Yahoo News Ed Sheeran says he'd be 'an idiot' to perform a song that copies from 'Let's Get It On' in court testimony
Ed Sheeran took the stand to testify against claims that his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud" copied key elements from Marvin Gaye's 1973 soul classic "Let's Get It On" in a New York courtroom on Tuesday.
The British musician was sued for copyright infringement in 2016 by the descendants of late songwriter Ed Townsend, who helped co-write Gaye's single. They claim that Sheeran's song violates their copyright because it contains "striking similarities" and "overt common elements" from the original song, the Associated Press reports.
While on the witness stand, Sheeran addressed video footage from a 2014 concert that showed him performing a mash-up of "Thinking Out Loud" and "Let's Get It On," which plaintiff attorney Ben Crump had claimed earlier was the equivalent to a "confession." However, Sheeran maintained that it was "quite simple to weave in and out of songs," especially if they're in the same key.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images Ed Sheeran
"If I'd done what you're accusing me of doing, I'd be an idiot to stand on stage in front of 20,000 people and do that," Sheeran said. "It is my belief that most pop songs are built on building blocks that have been freely available for hundreds of years."
The artist, who noted that he often performs song medleys during his concerts, proceeded to list a series of other tracks that share similar chord progressions, like Lewis Capaldi's 2019 single "Someone You Loved" and Van Morrison's 1970s hit "Crazy Love," per PEOPLE.
Throughout his questioning, Sheeran sparred with the plaintiff's lawyers, especially when they shared lyrics to his song "Take It Back" — which includes the line "And never once I get bitten / Because plagiarism is hidden" — but didn't ask him to explain the meaning behind the lyrics.
"I feel like you don't want me to answer because what I'm going to say is going to make quite a lot of sense," Sheeran said.
Sheeran, who explained that he first heard "Let's Get It On" when he saw the 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me as a kid, said he and co-writer Amy Wadge drew inspiration for "Thinking Out Loud" from his grandparent's love story.
In his opening statement, Crump said the trial was "about giving credit where credit is due," while Sheeran's attorney Ilene Farkas noted how it's become "exceedingly common" to hear similar chord progressions in popular songs that are "so basic" they can't be owned by any particular person.
Kathryn Griffin Townsend, the daughter of Ed Townsend, also took to the stand, saying it was "never my intention going into this to be sitting in this courtroom."
"This is not about wanting something for nothing or being referred to, as some heirs are, as a copyright troll," she said. "I promised my father that I would protect my father's intellectual properties as he did."
She added, "I think Mr. Sheeran is a great artist with a great future. Mr. Sheeran, I want you to know I didn't want to come to this, but I have to protect my father's legacy."
This isn't the first time Sheeran has been sued for copyright infringement for one of his songs. Last April, he won a case against him in the U.K. over his 2017 single "Shape of You" and slammed the dangerous precedent set by lawsuits like this in a subsequent Instagram video.
"I'm not an entity. I'm not a corporation. I'm a human being, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a son," he said at the time. "Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience, and I hope that this ruling, it means in the future baseless claims like this can be avoided. This really does have to end."
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