In a Manhattan federal court trial to establish whether he had copied Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On,” Ed Sheeran sang and played the chord progression of his popular song “Thinking Out Loud” while on the witness stand. As the initial witness in his own defense, the British singer-songwriter discussed his creative method of composing the song about lasting love in 2014.
The heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, who was Marvin Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 song, sued 32-year-old Ed Sheeran, seeking part of the profits from “Thinking Out Loud” by alleging the syncopated chord progression was copied from “Let’s Get It On.”
Sheeran stressed that he began the song after a new romantic relationship and after the passing of his grandfather. “I draw inspiration from a lot of things in my life and family,” he said, insisting the song was inspired by the love he observed between his grandparents. In his testimony that lasted nearly an hour, Ed Sheeran explained how he and his friend Amy Wadge played the chords for the song when she visited him at his home in England.
As he testifies, Sheeran sang the line “I’m singing out now,” which he said he had sung during his songwriting session with Wadge. He noted that the line resembled “I’m thinking out loud,” which was eventually chosen as the song’s title. “When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” Sheeran added. He then grabbed a guitar from behind the witness stand and played the song’s chord progression while singing the opening line, “When your legs don’t work like they used to.”
The song “Thinking Out Loud” achieved the first position on the UK charts and the second spot in the US, and it was honored with the Song of the Year Grammy Award in 2016.
Earlier this week, lawyers representing Townsend presented a video of Ed Sheeran smoothly transitioning between “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” during a live performance. They claimed the performance served as a confession that he had committed plagiarism by copying the song. In court, Sheeran replied: “Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs… “If I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”
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