Ive listened to some of the tracks from Planet Earth, and the best songs (title track and Chelsea Rodgers) seem to be lifting from other people's material. Of course I havent seen the actual album yet so dont know if he has credited others, but..

Title track - awesome song, but the break in the middle uses "could this be magic" by Barry Manilow.. its not 100% exact, but it is so damn similar that I was thinking to myself when I first heard this... Ive heard this before!!

Chelsea Rodgers lifts the bass link from Daft Punk, "Around the World". I know he probably didnt mean to do that, but this is no defence in a court of law... (Unless he credits Daft Punk of course )

Lastly, I hear on Lion of Judah a guitar riff (and sound) exactly the same as the Police, I think it's "Walking on the Moon" in the background.. if its not its really similar.. Once again he probably didnt know he lifted it when he wrote it.. This one is even harder to prove because its a 3 chord riff, its just that the guitar sound is also really similar, the effects, etc..

anyway I just wanted to get that out!

this stuff is bound to happen
there's only so many notes and ways they can be used
and believe me, daft punk definitely ain't the first to use that bass line

the more music we listen to
the more similarities we'll hear
nothing but a fact

i agree, the daft punk bassline could be a coincidence and probably used by others, but the "could this be magic" part of PE is too close..

i wonder if they sued timberlake for stealing "sexy dancer"?

His lawyers are always ready.

vinx98 said:

I'm less concerned about Prince getting sued and more concerned with you being familiar enough with Barry Manilow songs to know that a Price song sounded like it.

vinx98 said:

yup. it is. i don't care what the legal issues are but that part of the
bridge just ruins the song for me.

it starts out so nice and then you get to the middle and i just can't
concentrate on the song anymore it's like the channel changes to some
shitty pop radio playing "could it be magic" until the next verse and
the guitar swelling come up and it's "planet earth" again.

sucks all the momentum out of the song imo.

there's so much news abt artists stealing material. of course, I've only heard it abt American artists....

.
[Edited 7/11/07 6:29am]

"Guitar"'s riffs sound like U2's "I Will Follow" and the chorus is similar to Beatles "Back in the USSR"

Im proud to say I don't know the Barry Manilow tune you refer to, someone else said Donna Sommer but don't know that one as well...

blumer said:

maybe youve heard the "Take That" version of "Could this be magic" ??

you all should take a course in copyrights. Unless a sample is used its extremely rare that a riff, a chord, chord progression or a vaguely similar melody is protectable.

Prince is innocent.
[Edited 7/11/07 6:41am]

what about the fact that Pharell's been freeloading on Prince's music for about hmmm close to 10 years now..?

emesem said:

cool, Im gonna go home and copy the drum beat from alphabet street on my next song.

Similarities are not enough. I doubt Prince would be successfully sued.

Remember when Tom Petty was trying to sue the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Ridiculous.

unfortunately another thread that started a good discussion about the title track planet earth and the barry manilow song was locked.

Most people seem unaware that the Barry Manilow song is based on a piece of classical music. Basically Manilow used a copyright free piece of haunting classical music and built a song upon that foundation.

Prince may very well also be lifting the same classical music. I haven't heard it yet, but the original music is:

Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C Minor, Opus 28, Number 20.

ufoclub said:

if thats the case, then Prince can legally use it.

I remember the famous case when Ray Parker Jnr was sued for using the bassline of Huey Lewis and the News "I wanna new drug" on his smash hit "Ghostbusters". It was only the bassline! And he was sued! His career has never been the same since...

vinx98 said:

Manilow co-wrote 'Could It Be Magic' and the chord structure is based on the Chopin Prelude. In fact, at the end of the track, the song breaks down just to the chords to reveal that it is Chopin.

The similarity of the song with 'Planet Earth' has nothing to do with the chord structure - it is the bridge melody which is reminiscent of the Manilow song.

Personally, I think it also sounds like one of those fancy contrived bridges Prince slots into some of his songs, and doubt whether any of the instances described above would be considered deliberate plagiarism.

langebleu said:

That might be true Bargearse, but it doesnt matter if its delberate or not.. he can still be sued..

You guys are fucking stupid knee jerk wanna be know it alls.

Prince used a g chord which is the same exact chord in a Barry Manilow song, not sure if he gave credit to Barry for that.


On SOmewhere on Earth it sounds just like Luther at the end, I wonder if he gave Luther credit for that vocal run.



Hey Guitar has guitar Chords in it, maybe the Beatles made up Guitar Chords.

I'd like to see who has the nutz to take Prince to court over lifting their stuff.

Yes....Timberflake should get sued for recording 'until the end of time' which is dripping purple

Ronny said:

his half sister did over U got the Look and lost.

Alamine said:

[Edited 7/11/07 10:51am]

Alamine said:

no shit eh?
all music is recycled.

Shorty said:

Hey he used some horns, I wonder if he gave credit to the horn makers

Alamine said:

have yo actually heard the song? the actual tune has been copied, not a chord, not a horn - but the tune itself. The money maker. all music is recycled, but if you copy a tune, you need to pay the writer. thats the law and that's what's fair.
[Edited 7/11/07 11:51am]

vinx98 said:

note for note?

ufoclub said:

Shorty said:

about 90%, i see where you are going with this, but when Vanilla Ice copied under pressure, he just changed one note of the song and got away with it, even though we all knew it was under pressure!