Lawsuit Accusing Led Zeppelin of "Stairway" Theft, Proceeds.

a reply to: blackcatmagic

Zep is so badass, who even cares?

Watch Jimmy!



Doubt very much they ever stole a damn thing. From an artistic
stand point it's just ridiculous. These people weren't trash that
had a problem coming up with new material.

Bogus!

a reply to: blackcatmagic

I just do not hear it. You will find, if you start the relevant sections at the beginning (i.e. start Stairway at the very beginning, and start the other track from the 43.5 second mark) that although they have roots in common, they are in fact arranged differently in some pretty important respects, and are not, in fact, the same piece of music.

That tags it for me.

originally posted by: eManym
The one by Spirit was very badly played with string scrapes between notes. Hate that. It depicts a lazy guitar player that can't keep his fingers off the strings when changing notes.

That's called character and style. Randy California had both.
Led Zeppelin was a rip off band, though great they were.
But Spirit had more creativity and originality.

a reply to: blackcatmagic

If all people would start a law suit because they played a variation of "the three cord trick" before the artist who made a succes with a simular... but not precise... expression of the three cords (G, C, D) the world would not have enough lawyers.

If the accusers win this case...I wish I wrote a song called Hairway To Steven... in 1965.

a reply to: Astyanax

Thats about how i feel. When i said paige should write a check i didnt mean a large one. Spirit had a turd of a song and paige turned it into the most played rock song of all time.

a reply to: ItCameFromOuterSpace

Led Zeppelin was a rip off band,

You're just lucky there's a computer screen between us.

We'd be box'n Space!

originally posted by: ItCameFromOuterSpace

originally posted by: eManym
The one by Spirit was very badly played with string scrapes between notes. Hate that. It depicts a lazy guitar player that can't keep his fingers off the strings when changing notes.

That's called character and style. Randy California had both.
Led Zeppelin was a rip off band, though great they were.
But Spirit had more creativity and originality.

I give credit to Zep for being (mostly) a great band...but they ought to give Spirit their due on this one. It's not like they can't afford it.

What ever pride Randy took to his grave has just been robbed by his own family for a chance at a pay-day.

originally posted by: MALBOSIA
What ever pride Randy took to his grave has just been robbed by his own family for a chance at a pay-day.

Didn't I see Mark Andes name in the suit? He was a member of the band at the time. And if you can find California's grave, let me know, eh?

edit to say...no fair just pointing west.

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
...Stairway to Heaven was definitely an instance of copying. With that said however, I think that the two songs are different enough to be distinctly different. There is a difference in directly copying something and incorporating the progression or general melody of the song. I don't think anyone would argue that the songs are identical by any means. Stairway to Heaven definitely added more, as opposed to subtracting, where the guitars are concerned. All in all I think they are guilty in that they basically used someone else's ideas to create their song, but their song is distinct enough not to legally be considered plagiarism.

Funny how the contradictions in the quote above show you how tough it is to determine what is and what is not a "copying" of someone's song that amounts to plagiarism. Remember, plagiarism is the intentional lifting of a significant portion of another person's musical composition.

Going back to the original post above, 43 seconds into the song "Taurus" by the band Spirit, there are three chords following what begins with A minor that sound like Stairway, but Jimmy plays a different arpeggio and cadence. If you look at the arpeggio as individual notes it is definately NOT played the same. The b part that follows is completely different compared to Stairway. This chord progression does repeat in both songs, but the question is if this is a common chord progression or if it's unique only to what the original author created. I'm referring to something like a jazz player claiming he invented the II V I progression and now has a copyright infringement claim with all songs that have a II V I chord progression.

The only case I'm familiar with where someone successfully claimed the song violated copyright because it followed the chord progression of another song is George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," which supposedly lifted all the chords from the song "He's So Fine." My Sweet Lord Copyright Infringement
In the case of Stairway, I don't think you have anything "the same" as the song Taurus except a basic musical theme, and you can't copyright that --what someone above called "a recycled idea." And BTW there is no "sampling" involved here. It's a matter of composition.

The people talking about Led Zep being a "rip off" band do not understand what it means to "cover" another artist's song. If you look at their early albums you see credit given to Willie Dixon and others where credit is due. All musicians have an abundance of influences, none of which means they are "ripping off" somebody's music.

Jimmy the Thief wouldn't steal another's music for his own personal gain now would he...

original artist Bert Jansch


Jimmy the Thief..

a reply to: blackcatmagic

thanks for posting these I agree with most of the songs in the first video but the George Harrison my Sweet Lord/he's So Fine totally disagree. but then again I'm not a musician.Led Zeppelin was one of my favorite bands back in the day my sister actually got to see them in concert I was too young to go.
I had no idea they ripped off their songs I know Robert Plant said he was heavily influenced by the blues but I took that as figuratively not literally.
I guess this happens all the time in the music world...

Can't sue over chord PROGRESSIONS... only notes-melody lines...I don't see that here.

Cases in point: Kid Rock using Skynard' chords or the songs Hang on sloppy and Louie Louie...

Also Skynard infringing (sort of)..themselves with near duplicate chord progressions: Free Bird and Simple Man....

MS. copyright owner

Next they need to sue Pink over her 'Feel Good Time' blatant rip-off of Spirit's 'Fresh Garbage'.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

So was he too stoned or too busy dressing up like a woman to figure it out?

originally posted by: Xtrozero
We could say this about 1000 songs, why didn't the original writer put forth a law suit 30 years ago? Also, isn't there a limit to the years before one can actually sued? One also needs to think about that songs do follow similar rifts....

Think of ice ice baby and under pressure.....

I'm going to look for an excerpt where Randy California was asked about whether he feels Page ripped his song off (don't know if I'll have luck) However from what I remember Randy's response was something like "I don't see it as him stealing my song, more of a reworking of it" (probably worded different, but either way, it seemed Randy didn't have a problem with Stairway and the similarities.)

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

It's not like they can't afford it.

You fail to take into account the fact that James Patrick Page is a notorious miser. This is the man who once walked into a music shop on Shaftesbury Avenue and tried to get a discount on half a dozen guitar picks on the grounds that he was a 'student'. Stairway to Heaven was already a hit by this time.

a reply to: Astyanax

Haha really? I would've told him he's not royalty and he can take the next Stairway to Hell.

originally posted by: jtma508
Next they need to sue Pink over her 'Feel Good Time' blatant rip-off of Spirit's 'Fresh Garbage'.

Difference is that Spirit's Jay Ferguson gets a songwriting credit on that...and presumably points.
Link to Pink

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

It's not like they can't afford it.

You fail to take into account the fact that James Patrick Page is a notorious miser. This is the man who once walked into a music shop on Shaftesbury Avenue and tried to get a discount on half a dozen guitar picks on the grounds that he was a 'student'. Stairway to Heaven was already a hit by this time.

Ah, but that's the difference between obligation and inclination. Which is also why they had to be pressed to acknowledge all those bluesmen they ripped off.

Out of all the accusations of plagiarism early on, none have ever stuck.
And this is by far the most remote. Some dead guys wigger family is
making claims he obviously never saw fit to make himself. I bet they've
even convinced themselves they have a case.