Stairway to Heaven was a Rip Off?

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Plant & Page have just been ordered to stand trial for copywright infringemenet. Supposedly stole the opening stanza of Stairway to Heaven from a song written by a band they toured with the year before it was written.

Shades of “Down Under”

Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Jimmy Page to face Stairway to Heaven copyright trial

Updated about 4 hours ago

Led Zeppelin’s lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page will face a US jury trial next month over whether they stole the opening chords for their 1971 hit Stairway to Heaven.

District Judge Gary Klausner ruled that Stairway 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 May 10.

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.

Mr Skidmore said Page might have been inspired to write Stairway for Led Zeppelin after hearing Spirit perform Taurus while the bands toured together in 1968 and 1969, but that Wolfe never got credit.

The defendants said Wolfe was a songwriter-for-hire who had no copyright claim, and that the chord progressions were so cliched they did not deserve copyright protection.

But the judge said a jury could find “substantial” similarity between the first two minutes of Stairway and Taurus, which he called “arguably the most recognisable and important segments” of the songs.

“While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,” Mr Klausner wrote.

“What remains is a subjective assessment of the ‘concept and feel’ of two works … a task no more suitable for a judge than for a jury.”

Mr Klausner dismissed claims against Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Warner Music Group Corp.

He also said the trustee could get only 50 per cent of any damages awarded, citing a 1967 contract that Wolfe signed.

“This case, from our perspective, has always been about giving credit where credit was due, and now we get to right that wrong,” Francis Malofiy, a lawyer for Mr Skidmore, said.

A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the complaint, Wolfe complained about the similarities of the songs in an interview shortly before he drowned in 1997 in the Pacific Ocean while attempting to rescue his son.

Stairway to Heaven is a track on Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth studio album, often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV.

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This is old news I thought?

It’s a no brainer too, clear rip off.

But hey, Zeppelin did it better.

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Here is a video that tries to tenuously link all the claims of copyright infringement against Zeppelin.

Most of them are drawing a long bow… But stairway is suspect as all fark.

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‘Randy California’

Love it.

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Many of Zeppelin’s songs are actual or borderline rip-offs. Still love them though. Plant’s lyrics are pretty much all ripped off from delta blues songs.

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As if the hippies knew the difference back then.

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It’s only the intro to Stairway that is suspect. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

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It's only the intro to Stairway that is suspect. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

I’ll say again … “Down Under”

And I could hear a perfect difference there, … this one, as someone already said,. . is a “No Brainer”

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If I hear Stairway to Heaven one more time I might spew up.

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'Randy California'

Love it.

Could’ve been a Chili Peppers song.

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It's only the intro to Stairway that is suspect. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

I’ll say again … “Down Under”

And I could hear a perfect difference there, … this one, as someone already said,. . is a “No Brainer”

That was a dead-set joke. Still can’t believe that one.

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For sure they “borrowed” quite a few riffs, lyric lines. Zeppelin 1 had heaps, half of them they gave credit to, then some they didn’t. “How many more times” has “The Hunter” in the middle of it. I think there was a song called I’m confused that Dazed and Confused came from. There’s one or two Willi Dixon tracks they gave credit for.

The Stairway one is the least of them, I reckon, but hey, what ya gonna do. What goes around comes around.

I still love them. If I only had a womb,

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IT. IS. NOT. THAT. GREAT. OF. A. SONG. Get over it.

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It’s absolute crap. Complete crap.

The first one, and worst one, was when George Harrison was held by some Yank farkwit judge to have plagiarised He’s So Fine when he wrote My Sweet Lord. Down Under was another crap decision, but the good thing about it was that the claimants actually got bugger all – something like 5% of royalties from a date about 10 years after the song was a hit. Hopefully this one will also end up with the leech-like claimants, who aren’t even the ones who wrote the song that was allegedly ripped off, getting less than they’ve spent on their hopefully shark-like lawyers.

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It's absolute crap. Complete crap.

The first one, and worst one, was when George Harrison was held by some Yank farkwit judge to have plagiarised He’s So Fine when he wrote My Sweet Lord. Down Under was another crap decision, but the good thing about it was that the claimants actually got bugger all – something like 5% of royalties from a date about 10 years after the song was a hit. Hopefully this one will also end up with the leech-like claimants, who aren’t even the ones who wrote the song that was allegedly ripped off, getting less than they’ve spent on their hopefully shark-like lawyers.

The actual cost of the decision was far more dire.

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It's absolute crap. Complete crap.

The first one, and worst one, was when George Harrison was held by some Yank farkwit judge to have plagiarised He’s So Fine when he wrote My Sweet Lord. Down Under was another crap decision, but the good thing about it was that the claimants actually got bugger all – something like 5% of royalties from a date about 10 years after the song was a hit. Hopefully this one will also end up with the leech-like claimants, who aren’t even the ones who wrote the song that was allegedly ripped off, getting less than they’ve spent on their hopefully shark-like lawyers.

The actual cost of the decision was far more dire.

Yes,so very very sad :frowning:

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If I hear Stairway to Heaven one more time I might spew up.

I’m sick of hearing it as well. My least favourite of theirs.

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Many of Zeppelin's songs are actual or borderline rip-offs. Still love them though. Plant's lyrics are pretty much all ripped off from delta blues songs.

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/6250/20140520/7-songs-other-than-stairway-to-heaven-that-led-zeppelin-stole.htm

I like how they incorporated this into Immigrant Song.

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It's absolute crap. Complete crap.

The first one, and worst one, was when George Harrison was held by some Yank farkwit judge to have plagiarised He’s So Fine when he wrote My Sweet Lord. Down Under was another crap decision, but the good thing about it was that the claimants actually got bugger all – something like 5% of royalties from a date about 10 years after the song was a hit. Hopefully this one will also end up with the leech-like claimants, who aren’t even the ones who wrote the song that was allegedly ripped off, getting less than they’ve spent on their hopefully shark-like lawyers.

The actual cost of the decision was far more dire.


If there ever was a comprehensive definition of “tragedy” then that was it.
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Funny how it’s alway some scumbag lawyer who brings these suits, rather than the person who actually wrote the song claimed to have been plagiarised. The Down Under case was like that too.

Seriously, that lawyer/agent/whatever who brought the Down Under suit should have been strung up at a crossroads. Lower than the whaleshit at the bottom of the ocean.