Coldplay vs. Creaky Boards vs. Cat Stevens?

The "Viva la Vida" plagiarism accusations continue. First it was Joe Satriani, then Marty Balin and now it's Creaky Boards and Cat Stevens (you can read our previous coverage here and here). We get the idea, "Viva la Vida" sounds like a lot of other songs - apparently not as original as Chris and the boys thought it was.

First things first, you're wondering who the heck Creaky Boards is (at least, I was). They don't have a presence on wikipedia yet, but their official website says they're a four member folk-punk group from NYC (though confusingly, most of their photos show five people). The band leader, Andrew Hoepfner claimed Chris Martin stole the melody for "Viva la Vida" after hearing them perform the ironically titled "The Songs I Didn't Write". After Coldplay proved they had written the song before the alleged theft, Creaky Boards retracted the accusations and suggested that both songs were inspired by the video game, The Legend of Zelda. You can watch the youtube video comparison here.

Then there's the British singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens from the 70s - he changed his name when he converted to Islam) who's compared "Viva la Vida" to his nearly 20 minute song "Foreigner Suite". You can see the important parts on youtube here. Yusuf isn't suing Coldplay for plagiarism... yet, saying "it depends on how well Satriani does".

The final verdict: same as before. Not substantial portions. Chord changes aren't enough. As we've discovered, they're all Canon in D in disguise anyway...