Ed Sheeran returns to court with his assistant carrying a guitar as $100m copyright trial accusing him of ripping off Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On classic for his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud enters week two
- Sheeran appeared outside the New York court on Monday morning
- He is being sued for ripping off Marvin Gaye’s 1973 soul classic ‘Let’s Get it On’
Ed Sheeran was seen arriving at a federal court in New York City on Monday for the second week of a trial in which he is accused of ripping off a Marvin Gaye classic.
The singer appeared outside the court on Monday morning dressed in a suit and with his guitar in tow.
Last week he played his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ in the court to convince a jury that parts were not lifted from Gaye’s 1973 soul classic ‘Let’s Get it On’.
The family of Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend, say there are ‘striking similarities’ between the tracks and his estate is suing for $100 million.
Witnesses began testifying last Tuesday and at the time the trial was expected to last around a week.
Ed Sheeran was seen arriving at a federal court in New York City on Monday for the second week of a copyright infringement trial
The singer appeared outside the court on Monday morning with his guitar in tow
Also seen arriving at the court on Monday morning was the Townsend family and their attorney, Benjamin Crump.
Sheeran was the first witness to testify in his defense at Manhattan’s federal court on Thursday.
Sheeran described his process for writing the song about everlasting love soon after he began a new romantic relationship and after his grandfather died.
‘I draw inspiration a lot from things in my life and family,’ said Sheeran.
Sheeran said his friend and collaborator Amy Wadge started strumming the chords for the song during a visit to his home in England, and that they collaborated on the lyrics.
On the stand, he sang the phrase ‘I’m singing out now,’ which he said he sang during his songwriting session with Wadge.
Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the daughter of Ed Townsend, is pictured outside the court on Monday
He said the phrase sounded like, ‘I’m thinking out loud,’ which ultimately became the title.
‘When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,’ Sheeran said.
He then picked up a guitar from behind the witness stand, played the chord progression to the song, and sang the opening words: ‘When your legs don’t work like they used to.’
Lawyers for the heirs, Benjamin Crump, last week displayed a video of Sheeran transitioning seamlessly between ‘Thinking Out Loud and ‘Let’s Get it On’ in a live performance they said amounted to a confession that he had ripped off the song.
‘We have a smoking gun,’ he said, and added that the case was about ‘giving credit where credit is due’.
Benjamin Crump, the attorney to the Townsend estate, attends court on Monday morning
A stretcher was brought in to assist her following her collapse
Sheeran responded to that accusation by telling the jury that he regularly combines songs as part of the live performance.
‘I mash up songs at lots of gigs. Many songs have similar chords. You can go from “Let It Be” to “No Woman No Cry” and switch back,’ he said.
Ed Sheeran’s lawsuits
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is one of the best-selling artists of all time and is worth around $200million.
The pop singer has also faced a number of lawsuits alleging copyright issues.
In 2016, he was sued by songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard for $20million. They said his single Photograph copied elements of their song, Amazing.
In 2017, the heirs of Ed Townsend filed the Let’s Get it On case. The case was dismissed without prejudice.
A year later, the estate filed a new lawsuit. Despite Sheeran’s attempts to have it dismissed again, it has gone ahead.
Last year, Sheeran won a copyright battle at the High Court in London over his 2017 song Shape Of You.
Sheeran had been sued by musician Sami Chokri over the similarities with a refrain in the song.
Mr Chokri claimed the phrase ‘Oh I’ in Sheeran’s song was ‘strikingly similar’ to the ‘Oh Why’ hook in his track.
Shape Of You was the UK’s best-selling song of 2017 in the UK.
‘And quite frankly, if I’d done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,’ he added.
His song topped charts in both the UK and the United States. In 2016 it won a Grammy Award for song of the year but in 2017 Townsend’s family sued for copyright infringement.
Kathryn Townsend Griffin, who is among Townsend’s heirs suing Sheeran – fell while trying to leave Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday.
She was helped up by several people but had to be stretchered out of court and was taken to hospital.
Her lawyers did not say what caused her to faint but said she has a pre-existing medical condition.
The incident caused a seven-minute delay before Judge Louis Stanton ordered the proceedings to continue.
Music expert Alexander Stewart outlined the similarities between the two hit songs, noting how they ‘have the same harmonic rhythm’ while pointing out melodic similarities in the verse, chorus and interlude.
A computer generated version of Let’s Get it On was played in court during Stewart’s testimony, which took up all of the proceedings on Wednesday.
Insider reported that laughter broke out in the courtroom as the computer-generated version of Let’s Get it On was played to highlight the similarities between the tracks.
A plaintiff lawyer asked Dr. Alexander Stewart: ‘Did that sound particularly soulful to you?’
Sheeran’s lawyer objected.
Stewart explained that the original track used a four-chord progression through the song.
He told the jury that Sheeran repeats a very similar progression in verses of Thinking Out Loud – though the lyrics and melodies differ.
Source: Read Full Article