It’s been almost a week since Joe Satriani accused Coldplay of plagiarizing his song “If I Could Fly” for their own “Via La Vida.” And now, finally, the quartet has officially rebuked the charges, though in the politest of terms, of course. Posted to their website (via Stereogum) last night, the official statement reads, in part, “Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song ‘Viva La Vida.’ We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours.”
Based on an exclusive interview with the bald guitarist published at Musicradar.com on Sunday, we somehow doubt Satriani is going to accept Coldplay’s kind assurances and quietly walk away. “I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," says Satriani, describing the first time he heard the song. (Jeez, we didn’t think the song was that bad.) Satriani stressed that he isn’t simply going after Chris Martin, that he tried contacting Coldplay numerous times about "If I Could Fly"—which he wrote as a “love letter” to his wife, Rubina—in order to avoid a lawsuit. But the band ignored him, assuming "this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while." Not so…
