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.”

[Larry Lucido]

Jim Morrison came back from the dead to cover Stairway.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UexxZVv-BOM

[KevinB]

I’m not really a fan, but weren’t all songs by this band more or less copied from other sources?

Many were. Google "songs that Led Zeppelin ripped off" and you can find plenty of discussion. Here's one of the most obvious.

[driftless2]

Yeah, but not as much as Kate Smith’s rendition of “Purple Haze.”

[Sirius Lee]

Emerson Lake & Palmer’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Copland totally rips off Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Copland.

[Hotlanta Mike]

It’s a big stretch.

[vetvetdoug]

California showed Page the chord progression according to some discussions. Spirit and Page often traveled together and spent time together. The last time I saw Spirit was as Mile Square Park in LA in October 1991. It has been common knowledge that Taurus was the spark that began Page and Plant's STH . After all of this time I can't believe that someone is suing LZ for this, Cassidy and California didn't think it that important. Locke, California, Cassidy have all passed on and Ferguson and Andes or the two remaining members so I wonder how they feel about this?

[ifinnegan]

Of course Page ripped off everything and anybody.

That’s what he did.

It’d be funny to see a settlement where Page had to give all his royalties over the past decades to someone else.

That’d be great.

[ifinnegan]

“my understanding from reading about this is that if they prevail they can only get a share of future royalties and back royalties starting three years before they filed the suit.”

Too bad.

It’d be fantastic to see the old fool busted.

[ifinnegan]

You’re pretty clever to have thought of something so original.

[ifinnegan]

“I thought Kansas and Journey were the same band :-p”

Yes, me too.

But I didn’t think they were bands, more instruments of torture.

[ifinnegan]

“I’m not really a fan, but weren’t all songs by this band more or less copied from other sources?”

Yes.

[Cincinatus]

No, but Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale was lifted from Bach's Wachet Auf!.

That was before the group went into kidnapping Christian girls in Nigeria.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

So I’m not the only one that thinks “Whiter Shade of Pale” every time they see that name in the headlines? :)

[JaguarXKE]

Listen to George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons.

[dfwgator]

Or Alan Thicke’s kid’s “Blurred Lines” and Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give it Up.”

[lurk]

Leaving aside the instrumental line, what does Stairway to Heaven actually mean?

[Jeff Chandler]

You can’t copyright a chord progression

All they have to do is convince a jury it's not just an arpeggiated version of a common chord progression, but rather a melody.

[dfwgator]

Darn, there goes my plan to copyright the C-chord.

[Jeff Chandler]

I’m not a copyright lawyer, or any type of lawyer, but my understanding from reading about this is that if they prevail they can only get a share of future royalties and back royalties starting three years before they filed the suit.

I'd take three years of a Zeppelin hit song.

[Jeff Chandler]

Darn, there goes my plan to copyright the C-chord.

I already have it, and I'm working on F and G. T really want to get the rights to G7, but some guy down in Nashville has it and won't give it up.