Led Zeppelin sued over Stairway To Heaven

Henne Music ^ | May 19, 2014

[ConservativeStatement]

Led Zeppelin are being accused plagiarising the introduction of their iconic 1971 anthem, “Stairway To Heaven”, in a new lawsuit brought by the estate of Spirit guitarist Randy California and members of the band.

Business Week reports the estate – and group’s members – believe the acoustic introduction to “Stairway” was lifted from their 1968 instrumental, “Taurus.”

[Jeff Chandler]

T = I

[dfwgator]

But I’ve got dibs on all the augmented chords.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Couple of similarities but yeah it’s a pretty big stretch.

[Jeff Chandler]

I like chords which are naturally robust, without chord augmentation surgery.

[ConservativeStatement]

I think there has been some ambiguity over time. Plant, the lead singer, has often downplayed the son’s general significance and has cited other works as his personal favorites (”Kashmir” being one example).

However, Wikipedia has a detailed offering here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairway_to_Heaven

[ConservativeStatement]

TYPO: song’s (not son’s).

[RandallFlagg]

I honestly think that Children of Dune ripped off from Deep Blue Sea was a lot closer:

Deep Blue Sea
http://youtu.be/yhWkI1TZSPQ?t=11m30s

Children of Dune
http://youtu.be/zGYiX1beDlk?t=8m15s

But then, Brian Tyler rips off even himself on occasion.

[Verbosus]

What about the George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffon’s “He’s So Fine”?

I believe the ruling was Harrison “subconsciously” plagiarized the song.

I’m still not sure what that means.

[RinaseaofDs]

Supreme Court just overturned the Ninth Circus on this sort of thing. The estate of one of the screenwriters of Raging Bull sued MGM over copyright infringement. MGM sited ‘laches’ as the reason the suit had no merit (laches is the legal term that describes ‘waiting too long to sue’.

SCOTUS basically said that lawsuits are expensive, and waiting to see what happened in the market was appropriate, even if it took a while.

To win, now, you have to show there was no infringement. Waiting too long is out.

[RansomOttawa]

I remember seeing a song from the 40s calles Stairway to Heaven, but can't remember who preformed or wrote it.

There's a 1960 song by Neil Sedaka called "Stairway to Heaven," but it's a doo-wop song and clearly no influence on Zeppelin.

[RansomOttawa]

Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit for a time, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility. The chord progression and arpeggios, while not identical, are very similar.

I'd be inclined to think Spirit has a case. Zeppelin also had a reputation for copying old blues songs without credit. I'm actually more curious why it's taken them over 40 years to decide to sue.

[wardaddy]

How old are you Nick?

Honestly

56 here

14 when the ubiquitous Stairway came out

What music do you like just to give perspective...

[wardaddy]

How old are you Nick?

Honestly

56 here

14 when the ubiquitous Stairway came out

What music do you like just to give perspective...

[Tallguy]

Plagiarizing music riffs is so... analog.

[vetvetdoug]

I found out that Mark Andes and the estate of Randy California were making the suit. Randy California was the son in law of Ed Cassidy, the drummer of Spirit. Andes stated that he wanted California to get recognition for writing the opening music for STH. I read years ago and cannot come up with the source that California and Page swapped licks often and California showed Page the progression. I have wondered for years why there wasn't a suit for this issue. California also taught Van Halen tapping on the fretboard for unique sounds. California and Hendrix played together in Greenwich Village and it was Hendrix that gave Randy his nickname "California".

Pink copied music from Spirit's Fresh Garbage for the theme song for Charlie's Angel but gave California and the members of Spirit writing credits.

[rockrr]

The “best” of both worlds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT0x0aNRkUs

[virgil283]

I know I’m late responding to this, but.....”Stairway to Gilligan’s Island”...it’s sick......no....really sick....Ha...actually I laughed out loud...what a crazy combo...my hat [if I was wearing one] is off to you sir...ha ! ....again I say HA !

[SamAdams76]

I never thought of that before. Why didn't the folks on Gilligan's Island just fix the boat? All they had to do was fix the boat and guess what? No sitcom. No Skipper and Gilligan hijinks. No movie star and no professor and no Mary Anne. No Thurston Howell with his funny hat and stacks of money.

With regard to "Stairway to Heaven" - I favor the Dolly Parton version. Seriously. Look it up on the YouTube.

[aomagrat]

Why didn't the folks on Gilligan's Island just fix the boat?

There was an episode that dealt with this. Gilligan made a pancake syrup that turned out to be a super glue. The professor patched the boat with Gilligan's glue and just before they were to set sail, the glue completely disintegrated the boat.

[jaydubya2]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LED_ZEPPELIN_COPYRIGHT_SUIT?SITE=NMALJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT