(New York) On trial in New York, the current king of English pop Ed Sheeran defended himself on Tuesday for having plagiarized the famous song by American Marvin Gaye, let’s get it onfor its global success thinking out loudan emblematic case of musical creation and copyright.
It’s the second trial in a year for the 32-year-old British singer and songwriter, who won a separate court battle in London’s High Court last April that dismissed two musicians accusing him of copying one of their works, for his mega hit Shape of you.
This time the plaintiffs are the heirs of Ed Townsend, an American musician and producer who co-wrote let’s get it on with Marvin Gaye. Released in 1973, this soul classic has gone down in history for its guitar notes and sensual vocals from the prince of soul and the Motown label.
” Yes, [la compositrice] Amy Wadge and I wrote the song thinking out loud “, assured before the court Mr. Sheeran, questioned by the lawyers of the plaintiffs, according to the account of the New York Times present in the courtroom.
Earlier, dressed in a black suit over a white shirt and a blue tie, the artist had arrived in Manhattan federal court, head bowed, without saying a word to the forest of cameras.
He was followed by Townsend’s daughter, Kathryn Townsend Griffin, who told the press that she was “here for justice, to protect the intellectual property of [s]we father”.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Ben Crump, launched by taking up the title of the tube let’s get it on “As Marvin Gaye would have said, let’s go!” “.
In their copyright infringement claim, Townsend’s heirs claim there are “striking resemblances” to thinking out loudreleased in 2014.
They want proof that the group Boyz 2 Men had mixed the two songs on stage. Ed Sheeran himself had chained in concert the very different voice lines of the two hits, on the same guitar harmonies, a sequence still visible on the internet.
“Confession”
At the hearing, according to New York TimesMe Crump relied on a fan video at a 2014 concert showing Ed Sheeran “mixing” his track to Marvin Gaye’s.
A “tangible proof” and even a “confession”, attacked the lawyer.
Ed Sheeran admitted that he “mixed one song with another” in concert and his lawyer Ilene Farkas claimed that his client had created thinking out loud independently and without copying let’s get it ondespite the musical similarities between the two songs.
According to the defense of the Briton, “there are dozens, even hundreds of songs before and after let’s get it on that use the same or similar chord progression”.
Ed Sheeran’s hit ranked 2e on the Billboard Hot 100, the American benchmark ranking and won the Grammy Award for best song of the year in 2016.
The complaint, filed in 2016, was first dismissed on a procedural issue, then filed again in 2017, also against Sony.
As in New York, Ed Sheeran had moved in person to defend his song Shape of you in the previous trial in London, a case he considered emblematic of abusive practices that undermine creation.
The London judge had agreed with Ed Sheeran, considering that he had not copied, even “unconsciously”, part of the melody of the song Oh why (2015) by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
The judge had noted “obvious similarities” between the two songs, with a melody resulting in particular from the minor pentatonic scale like “countless songs from pop, rock, folk and blues”, but also “important differences”.
The African-American Marvin Gaye is considered one of the great artists of soul and popular music of the last century. Born in 1939 in Washington, he died in 1984 in Los Angeles, killed by his father after an argument on the eve of his 45e anniversary.