U2 is getting sued, accused of ripping off guitarist's song for "The Fly"

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

RoKKeR

Refugee
Joined
Nov 21, 2013
Messages
1,889
lol

U2 accused of ripping off guitarist’s song: suit | New York Post

A British guitarist and songwriter is suing U2 and its front man Bono claiming that the famous band stole one of his songs for their 1991 album “Achtung Baby.”

Paul Rose said U2 lifted multiple elements of his song “Nae Slappin” for their hit song “The Fly” at a time when they were desperately searching for a new sound.

“An ordinary lay observer would reasonably find that the songs are substantially similar and that an infringement has occurred,” Rose claimed in his Manhattan federal court lawsuit.

He is seeking $5 million in damages, lawyers’ fees and songwriting credit for “The Fly.”



As with the Led Zeppelin case, I doubt he will get what he wants. I also listened to the song and his comment "an ordinary lay observer would reasonably find that the songs are substantially and that an infringement has occurred" to be completely bogus and without merit.
 
There's some kind of similarity in the progression at the beginning, but you can hear that in a lot of songs.‬

Yeah, it's only the beginning that sounds remotely similar. To say the solo is "nearly identical" is completely ridiculous.

The other anecdotes are weak.

Also The Fly is a sweet song, damn.
 
While I actually do agree that the songs sound remarkably similar...why wait 25 years to say something?
 
Although, on the other hand, it seems like they ripped off a lot of Bullet for the song themselves.
 
What a frivolous lawsuit. Having listened to his song (which has the most amateurish drum track I've heard in a while), this guy has no claim to anything. I guess someone is desperate for self-promotion.
 
Hilariously, the artist in question chose not to sue them over Lady With The Spinning Head, which they actually did steal, albeit from a kid named Marty McFly.
 
I think there is some similarity in the beginning, but like Ashley said, why wait 25 years.
Not only that, but this song wasn't even on YouTube until he uploaded it when the story broke yesterday. I also don't think it's on any music streaming services, either. Just sort of dredged up for a cash grab of a lawsuit.
 
Not only that, but this song wasn't even on YouTube until he uploaded it when the story broke yesterday. I also don't think it's on any music streaming services, either. Just sort of dredged up for a cash grab of a lawsuit.



Bingo...

News breaks, people google, people share. All of it was uploaded recently. Free press for your shitty music.

Waiting 25 years allows for folks to forget that lots of artists were writing in that style. The "sound" or "aura" is the same, but the actual written music is only similar at one point. It's a lot easier to listen to two different things from 1993 now and say "gee these sound alike..." than it is to do that in or around 1993.
 
MANY THEFTS HERE: the U2 RIFF and EDGE'S SOLO are clearly nicked from this. So are the weird guitar sounds at the end. CLEARLY.

THIS IS THE FLY, U2 ARE A BUNCH OF PLAGIATERISTIC BASTARDS

Wow. So I love U2 and I think some of the recent song infringement lawsuits are silly but the second I heard this I thought it was Edge's demo for the Fly. IF and I mean IF the other stuff is true about this being floated around the record label then yeah they were most likely inspired by this song. That said you could be inspired by the sound a washing machine makes should the mater sue you? I think in the spirit of artistic integrity they should credit Paul - if they were inspired by his sound.

Certainly parts of this sound pretty similar to the Fly, Edge's guitar at 3 mins is a bit too similar to parts of this as well. Who knows if it's a coincidence, but you should get a few bob out of them if you did it first.

Get that money bro. Their song is too similar for it to be a coincidence.

Seems quite likely to me U2 were 'inspired' by this. The opening bassline (and the drum pattern!!) is the same, maybe not exactly but it's the same feel. It was 1989, around when U2 may well have been writing for the album. In this day and age he might win the case.
There's no way that this guy has six friends to comment in his defense. He probably set up dummy accounts. This suit is going to get laughed out of court.

U2 are probably pretty amused by this btw. This song is hilariously terrible, a million cliches all done badly. "He thinks we'd even listen to this?"
 
the 0-12-12-0-12-12-0-12-10 bass line is the only really identical thing in this song, and that's a common enough riff in rock music since at least the 70s that it will be hard to say it was THIS song that U2 took it from. the solo guitar tone is similar but i can make that tone myself right now with two pedals and a cheap amp; slide around the neck and it'll sound exactly like that.

it doesn't sound close enough to me, but if blurred lines can be considered legally to have plagiarized the "vibe" of a song, it wouldn't surprise me if some tone-deaf judge awards some cash to whoever this guy is.

Bittersweet symphony all over again

fuck allen klein. that asshole broke up the beatles and the verve, nearly killed george harrison, and robbed his clients blind. the stones liked the song and didn't even want to sue the verve, that was all klein trying to add a couple more zeros to abkco's already enormous bank account at the expense of peoples' careers. he got all the money from that fiasco, not jagger and richards.

if he was still alive i'd punch him in the face. offensive political violence is always justified against nazis and allen klein.
 
Last edited:
yeah except Bittersweet Symphony used a sample. This track bears no relation to the Fly at all.
 
fuck allen klein. that asshole broke up the beatles and the verve, nearly killed george harrison, and robbed his clients blind. the stones didn't even want to sue the verve, that was all klein trying to add a couple more zeros to abkco's bank account.

if he was still alive i'd punch him in the face. offensive political violence is always justified against nazis and allen klein.

:up:
 
also this fucking song isn't similar enough for the lawsuit. come on intro is kinda similar but thing itself is very generic that it can sound like lots of things. like parts sound like some Jeff Beck, sometimes it sounds like Allan Holdsworth ripoff, sometimes it just sounds like forgettable Joe Stariani song etc
 
Last edited:
I thought the Led Zeppelin lawsuit had way more weight than this. This is also seemingly zero evidence that any members of U2 would have even heard this song. With Led Zeppelin there were at least anecdotes of them watching Spirit perform live or something like that...
 
Well it's similar even though U2 didn't sample any riffs from that other song, The other guy still claim the song to be stolen. It reminded me of the Bittersweet symphony case.
 
I think the start of City of Blinding Lights has some similarities with "Streets". U2 should sue themselves. 80's U2 would make s**tloads of money. (Not to mention other bands.)

I remember this, though.





Was funny. All Bono did was snippet Walking Away a couple of times. More similar than this. Much more. And Walking Away was a huge hit, if I remember correctly.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom