MusicYes members are sued for alleged plagiarism; see what they sayMusician named Riz Story accuses Jon Davison and Steve Howe of “conspiracy” to copy one of his songs on 2021 albumtoday at 7:50 pm

A lawsuit filed in the California Court, in the United States, mentions two members of the Yes — the vocalist Jon Davisonmember since 2012, and guitarist Steve Howelinked to the band on and off since 1970 — as responsible for a “conspiracy” to plagiarize a song. The author of the action is Riz Story, an artist who claims to have collaborated with the group in the past.

In his allegation, obtained by Rolling Stone USAStory says that “Dare to Know”track released by Yes on the album The Quest (2021), it would be a copy of “Reunion”, a song he recorded in 2012 for the film The Winter Rosemade available two years earlier. Davison and Howe spoke out, denying the accusation.

Riz Story was a friend of Jon Davison and worked with the singer in a band that also featured Taylor Hawkinslate drummer of Foo Fightersin the 1990s. When Davison joined Yes — interestingly, after a recommendation from Hawkins —, Story claims to have started working for the group.

There was even a promise that he would be the producer of a future album, which did not materialize. However, according to the musician, his colleagues took advantage of one of his compositions instead of asking for permission. Only Howe is credited as the author, but Davison is named in the lawsuit for allegedly having knowledge of the work claimed to be original.

What the accused parties say

In a statement, Jon Davison says he was disappointed with “a person who thought he was a friend opened a fictitious and defamatory lawsuit” against him. The vocalist reinforced that he did not compose “Dare to Know” and said he had never heard “Reunion”which, in his words, brings “a sequence of notes so generic that it can be found in hundreds of compositions dating back more than 200 years”.

He adds:

“They refused to answer [nossa tentativa de contato] and even when our manager asked them to address the issue, we were met with threatening emails. In contradiction to the false — and what we believe to be defamatory — narrative presented by this lawsuit, we believe that Mr. Story is possibly trying to ‘steal’ a credit on our album and gain publicity for himself, after 12 years of frustration with his own career.”

In turn, Steve Howe published a statement on social media accompanied by a link, on Soundcloudwhich features an audio comparison of “Dare to Know” with an old Yes demo, “The Ancient”each on one side of the stereo sound. The text says:

“Jon Davison didn’t write ‘Dare to Know.’ I composed it, and it was based on a theme that I have been developing since 1973. Early versions can easily be found in our demo and studio recordings from the time and on the internet. Some were released in an expanded version of Tales of Topographic Oceans in 2002.

This comparison demonstrates how Steve Howe has a version of this exact same melody on a 1974 recording (‘The Ancient’). Here is proof that Steve explored this very idea in 1974 and it should be obvious that it is much more likely to be the source of this melody. ‘The Ancient’ was raised by three semitones to make it match this comparison, but the relationship between none of the notes was edited or adjusted.”