FIVE COPYCATS?

FIVE COPYCATS?

Herman Melville once remarked that, “It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation”. Unfortunately, he had been dead for a century by the time Vanilla Ice was riding unaccredited Bowie and Queen samples to the top of the charts, and was therefore unable to offer any more wisdom on the topic of plagiarism. Instead we’re left with people like Jade Goody dribbling brain-dead tidbits like “Sherlock Holmes invented toilets”. No wonder the Western World is going down the pan. Here are five who redefined ‘intellectual property’…

Joe Satriani vs. Coldplay
Last month saw super un-trendy guitar instrumentalist of yore Joe Satriani issue Coldplay with a writ, claiming the snooze-rockers had nicked his song ‘If I Could Fly’ and turned it into the single ‘Viva La Vida’. Evidence? Well, a YouTube video featuring both songs played at the same time proved Satriani could make Coldplay sound like ‘Chinese Democracy’, but did little to suggest the band had ripped him off, not least because Satriani’s song in turn sounds the same as Enenitos Verdes’ ‘Frances Limon’. And until this whole business, we hadn’t heard of them, either…

Green Day vs. Obscure British Rockers
“Well people, as you no doubt already have heard Green Day is being sued by Britisch band ‘The Other Garden’ (who the hell are they??)” aschked Dutch fansite Maximum Green Day in January 2000. Well, the obscure Cambridge band believed that their 1992 song ‘Never Got The Chance’ had been “reworked” by Billy Joe and co. into ‘Warning’, and attempted to sue the Californian rockers for $150,000. It was a cheeky attempt at cashing in, really, as both songs stole their central riff from The Kinks’ ‘Picture Book’, and were schit.

Madonna vs. Obscure Belgian Pop Star
Stand tall Salvatore Acquaviva of Belgium, for sticking it to the Skeletor-handed, blessed-water-guzzling, A-bomb-proof pop-cockroach that is Madonna. When Madge released ‘Frozen’ in 1998, he immediately demanded to know why it featured the first four bars from his unloved 1979 song ‘Ma Vie Fout L’camp’. Seven years of wrangling later and the courts agreed, meaning that to this day, it’s still not allowed on Belgian radio on Thursdays. What a fascinatingly pointless place Belgium is.

The Strokes vs. Apathy
It’s not always lawsuits and catfights in the world of plagiarism. Sometimes artists just don’t care. Take The Strokes’ generation-defining anthem ‘Last Nite’, the riff from which they freely admit to stealing from the Tom Petty classic ‘American Girl’. When Rolling Stone asked about the band’s theft in 2006, Petty simply replied, “The Strokes took “American Girl”, and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, ‘OK, good for you.’ It doesn’t bother me.” Try telling that to the Belgians, Tom.

The Hives vs. Jason Shapiro
“I absolutely love The Hives and don’t feel great about suing a band I love,” Californian musician Jason Shapiro told LA Weekly in October last year. “But I also feel credit is due where it is due if you borrow a riff.” On hearing the garage revivalists’ song ‘Tick Tick Boom’, Shapiro felt so strongly that it was his song ‘Why You?’ that he immediately consulted a musicologist. “He said the part in question – the main riff and vocal melody – was very similar.” The Hives? Garage revivalists? Using old riffs? Jason’s not really very bright, is he?