Did Ed Sheeran copy Marvin Gaye? Singer breaks out guitar in court defence – National
Singer Ed Sheeran was used to performing in sold-out stadiums, but he traded that up when he briefly performed in a packed New York courtroom in an ongoing copyright lawsuit over Marvin Gaye’s soul classic. bottom. Let’s Get It On.
Sheeran, the first witness in his own defense, testified for about an hour and played a snippet of the hit song in question. Thoughts were spoken.
Sheeran is in court this week as part of a lawsuit filed by her husband’s heiress in 2017. Let’s Get It On Co-writer Ed Townsend, who worked with Gaye on a soulful track. The lawsuit alleges that Sheeran, 32, and his co-writer Amy Wadge deliberately plagiarized the song’s iconic four-chord sequence.
Sheeran categorically denies he copied or was influenced by Let’s Get It On.
On the stand, Sheeran talked about his songwriting process and said it was inspired by his real life. thoughts were spoken It was written about the lifelong love between his grandparents, his grandfather’s recent death, and his own blossoming romantic relationship.
Sheeran said he and Wadge worked together to write the song while she was visiting his home in the UK. He testified that he sang the brainstormed “I’m sing out now” line while Wadge strummed chords.
“When you write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” he said.
Sheeran then pulled an acoustic guitar from behind the witness stand and strummed some chords. thoughts were spokenI sang the opening lyric, “If my legs don’t move like they used to.” The Associated Press reported that a short musical occurrence brought smiles to those watching in the gallery.
“And then the words come in,” Sheeran explained, adding that co-writer Wadge developed the song’s opening chord progression.
He said that songwriting came naturally to him and was often a quick process completed in a day. Sheeran testified that he can write up to nine songs in a day.
Early in the trial, Townshend’s heir’s attorney showed the jury what he said was “smoking gun” proving that Sheeran had copied. Let’s Get It On — concert video of live mashup A performance in which he sang both songs. Townsend’s attorney, Ben Crump, said the performance was a “confession” of plagiarism.
In initial testimony on Tuesday, Sheeran denied the video was evidence and said it was “very easy to jump in and out of songs” if they were in the same key.
“It’s stupid to be on stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,” Sheeran said of blatant plagiarism. “Most pop songs fit in most pop songs.”
A musicologist called by Townshend’s heirs testified Wednesday: thoughts were spoken and Let’s Get It On share striking similarities.
Let’s Get It On Since its release in 1973, it has been heard in countless movies and commercials and has garnered hundreds of millions of streams, spins and radio plays. thoughts were spoken 2016 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop hit for your lovewas a singer, songwriter and lawyer. He passed away in his 2003. His daughter, Kathryn Townsend Griffin, is leading the lawsuit. She is suing Townshend’s sister, Helen MacDonald, along with the estate of Ed Townshend’s ex-wife Sherigale Townshend.
“I think Mr. Sheeran is a great artist with a great future,” she said in her testimony, adding that she didn’t want it to get to this point. I won’t.”
The trial comes a year after Sheeran won a similar copyright lawsuit involving his biggest hits. your shape. At the time, Sheeran said the lawsuit was “doing great damage to the songwriting industry.”
In early 2017, Sheeran announced that his song photograph Shared a striking similarity to Matt Cardle’s song wonderful. He has since said he regrets the settlement.
The trial between Sheeran and Townsend’s heirs is scheduled to resume on Monday.
— with files from The Associated Press
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