A few days ago, I intimated that one of the best new songs of 2008 was Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," and I wish to amend that statement.

With half the year left, this tune IS THE SONG OF THE YEAR. It embodies pop brilliance, simplicity, thick production and phenomenal lyrics.

But was it ripped off from an indie band from Brooklyn, N.Y.?

For some of you, this is old news. You've seen the YouTube comparison clip:

Damn that Chris Martin some of you are surely saying after watching that YouTube post, right? Well, I say wait a doggone second.

I write. I play. I know my theory, and I've got some pretty strong opinions on this one.

If you know your Nashville Numbering System, you know "Viva La Vida" is 1-2-5-3. If we're following the bass line, it begins with a D-flat, goes to an E-flat, to an A-flat and then an F. The structure of the tune repeats and repeats without any changes, although the melody certainly changes.

The verse and the chorus have the same structure. As I said, I think "Viva La Vida" is a phenomenal pop song, and I like it as an early favorite for a 2009 Record of the Year Grammy.

On the other hand, Creaky Boards claims that Coldplay ripped this song from their composition, "The Songs I Didn't Write."

The irony is thick, and it seems like this could be a con, but I spent some time checking out this band and the whole of this particular song, and I have to say: I dig it. They have a nice pop, indie sound. However, the primary similiarity between the two songs (Listen to "Songs I Didn't Write") is in their hooks.

For Coldplay, the 1-2-5-3 hook is the entire song. For Creaky Boards, it merely encompasses about half their song. What you don't see or hear in the YouTube song is the parts of "Songs I Didn't Write" that are completely different, structurally, from the Coldplay soon-to-be smash.

However, yes, they are structurally similar at a basic level.

Melodically, they're not nearly as close. And, when one really examines the chords behind each song, we realize that Coldplay's song is actually, in terms of theory, more sophisticated, using an A-flat chord on top of the D-flat, an A-flat SUS on top of the E-flat, an A-flat and then an F minor 7.

Instead of those variations, Creaky Boards is using what sounds more like a minor chord, a third, a third and a minor chord. When combined with the 1-2-5-3 structure, the compositions seem eerily similar to the novice.

Then again, Creaky Boards' lead singer claims Chris Martin showed up at one of their gigs, where they played this song. If it can be documented that he did, Martin would likely need to prove that "Viva La Vida" had been written seven months before, as he's claimed in the press.

If brought before a judge, without direct evidence of theft, I suspect this claim is tossed fairly quickly. Copyright claims based on general similarities with basic structures are pretty thin.

Back in 1989, and I don't mind repeating this: I don't think it's a secret. But I worked with a local Norman writer and musician who was and is very popular within the Christian music community both here and in Nashville. He even went to write for a Brentwood, Tenn., based publisher and landed a hit song with a woman named Cynthia Clawson.

This cat is a good, good writer.

And one of the songs he had given to me on a demo, for my listening pleasure, was a track he had written and taken to Nashville about a year or two before, I think. It not only sounded like Don Henley's "The Last Worthless Evening," it was note for note for note.

Now, I don't have any communication with the writer to whom I refer, but he still lives in Norman. And he was always above the fray with this sort of thing. I think he understood what kind of industry the music biz could be, but he was always so grounded that I think it never bothered him to the point of considering a lawsuit.

In this case, if I recall it correctly, there was some concern that a producer on Henley's "End of the Innocence" CD (was that the title of it?) had access to this guy's songwriter demo and, hence, suspicions were super high.

Yet there are a finite combination of notes possible in music, believe it or not, and it is theoretically possible that two people have the same general thoughts and even the same specific thoughts, separately, as to a melody.

While I hope the controversy drums up some support for Creaky Boards' musical efforts, it shouldn't diminish Coldplay's greatness in the least. From a theory perspective, "Viva La Vida" is super basic, and it's likely that it sounds like many songs written out there in the world, parts known and unknown.

Sometimes, it happens.

To prove actual theft, the party claiming copyright infringement had better be able to establish uncanny theoretical and melodical similarities along with proof that the other guy had access to that song before the other was written.

And to me, the first part of that just isn't strong enough. Yep, the songs are roughly similar, but I assure you, they're not THAT similar.