Posted on 04/12/2016 1:54:06 AM PDT by nickcarraway
‘Substantial’ similarities are enough to warrant a trial over whether Robert Plant and Jimmy Page lifted opening chords from Taurus by the band Spirit
Led Zeppelin’s lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page must face a US jury trial over whether they stole opening chords for their 1971 classic Stairway to Heaven.
In a decision on Friday, US district judge Gary Klausner in Los Angeles said the song and the 1967 instrumental Taurus by the band Spirit were similar enough to let a jury decide whether Plant and Page were liable for copyright infringement.
A trial is scheduled for 10 May.
The lawsuit was brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Randy Wolfe, also known as Randy California, who was Spirit’s guitarist and the composer of Taurus.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
They do sound enough alike that the odds are about as big as winning the lottery that it’s just a coincidence.
The opening 5 or 6 seconds are very similar, but that’s about it.
43 years to get to this point is suspicious in itself.
There’s not to many songs out there that don’t use chords used in many other songs in some form or another. Any blues song is a prime example.
They stole several songs. They’ll never have to pay back as much as they made so it’s actually a profitable decision.
Taurus is a very pretty instrumental song.
Spirit used to open for Led Zeppelin, and it’s been no secret that LZ used Taurus. Randy California let it slide, but he’s been dead for many years, so I’d say this is one of his relatives trying to get money for something that was forgiven or tolerated a long time ago.
I see this as Michael Skidmore trying to make a few million dollars for his client and pad his billable hours.
Every damn artists “steals” something from another artist. It’s a well known fact. You can’t copyright every single note combination. On second thought don’t mention that to any attorneys...
Isn’t every piece of music ever made in some way derived from music that came before it?
Bingo. Spirit was an unappreciated group.
I know on Genesis’ album “Wind and Wuthering”, there is a track called “Wot Gorilla” that some think was at least partly stolen from Weather Report’s “Nubian Sundance”.
I agree.
There are only so many musical chords, as is there are only so many words used in language. They all must blend together in a coherent manner or they just don’t sound right.
Huge blues fan here and listen to the old stuff nearly every day. The older the better. With all due respect to the original ‘blues singers’ they only had to know about 4 chords and could fill in the rest with lyrics about sitting on their porch drinking a bottle of gin and talking about how mean their woman is to them. I love the simplicity!
Duh duh duh da,
My woman, she be so mean,
Duh duh duh da,
She treat me so bad,
Duh duh duh da,
She be so mean that it makes me feel so glad, ‘cause I be a guitar-playin’ poor boy and yea I shore got dem blues today,
Yea, I sure got dem blues today.
Duh duh duh da,
Etc, etc., etc.
When I was in high school I once got in a lot of trouble for singing a blues version of the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy as special music in a Mennonite Church.
I’m no longer a Mennonite
Similar chord progression, but there are a million songs that share chord progressions. Generally it has to have the same melody to be copyright infringement.
I always thought that the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” sounded like Leo Sayer’s “I Love You More Than I Can Say”
BFD
Considering LZ I was almost entirely plagiarized, this is not surprising.
From the article, Randy Wolfe, the guitarist who wrote Taurus, complained at the time. It said the two bands toured together while Spirit was playing Taurus, and Stairway to Heaven came after. It also said Wolfe died in the 90s, drowning while trying to rescue his son (tragic). He is not the one suing. The one suing is a trustee for Wolfe's estate.
(because, after all, they are "artists" dontchaknow...)
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