don’t You Get A Job” VS. The Beatles “Ob La Di Ob La Da”

Vanilla Ice “Ice Ice Baby” VS. Queen & David Bowie “Under Pressure”

Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” VS. The Rubinoos “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”

Coldplay “Viva La Vida” VS. Joe Satriani “If I Could Fly”

Green Day “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” VS. Oasis “Wonderwall”

Fergie “Fergalicious” VS. J.J. Fad “Supersonic”

Interview: Joe Satriani Just Wants to Rock

Sara Harowitz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:41:20 +0000

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Getting a peek into guitarist Joe Satriani’s brain is like opening up a musical wonderland where perhaps not everything makes sense, but everything is fascinating.

Songs are constantly forming in his head, and he was taught from a young age a very interesting way of dealing with it.

“Ever since high school I was taught to pay attention to the little noises and musical daydreams in my head, and to learn how to catalogue them mentally in musical terms so that I wouldn’t forget them,” the 54-year-old told andPOP. “You follow the creative musician in your head so you don’t have to depend on your fingers.”

Satriani does this by assigning each note in, for example, the classic “do re mi fa so la te do” scheme with a number from one to eight. He memorizes the specific number scheme, and then later relates each back to its respective note to retrieve his melody.

“If you’re sitting in a cafe and all you have is a napkin and your girlfriend’s eyeliner, it’s going to be tough to write that down,” Satriani said with a laugh.

Aside from being an amazing musician, Satriani recently tapped into another creative facet when he joined the team behind his latest DVD, Live in Paris: I Just Wanna Rock, which was released on Feb. 2 (a two-disc live CD was also released). Acting as producer of the DVD, he had a major role in its production.

“You don’t just want to be blown around like a leaf in the wind because then people will make decisions and people don’t know your audience like you do,” he said. “Doing something creative and pushing into new territory is very important for the soul of an artist.”

The DVD was filmed at Paris, France’s Grand Rex Theatre in May 2008 and, according to Satriani, is unlike any other live DVD he has made.

“We wanted this DVD to get the person at home to imagine the intensity of the feeling of actually being there,” he said. “It was very unique light show on that tour.”

For Satriani, the choice to make the DVD in Paris was easy. He said his best show ever was in Paris during his first tour back in 1988.

“We have just the greatest history with Paris,” said Satriani, a New York native. “We fell in love with the Parisians.”

Besides the intensity of the show, Satriani said the DVD also allows fans to see a different side of him. Instead of the usual silly behind-the-scenes footage featured on past DVDs, this one has an in-depth interview that highlights Satriani’s calmer side.

“It’s kind of an interesting flip flop,” he said.

In contrast, Satriani and his new band, Chickenfoot, are releasing a live DVD in a few months, with bonus features that he says are “like a comedy show.”

And though Live in Paris features a different side of the guitarist, it is still every bit as Joe Satriani.

“We had no preparation which was great,” he said. “Very rock n’ roll!”

Coldplay Dodge The Wrath of Deep Purple

Emma Renda — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:03:00 +0000

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Coldplay’s music is about as unconfrontational as a banana. And yet somehow, their entire career has been plagued with criticism and controversy from the music world and beyond.

Aside form vicious accusations of being “soft-rock” and the next U2 (which, I have to point out, aren’t exactly negative qualities when you are raking in millions of dollars and married to Gwenyth Paltrow), Coldplay were accused last year of ripping off said soft-rock from Deep Purple, no less.

The lawsuit was filed in December by none other than guitar god Joe Satriani, who claimed Coldplay padded their massive hit “Viva la Vida” with large parts of his song “If I Could Fly.”

This happened last December and it took until now for the band to settle up with Satriani. Although Coldplay will not have to admit any wrongdoing, according to the confirmed reports on Billboard.com, the judge has settled the case under an undisclosed stipulation. Essentially, this translates to Coldplay handing over a sum of cash in exchange for Satriani’s compliance.

It’s a highly less climatic outcome in one of the more publicized cases of musical theft, so to speak, but this move will likely be more lucrative for Satriani than actually releasing another album.