Ed Sheeran’s ongoing plagiarism trial in New York went off the rails on Wednesday (26 April) after the court was treated to a computer-generated rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Let's Get It On.”
The British artist is being sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, the songwriter who composed the anthem with Gaye.
They have alleged that Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” copied harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements from “Let’s Get It On” without permission, which Sheeran denies.
On the second day of the trial, Insider reported that laughter broke out in the courtroom Wednesday after a plaintiff musicology expert played an “AI recording” of the song.
“‘Giving yourself to me, can never be wrong,’ the voice sang, every syllable crisply stated, sounding something like HAL the computer committing lethal karaoke in a sci-fi horror flick,” Insider reported, adding that Sheeran suppressed a grin at the defence table.
The musicologist, Dr Alexander Stewart was attempting to use the track to show alleged the similarities between “Let’s Get It On” and “Thinking Out Loud”.
“Dr Stewart, did that sound particularly soulful to you?” the lawyer asked his expert after the track ended.
“Objection!” one of Sheeran’s lawyers interrupted.
“I’ll withdraw the question,” the lawyer responded.
“It was hideous,” Townsend’s heir, Griffin Townsend later told Insider of the AI rendition of her father’s track.
“I think he would have laughed” to hear it, she added. “Because he had a sense of humour.”
Elsewhere in the day two proceedings, CNN reported that the plaintiff, Kathryn Townsend Griffin, collapsed and had to be carried out of court.
Yesterday, the plaintiff’s attorney Ben Crump said he had a “smoking gun”: a fan video from a past Ed Sheeran concert in which the singer performs a “mash-up” of “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On”.
“That concert video is a confession,” said Crump, who is best known for representing the family of George Floyd.
Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene S Farkas argued that the video does not prove copyright infringement, and that Sheeran often performs mash-ups during his live shows.
Farkas said Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge “created this heartfelt song without copying ‘Let’s Get It On.’”
“Thinking Out Loud” won a Grammy for song of the year in 2016.
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 and the trial is expected to last up to two weeks.
