Led Zeppelin Sued: 'Stairway to Heaven' Was Plagiarized, Spirit Claims

[lame54]

Randy California, the late guitarist and writer of the band Spirit, accused Led Zeppelin for years of taking the opening chords of "Stairway to Heaven" from his song "Taurus," Philly.com reported. Spirit's founding bassist Mark Andes, now 66, is working with Philadelphia attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy to bring the suit.

Malofiy told Businessweek.com that the lawsuit Spirit plans to file will have present-day implications as he is also seeking an injunction to keep Led Zeppelin from using "Stairway to Heaven" on its upcoming rerelease album.

"The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on 'Stairway to Heaven," Malofiy said. "It's been a long time coming."

Andes told Businessweek that it was only recently that he noticed the striking similarities between "Stairway to Heaven" and "Taurus."...

Only recently noticed - after 30 plus years (of a song nobody could escape) and a truck load of money later I'd say they missed their window

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/led-zeppelin-sued-plagiarism-spirit/2014/05/20/id/572381#ixzz32Ik5S28O

[bluesbassman]

1. Well if they win the suit, are they going to give some grit to Davy Graham?

'Cause Randy ripped the arpeggios off of Davy's '59 instrumental "Cry Me a River".

[orleans]

3. wow--who is this guy? that was wonderful. n/t

[bluesbassman]

4. British fingerstyle guitarist. Not a lot of commercial success, but...

considered one of the influences behind the folk-rock genre of the sixties. Passed away in 2008. Here's one of his better known tunes:

"Angi"

[cemaphonic]

8. Hell you could go back at least to Bach, and probably a fair bit beyond.

Arpeggios over a descending chromatic bass line are an old, old musical device.

Plus, it's been awhile since I've listened to Taurus, but I'm pretty sure it is a slightly different chord progression than Stairway to Heaven.

[Ahpook]

9. Exactly

That is a typical run on a guitar.

We could go on and on naming songs that sound alike.

[sendero]

2. Maybe there is an entertainment lawyer here..

... but I'm pretty sure there is nothing illegal about stealing a short passage. You can't steal the words, you can't easily steal the entire cord structure/melody, but this is going nowhere IMHO, even though I agree it was stolen.

[icymist]

5. Led Zeppelin has a long history of stealing songs, lyrics, guitar licks!

[icymist]

6. I'll also add 'When The Levee Breaks' Led Zeppelin stole from Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie:

27 April 1927. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Greenville, Mississippi. The river stage was at 46.8 feet. From: "The Floods of 1927 in the Mississippi Basin", Frankenfeld, H.C., 1927 Monthly Weather Review Supplement No. 29. Archival Photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS

Kansas Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie:

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break.
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break.
And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay.

Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan.
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan.
Thinkin' 'bout my baby and my happy home.

http://www.keeponliving.at/song/when_the_levee_breaks.html

(Recordings of the original at the link)

[cemaphonic]

7. That one at least they credited on the album

Nothing wrong with an acknowledged cover version. Most of their other "borrowing" was a lot more underhanded than that one.

[lame54]

11. I think you are confusing influence with theft...

Got half-way through the first vid and didn't hear many similarities

[KurtNYC]

13. By "stealing" you mean "making them awesome."

Covering classics is as old as music. Many artists would have not had a career without covering songs written by others -- Joe Cocker for example. The entire Motown catalog is covers, by design. The birth of hip hop was based on a riff from Chic's "Good Times." The present phase of covering music is mash-ups which don't even re-record the riffs but rather use them directly as recorded by the original artists:

[CBGLuthier]

14. No, it is called stealing when you do not credit nor compensate the authors.

I am quite sure that Mr. Cocker credited and paid the songwriters of his songs. As for Motown, well they were an inhouse operation and you usually can plagiarize yourself. Jimmy Page just plain stole whole songs and said he wrote them and did not credit or pay anyone until he was sued. That is why he is a thief.

Mashups and samplers all pay and license and even credit their stuff nowadays.

[KurtNYC]

15. There are only 13 notes in the Western scale, out of which 4 chords are extremely popular

Btw, music copyrights were never designed to protect the writers of the songs, only the publishers. The first music copyrights were issued for piano rolls used on player pianos, in effect 'recorded' music. Originally copyrights were for 7 years from the date of publication. It was unthinkable that one could own a chord progression and where would Jazz be if they were not allowed to riff on well known standards.

[mulsh]

10. who cares who wrote this tune here's the really brilliant version

[link:

|

[KurtNYC]

12. Spirit and Zepplin toured together

There is an anecdote that Zep got permission (verbal) to use the finger picked circular chord progressions but even if they didn't...

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THAT NO ONE IN SPIRIT EVER HEARD 'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN' ?! (until now)

More likely the bass player is out of cash.

[NoGOPZone]

16. This lawsuit aint going away anytime soon, regardless of

what the Zeppelin diehards think. As this article explains, there is enough evidence of plagiarism to make it to the trial stage,with an out of court settlement with undisclosed term the most likely outcome.

[link:http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverherzfeld/2014/05/21/spirit-v-led-zeppelin-analysis-of-the-stairway-to-heaven-infringement-lawsuit/|