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Taylor Swift, Plagiarism: Singer Matt Nathanson Calls Taylor a 'Thief', Accuses Her of Stealing Lyrics

Posted on Nov 6th 2012 10:15AM by Brittany Galla
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Taylor Swift plagiarism Matt NathansonMatt Sayles, Invision/AP

Even though Taylor Swift's new CD Red has sold a recording-breaking 1.2 million copies, one person in particular isn't thrilled with Tay's lyric choices. Singer Matt Nathanson is accusing Taylor from stealing a lyric from his 2003 song "I Saw" and using it in her song "All Too Well."

The lyric in question? Nathanson sings in his song: "and I'll forget about you long enough to forget why I need to." And Taylor's song lyric is: "and I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to."

In a series of tweets that have since been deleted, Nathanson voiced his anger, writing: "she's definitely a fan... and now she's a thief." Days later, he tweeted: "so far, my favorite thing about today is the wave of @taylorswift13 fans calling me a prick on twitter for writing "i saw" in 2003."

Swift has shown that she's a fan of the 39-year old singer before: More than once on her last Speak Now tour, she wrote lyrics down her arm from Nathanson's songs.

The lyric could've just been an honest coincidence, as other songs in the musical world have shared similar lyrics before. Nathanson's 2007 song "Still" and Better Than Ezra's 2001 song "A Lifetime" both share the same lyric, "you move like water."

A few weeks ago, One Direction got in similar heat when their new song "Live While You're Young" drew comparisons to the Clash's 1982 song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go." In that instance, the 1D boys explained that the similar sound was "kind of on purpose."

So far, Taylor's reps haven't commented.

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324 Comments

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Jen

The irony of this is that I was googling "Matt Nathanson plagiarism" to see if anyone has ever called him on his blatant plagiarism of Aimee Mann's song, "Coming Up Close". I just heard the Matt Nathanson song, "Heartbreak World" and could not believe the line, "Come on lets make this dream that's barely half awake come true". In the mid 80's, during her Til Tuesday tenure, Aimee Mann wrote the line, "Don't you know that I could make a dream that's barely half-awake come true". There is no other reference to this line anywhere else on Google. That's a pretty crazy "coincidence".

May 03 2013 at 8:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
brennemanbelkin

Martians, you can't trust them.

November 11 2012 at 11:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
efat53yz

a nobody wants to sue a somebody for stealing one of his songs??? if this was true,, the idiot ought to be thanking her because somebody will finally hear it,,,

November 11 2012 at 7:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
OSHP367

Nathanson sings in his song: "and I'll forget about you long enough to forget why I need to." And Taylor's song lyric is: "and I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to."

One is past tense and one is present tense. Totaly different. Go about your business......nothing to see here. These are not the droids you are looking for.

November 11 2012 at 7:38 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
Michael

Swift's lyrics sound as though a sixth grader wrote them. Who is going to argue, no I want credit for those stupid lyrics.

November 11 2012 at 7:15 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
rufus

THIS ARTICLE IS AN EFFEN JOKE AND WHOEVER DECIDED IT DESERVED ANY PUBLICITY ON HERE SHOULD BE STRUNG UP, TORTURED, AND THEN FIRED. THAN LET ME CUT OF THE OFFENDERS PRIVATES.

November 11 2012 at 12:15 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
crazy ray

Gee, I didn't know that a second-rate singer actually owns the English language. Go figure.

November 11 2012 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

Does everybody out there thing that there are really any new lyrics left to write.

There are only so many words in the English language with just so many combinations.

The same goes for musical notes and their combinations.

November 11 2012 at 10:39 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
Linda

She sings like a child. I find her boring.

November 11 2012 at 10:38 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Hitmanblues

She probably did steal them as she can neither sing nor write

November 11 2012 at 10:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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