A new lawsuit alleges members of the legendary progressive rock band Yes used a composition stolen from fellow prog-rock musician Riz Story as the basis for “Dare to Know,” the second single off Yes’ 2021 album The Quest.
The copyright infringement complaint, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles and obtained by Rolling Stone, alleges Jon Davison, the lead singer of Yes since 2012, conspired with guitarist Steve Howe to pilfer protected portions from a song titled “Reunion.” While “Reunion” hasn’t been released as a standalone song, it was featured in A Winter Rose, Story’s 2014 indie movie starring Paul Sorvino, Billy Zane, Taryn Manning, and Edward Furlong.
Story, whose legal name is Rudolph Zahler, alleges Davison was familiar with his music because they met in 1990 through late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and have worked together on-and-off for decades. According to Zahler, he, Davison, and Hawkins played together in the first version of his prog-rock band Anyone when they were in their early twenties.
Zahler alleges he helped Davison audition for his role in Yes and that Davison asked him to co-write songs for Yes in 2013. He claims Davison even agreed to pitch Zahler for a producer role on a Yes album, but that the band ultimately chose a different direction. The lawsuit alleges Davison specifically complimented Zahler on the music he wrote for A Winter Rose, including “Reunion.”
According to the lawsuit, Davison looked to Zahler again when Yes was producing The Quest, though this time he allegedly did it in secret. “Mr. Davison decided to just ‘steal’ Mr. Zahler’s song ‘Reunion’ for the album, rather than getting Mr. Zahler’s permission,” the new lawsuit filed by lawyer Larry J. Caldwell in the Central District of California reads. Zahler claims Davison brought “Reunion” to Howe, and then the men “decided to add lyrics to the music, affix the name ‘Dare to Know’ to the song, and attribute sole songwriting credit to Mr. Howe.” Zahler alleges Davison and Howe “conspired” to conceal their infringement by omitting Davison from the songwriting credits.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Caldwell said, “It is with a heavy heart that Riz Story is forced to sue Stephen Howe, one of his childhood music idols, and Jon Davison, his life long friend. But they left him no other choice. Mr. Story trusts the legal system to deliver justice in these difficult circumstances.”
The lawsuit says an expert musicologist hired by Zahler determined that “Reunion” and “Dare to Know” have “a pitch similarity percentage of 96%, which is extremely high.” “Both songs feature near-identical melodic and rhythmic patterns in their melodies,” the expert, Dr. Ethan Lustig, said, according to the complaint. He added, “The fact that both songs feature such strong melodic and rhythmic similarities on top of also using the same distinctive harmonic sequence creates a very strong similarity that would be extremely unlikely to occur by chance alone.” Lustig determined that “Dare To Know” is “directly based” on “Reunion,” the lawsuit says.
Reps for Davison, Howe, and Yes did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment. Sony Music Entertainment and Inside Out Music were named as corporate co-defendants.
The new lawsuit is asking for monetary damages and an injunction requiring Yes to “accord Mr. Zahler sole writing credit for the music in defendants’ ‘Dare to Know’ version of ‘Reunion.’” The complaint points out that Yes updated the songwriting credit for “The Ice Bridge,” the first single off The Quest, after fans pointed out that it was similar to music from Francis Monkman. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Yes member Geoff Downes admitted the oversight, saying it was true the song was “sourced” from a Monkman composition that Downes “mistakenly assumed” was one of his own library pieces.
The band now accords writing credit for “The Ice Bridge” to Davison, Monkman, and Downes.