Yes, guitarist Steve Howe and singer Jon Davison are accused of ” stolen » music by another artist, Riz Story.
Members of the legendary progressive rock band Yes are accused of using a composition stolen from another prog-rock musician, Riz Story, as the basis for ” Dare to Know », the second single from the album The Quest (2021) by Yes.
The copyright infringement complaint, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles and obtained by Rolling Stoneclaims that Jon Davison, Yes' lead singer since 2012, conspired with guitarist Steve Howe to steal copyrighted portions of a song titled ” Reunion ». Well that « Reunion » was not released as a song in its own right, it appears in A Winter Rosethe 2014 independent film directed by Riz Story starring Paul Sorvino, Billy Zane, Taryn Manning and Edward Furlong.
Riz Story, real name Rudolph Zahler, claims Davison knew his music because they met in 1990 through Taylor Hawkins, the former Foo Fighters drummer, and worked together intermittently for decades. According to him, Davison and Hawkins played with him in the first version of his band Anyone when they were in their 20s.
Zahler claims to have helped Davison audition for Yes. He claims that Davison asked him to co-write songs for the group in 2013. Davison even agreed to offer Zahler a producing role on a Yes album, but the group ultimately chose another direction. According to the court document, Davison specifically complimented Zahler on the music he wrote for A Winter Rose, including ” Reunion ».
Jon Davison reportedly turned to Zahler again when Yes was producing The Quest, but this time he would have done it in secret. “ Mr Davison decided to 'steal' the song'Reunion” from Mr. Zahler for the album, rather than getting permission from Mr. Zahler “, reads the new complaint filed by attorney Larry J. Caldwell in the Central District of California. Davison is said to have presented “ Reunion » to Steve Howe, then the two men would “ decided to add lyrics to the music, to put the name “Dare to Know” to the song and give writing credit to Mr. Howe “. Zahler states that Davison and Howe “have I conspired ” to cover up their offense by omitting Davison from the writing credits.
« It is with a heavy heart that Riz Story is forced to pursue Stephen Howe, one of his childhood musical idols, and Jon Davison, his lifelong friend, explains Caldwell in a statement to Rolling Stone. But they left him no other choice. Mr. Story trusts the justice system to deliver justice in these difficult circumstances. »
An expert musicologist hired by Zahler determined that “ Reunion » et « Dare to Know » ont « a similarity percentage of 96%, which is extremely high ». « Both songs feature almost identical melodic and rhythmic patterns in their melodiessaid the expert, Dr. Ethan Lustig, according to the complaint. The fact that the two songs have such melodic and rhythmic similarities, as well as using the same distinctive harmonic sequence, creates a very strong similarity that would be extremely unlikely to happen by chance. » Lustig determined that “ Dare To Know ” East ” directly based ” on ” Reunion ”, according to the lawsuit.
Representatives for Davison, Howe and Yes did not respond to requests for comment from Rolling Stone
Riz Story seeks damages and an injunction requiring Yes “ gives Mr. Zahler sole writing credit for the version's music “Dare to Know” of “Meeting” “. The complaint points out that Yes updated the writing credit of “ The Ice Bridge », the first single from The Questafter fans pointed out that the song was similar to Francis Monkman's music. In a post on X, Yes member Geoff Downes admitted the error, stating that it was true that the song was from a Monkman composition, but that he had assumed by mistake » that it was one of the pieces from his own library.
The band now gives writing credit to “ The Ice Bridge » to Davison, Monkman and Downes.
Nancy Dillon
Translated by the editorial staff
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