Led Zeppelin Sued over ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Chord Progression (1 Viewer)

[SoggyBottomBoy]

Wow. The holy grail of rock ballads.

If they hadn’t toured with Spirit, I wouldn’t give it much credence. However, they did, so hmmmmm.

Though, I do have a hard time taking anyone that goes by "Randy California” seriously.

Led Zeppelin Sued over

 

[Zaphod]

Isn't a little late now?

edit: Just read the article and Zep will be releasing reissued albums soon.

 

[saintsbank]

gtfoh. Not the best way to handle flattery, but then again...

 

[Zzyyxxyyxx]

Sure, there's a similarity. I can buy that Taurus inspired Stairway. But it's hardly the note-for-note ripoff that California makes it out to be. Not enough to hold up in court about a half century later.

 

[tenordas]

I'm surprised it took them this long. It's been obvious since the song was first released, what 30-40 years ago? I guess the re-issues brought on the opportunity. And yes, it's blatant. If Spirit wins, there may be several old bluesmen (those still alive, that is) who line up to be next to sue Page for stealing their licks.

 

[lades]

Sure, there's a similarity. I can buy that Taurus inspired Stairway. But it's hardly the note-for-note ripoff that California makes it out to be. Not enough to hold up in court about a half century later.

Randy California has been dead for over 15 years. Even though he thought Led Zeppelin ripped him off and should have thrown a little money his way, he never sued them. It's the executors of his estate who are suing.

 

[crosswatt]

Though, I do have a hard time taking anyone that goes by "Randy California” seriously.

Did you know that Jimmie Hendrix gave him that name because there were two guys named Randy in the band? He used where they were from as a way to differentiate between them. Randy Texas and Randy California.

 

[wnelson]

Just got the deluxe editions of the first three albums.

Listened to II and now III. II was great and III is my favorite Zep album.

I got suckered into the 2 disc version of Tommy and was disappointed. This isn't like that.

I haven't been this excited since Radiohead released deluxe editions of each of their albums.

 

[saintsbank]

III as well.

 

[superchuck500]

This case is going to a jury. The judge concluded that while pop songs are full of chord progressions, the one in Stairway is close enough in sound to the Spirit song that the case should be presented to a jury for a verdict. The trial is set to begin on May 10.


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

 

[VaeVictus]

I hear some similarities for sure. I don't know how you prove it though to be honest.

 

[Brennan77]

I hear some similarities for sure. I don't know how you prove it though to be honest.

There are certain standards of similarity used in these sorts of cases. It's a bit on the mathematical side of the music theory. But I think they have a case here if other cases give any idea of how this will go.

Check out Coldplay vs Satriani. They settled out of court, but Satriani "won".

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UvB9Pj9Znsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Swamprat]

Uh-oh...

Twinkle-twinkle little star and the alphabet song (A, B, C, D, EEE, ...) follow the exact same notes.

I sure hope someone doesn't lawyer up on these...

 

[VaeVictus]

There are certain standards of similarity used in these sorts of cases. It's a bit on the mathematical side of the music theory. But I think they have a case here if other cases give any idea of how this will go.

Check out Coldplay vs Satriani. They settled out of court, but Satriani "won".

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UvB9Pj9Znsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Coldplay vs Satriani case was a slam dunk from the beginning. That was an almost perfect recreation.

I'll be interested in the end results here and what mechanisms were used to make the determination.

 

[Ken-Bob]

I'm truly surprised it has gotten as far as it has. I've done a pretty extensive analysis (I have a music degree and have been playing various styles for a very long time).

The bottom line is this: The opening two measures of Stairway are quite a bit like the opening two measures of Taurus, except that Page does more, musically, with it than Taurus (Stairway's progression has a second melodic line whereas Taurus has nothing of the sort). After that, it stops. Stairway goes off on in many completely different ways whereas Taurus sort of does nothing at all. So, from that standpoint, you could say that about 2% of Stairway sounds like Taurus. The only thing that Taurus has going for it in terms of the lawsuit is that we the similar sections are both at the beginning of the song and, therefore, have greater importance. They are both in the same key but that is idiomatic to the guitar. And they have the same tempo (that is probably the most damning evidence against Zeppelin).

But it gets better from there. The chord progression is really pretty common. Not as common as a blues progression to be sure, but there are many other songs that were around a lot longer than Taurus that have the same progression. There is a great Youtube video that goes through all of the songs (many of them classical music and jazz) that use chord progressions that are similar or exactly the same.

Finally, it is the contention in the lawsuit, that Page got the lick because they heard Spirit playing it when they were opening for Zeppelin. I read somewhere, but can't confirm, that Spirit didn't even play Taurus on that tour. That pretty much ends the lawsuit for me, right there.

The reality is that Page, Plant, etc. did rip off a few songs in their day. One of them, Custard Pie, quite blatantly [EDIT: After further research, I found that Mickey's Monkey by Mother's Finest was, in fact, a rip-off of Custard Pie - not the other way around!]. In most cases, they've gone back and given credit where credit is due. I really hate the fact that they did that, but, whatever... Perhaps Page was influenced by the opening notes of Taurus when he wrote Stairway, but that is the nature of music (in classical music and jazz, composers openly admitted homages to other pieces). If there will be lawsuits for every time someone writes a song that has a slight similarity to another, then it could quite literally cripple the music industry. Musical composition should be about the whole of the work. Borrowing a few notes here and there does not in any way diminish the individuality of the work.