Posted on 06/16/2016 10:11:46 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven copyright trial could end as quickly as it got started Tuesday over whether a video played as evidence was properly submitted in the case.
Almost immediately a debate arose about a possible mistrial as a result of the dispute, the Independent reported.
Band frontman Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page are facing a jury trial over claims they stole their iconic 1971 song's introduction from Spirit's 1967 instrumental track Taurus, The plaintiff's lawyer Francis Alexander Malofiy said previously that this case is about "credit where credit is due" not winning damages.
Malofiy is seeking a single $1 settlement along with a writing credit for Spirit guitarist and composer Randy California, whose real name is Randy Wolfe. California's trustees would then receive future profits from Stairway to Heaven.
US District Judge Gary Klausner already ruled in April that Stairway to Heaven bears "substantial" similarities with Taurus after Michael Skidmore, a trustee for California, filed a lawsuit alleging that Page was inspired to write the hit song after touring with Spirit in the late 1960s.
Page, 72, and Plant, 67, were both "incredible performers, incredible musicians but they covered other people's music and tried to make it their own," Malofiy said.
But the band's lawyer Robert Anderson said the two men "created Stairway to Heaven independently without resort to Taurus or without copying anything in Taurus." He said there is no proof Led Zeppelin even heard Taurus until decades after creating Stairway to Heaven, BBC reported.
Anderson said the part of the song in dispute is a sequence of notes in the opening bars,a "descending chromatic line...something that appears in all kinds of songs".
He said such a "commonplace" musical device that dates back centuries is not protected by copyright and was not actually owned by the plaintiff.
Plant and Page both looked relaxed during the trial's opening, their hair pulled back in ponytails, occasionally leaning toward each other to discuss evidence being presented.
Music from The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Sound of Music all were invoked during opening statements in the trial, which is expected to last four or five days.
Honestly, when I heard this the first time, I thought of the acoustic guitar in “Is There Anybody Out There” (from The Wall), but I can hear a little Stairway, as well.
I’d call it a stretch, though.
M.C. Hammer pretty much lifted a whole song from Rick James.
Dazed and Confused was the one from the video that really stood out but the others were also pretty much note for note copies. Every bit as bad as the My Sweet Lord/He’s so fine ripoff by George Harrison.
Yes, they’re guilty of a lot of theft, and they may have even been inspired by this riff when they wrote their song, but the riff didn’t originate with Taurus and the riff from Stairway isn’t quite the same, so it’s not truly a copy.
Most of the songs on their first four albums were basically cover songs, mostly unattributed.
Everybody back then was ripping off blues artists.
“Taurus is guilty of copying from Bach’s harpsichord concertos”
Perhaps, but there’s no copyright on those :)
Spirit money ran out. Led Zeppelin is still earning. Their catalog makes more money now than it did 40 years ago.
I agree. I don’t hear it either.
Yes, but most bands had enough class to credit the original artists.
I haven’t seen the video you refer to but if you mean Whole Lotta Love, Gallows Pole, etc yes they borrowed but Mozart borrowed from Salieri, note for note. As did Steve Miller, Billy Joel, and Eric Carmen among others.
Just listened to it. I side with Zep. It’s a standard step down, but the hook in STH is the way it turns up at the end.
I thknk they are being sued now because the current legal threshhold is almost non-existant after thst other decision a few months ago.
Well, when you get to the George Harrison level of “borrowing” the melody and chorus it’s a rip off. The fact others have done it and the copyright holder chose not to enforce their rights is never a defense. I’m generally on the artist’s side not the copyright holder. I would not have tagged Vanilla Ice for stealing the melody line from Bowie’s “Pressure” because he did add one extra up note at the end of the line but that one was close. However, when someone borrows essentially the whole melody and chorus it’s a rip off. I don’t know how I’d go on this Spirit suit. If I found that Spirit was playing their tune when they opened for the Zep, then Page’s story that he never heard the song until two years ago is BS and I would tag him.
Not much, though. Only the bass line, main guitar riff, song structure, and bridge. </sarc>
Way back when, they settled out of court. Then, ironically, Parker sued Lewis when he talked about the settlement payment on TV, supposedly breaking a confidentiality agreement.
Homer to Marge: “Remember when we used to make out to this hymn?”
IMO, one of the funniest pranks Bart ever pulled off.
I’d like to find my original vinyl of zep 1.
I seem to recall, at least black mountain side, as traditional, arranged by. Not with Page as the author - which he clearly wasnt seeing how Bert Jansch was playing it years earlier.
Perhaps, but crediting something as “traditional, arranged by” is not much different than claiming it as an original composition when it comes to royalties. Since traditional songs are not copyrighted, you don’t have to pay anyone else a share if you credit it as traditional.
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