Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud 'sounds similar' to Marvin Gaye hit, says expert
A music expert has said Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud "sounds very, very similar" to the classic Marvin Gaye song Let's Get If On.
Dr Alexander Stewart was called to testify on Wednesday during Sheeran's high-profile copyright trial.
Ed is being sued over a claim he copied parts of the Marvin Gaye hit to use on his own track Thinking Out Loud. The 32-year-old is being sued by the heirs of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Gaye.
They are claiming that Sheeran should share the wealth from the profits of his 2014 track.
Taking to the stand, Dr Stewart said that in his view, the two songs "have the same harmonic rhythm," referring to the rate of change of the chords.
Ed Sheeran says 'turbulent things' have happened in personal life in rare video
Ed Sheeran is being sued over copyright infringement (Elder Ordonez / SplashNews.com)
It's claimed he copied a Marvin Gaye hit (Getty Images)Dr Stewart added that the chord progression in the two songs "sound very, very similar" in his opinion. He said he sees melodic similarities in the verse, chorus and interlude of Ed's tune, according to CNN.
Sheeran's lawyers have argued that both songs use common music building blocks.
In his opening statement on Tuesday, Ed's lawyer Ilene Farkas insisted that Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge wrote their song independently and did not infringe of the copyright from Townsend and Gaye's song.
She said they "created this heartfelt song without copying Let’s Get It On".
Sheeran's lawyer said the chord progression and basic music building blocks in Thinking Out Loud are used frequently.
Ed also took to the stand on Tuesday and insisted he would have been an "idiot" to copy Marvin's song.
Ed arrived at court with a security guard on Wednesday (AP)While being questioned by Keisha Rice, a lawyer for Townsend's heirs, Sheeran was also asked about his song Take It Back which contains the lyric "plagiarism is hidden".
"Those are my lyrics, yep," Ed responded before asking if he could "give some context to them".
The lawyer said she would ask if she needed more context.
Ed was then questioned about a video from one of his concerts during which he performed a mashup of Thinking Out Loud with Let's Get It On.
Ed Sheeran and wife Cherry's sweet romance from teen crush to health update
The musician explained how he sometimes mixed songs with similar chords at his gigs, but was cut off by Rice.
According to Reuters, Ed said: "I feel like you don't want me to answer because you know that what I'm going to say is actually going to make quite a lot of sense."
The trial could last up to two weeks (Getty Images)Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing heirs of Ed Townsend, focused his opening statement on how Sheeran had merged the two songs in concert.
He said this was equivalent to a "confession".
"We have a smoking gun," he said while announcing the jurors will see footage from the concert.
Crump said the legal battle is all about "giving credit where credit is due".
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 has finally made it to a trial which is expected to last up to two weeks in the Manhattan federal courtroom.
If the jury finds Sheeran liable for copyright infringement, the trial will enter a second phase to determine how much he and his labels owe in damages.
The trial continues.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
