Calay News
On Monday, during his copyright infringement trial at a federal court in Lower Manhattan, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran appeared to be frustrated and annoyed while on the witness stand. Sheeran played songs briefly with his guitar as part of his testimony, showing the court a sampling of songs by him and others to demonstrate a common building block of pop songwriting—the four-chord progression.
Sheeran’s defense team also showed the jury a video of a TV performance by a comedy rock band mashing up many hit songs into one. The trial, which began its second week on Monday, seeks to answer whether Sheeran wrote his hit song “Thinking Out Loud” by copying Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On.” Sheeran is accused by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On.” Townsend-Griffin, his daughter, is the lead plaintiff.
When a Townsend family attorney questioned Sheeran, he referred to him as making “mistakes in his recollections of writing and recording.” Sheeran replied, “I don’t feel it’s a mistake that I can’t remember a specific date.” Earlier, Sheeran’s defense attorney asked him if he had copied anything from “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote “Thinking Out Loud,” and Sheeran replied, “No.” He was also asked if he was thinking about “Let’s Get It On” while writing his song, and he again said “no.” Sheeran called the allegations in this case “insulting.” The trial is set to continue on Tuesday.
