Cat Stevens Absolves Coldplay’s Plagiarism Sin

That was fast. A little over a month ago Cat Stevens unleashed the hounds of copyright upon Coldplay for allegedly stealing the melody of one of his tunes for their big hit “Viva La Vida.”

But now the singer-songwriter, who goes by the name Yusuf Islam, has forgiven Chris Martin and Coldplay’s musical misbehavior – even though he totally knows they ripped him off.

“I stand by what I said,” Islam told the Daily Express. “They did copy my song but I don’t think they did it on purpose. I have even copied myself without even knowing I have done it. I’ll write down what I think is a good melody and realise it’s the same as something I have already done.

“I don’t want them to think I am angry with them. I’d love to sit down and have a cup of tea with them and let them know it’s okay.”

There you have it: Cat Stevens plagiarizes himself and wants to have tea with Coldplay. Case closed.

The plagiarism claim by Cat Stevens was made all the more newsworthy because it followed rock guitarist Joe Satriani’s charge that his 2004 song “If I Could Fly” was also lifted by Coldplay’s for “Viva La Vida.”

Clearly there’s a lot more going on in that song than I’m aware of.

The Satriani case has been filed in a Los Angeles court. But Cat Stevens won’t be joining Satriani in the courtroom, which should be a relief for Coldplay. It’s not as if they robbed a bank, but no band wants to deal with allegations of stealing another artists’ riff. The band has denied both claims of plagiarism.

Now if the next Coldplay album should feature a song that sounds a bit too much like “Moonshadow,” well… it might be big trouble.

Coldplay are reported to have already begun working on their new album, the follow-up to Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which is rumored to be more experimental in style.

No word if Chris Martin has unloaded all his Cat Stevens albums yet. You know, maybe he should just toss all his records – to be safe.

What do you think of Stevens just letting them off the hook?