Brit Music Scene

McCartney: The Beatles Discussed A Reunion

Posted: 15 Sep 2009 08:03 PM PDT

The Beatles officially split up in 1970 after recording the Let It Be album. Paul McCartney was the first to go but it’s thought all four members knew the band’s time was coming to an end anyway. They left a legacy and back catalog of music that is still felt and heard to this day. Especially with the release of remastered albums and The Beatles: Rock Band video game.

However, it appears it could have all been so different, as Paul McCartney has revealed to Entertainment Tonight that the band seriously discussed a reunion. In the decade after The Beatles split but before John Lennon was shot in New York in 1980, there were several offers forwarded to the group, and none were dismissed out of hand.

McCartney stated:

“We talked about it a lot and we always said that if we did [reunite] it might not be great, whereas The Beatles’ career had been great. We’d gone from A to Z and it had been a great journey. If now we were going to go to ‘Z plus’ and it wasn’t very good, you’d ruin the whole thing,”

“Even though the offers were huge, and there were people [saying] ‘I’ll pay you this to do it!’ we talked about it and we sort of said ‘nah’. [There was] something not right about it.”

I’d agree with that decision. It wasn’t as if any of The Beatles exactly needed the cash as they were all rich by then and set for life thanks to continuing royalty payouts. So why would they have taken the risk of ruining the legacy of The Beatles in the 1960s by reuniting for monetary reasons, regardless of how much was being offered.

We’ve been left with a decade’s worth of music that is unlikely to ever die, and that is something truly wonderful. Had The Beatles gone ahead with the reunion and not lived up to the hype surrounding it then we may all feel different about the group today. And that, for a band with appeal across the generations, would be a crying shame.

[Photo Source: Newscom]

Post from: Brit Music Scene

Coldplay Vs. Joe Satriani Plagiarism Lawsuit Dismissed

Posted: 15 Sep 2009 12:37 PM PDT

The end of last year saw rock guitarist Joe Satriani suing Coldplay for plagiarism. He accused the British group of ripping off his song If I Could Fly with their song Viva La Vida. Satriani said at the time he was seeking all profits from the Coldplay track because they stole "substantial original portions" from his own original composition.

Coldplay Viva La Vida Single Cover Artwork

Now, according to NME, the case has been dismissed from California Central District Court “upon stipulation.” This implies that an out of court settlement was reached between the two parties although that has yet to be confirmed. The judge has ordered both sides to pay their own costs.

I’m glad this has been settled although I’d like to see what the settlement was before celebrating. I was completely on the side of Coldplay on this one, and not just because they are a British band. For me, similarities between songs are a part of life and a trend likely to increase the longer pop music is around.

The fact that there are also similarities between both the Coldplay and Satriani tracks with a Cat Stevens song, which coincidentally pre-dated both by a fair margin, suggests this was pure coincidence. And I hope the settlement reflected that.

[Photo Source: Amazon.co.uk]

Post from: Brit Music Scene